Ramparts w/ 5x Shammies - Could use some tips

[Mendicant]

Today, after getting to 59 in Outlands and getting some nice gear upgrades, I attempted ramparts. The trash went fine, except for one wipe (pulled 2 groups by accident), however I could not beat the first boss. First I tried taking down the healers. I was able to down them both, but then I died with him at like 90%. After reviving, I tried to focus him first and got him to about 40% before I died.

I could use some tips here... is it even possible to do this at my level, or should I be waiting until I'm closer to his level, like 61-62? It seems I have the most trouble with melee. This is how it goes usually against the melee pulls:

4x healing stream, 1x mana stream, 5x grounding, 5x wrath, 1x stoneskin, 4x stoneclaw

Open with regular LB, then while it's traveling there either EM+CL or just CL. Both hit at about the same time. 1 more LB and a earthshock and the first one dies. If there are more melees I just power them down with LBs and ESs, and if there is only 2 melee, usually both are dead before I need to heal (healing streams help here a lot). If there are non-elite dogs, I'll drop fire nova totems after the 1st elite dies. The ranged die next, I keep refreshing grounding totems if there are casters, and then kill them last.

Anything I could improve on there?

The thing I feel least confident about is my healing. I sort of feel like I should have some healing macro set up for one of my chars, and sort of let them be the dedicated healing for bosses? Maybe have one spam lesser heal on the one taking damage?

Typically right now I just have a button for everyone to heal one character with LHW, but then my dps drops to 0% and I'll have to heal again since the boss is doing so much DPS.

[shaeman]

Do you really want to be whacking out chain lightnings?

You have stoneclaw totems down, but the problem is that stoneclaw only work if you haven't got too much aggro on a mob. So a chain lighting will hit 3 close together mobs resulting in 3 mobs beating on you instead of going for the stoneclaw. (Okay in reality it's probably 1 as you have burnt one down on the way).

It sounds like trash pulls aren't too much of a problem for you though (although there is a nasty mixed group at the top of the stairs after you've killed the first boss).

Sorry I can't help out more - don't have a team that high I'm afraid.

[bugilt]

The first boss time I beat this boss I just dpsed the boss first then switched to the healers. You might have to shock the healers if they are healing faster than your dps.

[Icetech]

stop using those chain lightnings and life will go easier.. i did the same thing and it was killin me.. literally:) The CL gives you so much agro that the stoneclaws don't do dick.. so now you are fighting 3 mobs instead of 2 stunned and 1 dying:) BTW.. might wanna skip the third boss til 64ish:)

[Mendicant]

Update!

lvl 60 - second try

Was about to do the first and second bosses (wow the second boss is SOOO easy).

The first boss was still really close-- I actually wiped after he died... the last healer finished off my 2 remaining characters-- but he still was down and that's all that counts ;D

Wiped 3x on trash, once from a bad double-pull, once from a runner pulling a 2nd group, and bad pull which I could only know was bad from experience ;)

But the important thing is that I learned. Mainly to be careful. It's so easy to wipe without a dedicated healer or tank. I also use my one character and an earthbind to pull a group back so as to avoid pulling extras... will come in useful later.

[Ðeceased]

Practice practice practice :) At first I was having problems too even with a pally+4sham set-up. learning curve from pre-tbc to tbc was steeper then I thought :S right now I'm in Underbog and despite an initial wipe on the last boss (had no idea what the hell his attacks were :P ) you will learn very quickly :)

although having a pally as a tank is a lot easier (ie you can let him take some damage), with a 5 sham set-up you should try to learn an pre-empt incoming damage to make sure your heals land as shortly after the damage lands as possible. This will allow you to dps safely without having to worry about the next attack.
On a side note, u'll find it 100 times easier by the time you hit lvl 61-62, I didn't think it would seeing as I already had 12% crit/hit but it does make a surprising difference :) and then just wait till you get watershield muahahahaha

just in case you were thinking about the last boss I can only suggest a few things :)

first set ur team up at the top of the ramp.. right on top .. then pull the two mobs with your main and kill them where your group is.. then the boss will activate, but the guy wont come running at you (because you are so far away). then make sure all your grounding totems are up and keep that dragon as your target so you can see when he's going to be throwing fireballs at you, and time your grounding totems accordingly..
Don't try to leg it down the hill. Once you feel comfortable enough and have enough hp you could go for it, but for now move from grounding totem base to the next grounding totem base :) take your time

once you reach the bottom, be sure not to walk in too far or you will agro the melee boss. again set ur totems up (wrath etc) making sure that above all grounding totems are up at all times (also - don't simply put them down every time the CD is up - there are times when he casts a few more in succession and you have to be sure that you use every single one of the totems before you place the next batch down - maybe that only applies to 4shams)

he will fly back and forth out of range and sometimes in range.. don't move a muscle.. you don't have to. he will eventually move back in range and you can carry on dps. again making sure above all else to have groundings up at all times (i made that mistake at the start, i chased him around and only ended up agroing the other guy and wiping because of it - also trying to dps too hard got me killed as suddenly 2 fire bombs hit my shammy group and again I was a gonner)]
when you get him down to around 50% take a quick pause, place ur totems down again and begin separating your group ( line formation or whatever you are comfortable with - not too far apart for now)
now carry on dpsing. He will descend from the sky. pause behind the other boss (don't worry he wont agro) and run towards ur group (the guy with the main character). What you should have been doing at this point (ie when he's out of range) is separating ur team a little more. not insanely far, but just far enough so his big fire breath doesn't affect multiple toons at once.

I have still wiped at this point often enough (before lvl 62) because I made some silly mistakes. But the last thing to remember, if you got this far, is to go nuts at the point when he's running directly for you. Unload trincklets, EM CL, HP pots when needed, anything you can throw at him. if ur dps is high enough you should be able to take him down before he reaches you. if not, don't worry about wiping once in a while (or surviving with just a few), it's to be expected at this point.

Ð

[Mendicant]

Practice practice practice :) At first I was having problems too even with a pally+4sham set-up. learning curve from pre-tbc to tbc was steeper then I thought :S right now I'm in Underbog and despite an initial wipe on the last boss (had no idea what the hell his attacks were :P ) you will learn very quickly :)

although having a pally as a tank is a lot easier (ie you can let him take some damage), with a 5 sham set-up you should try to learn an pre-empt incoming damage to make sure your heals land as shortly after the damage lands as possible. This will allow you to dps safely without having to worry about the next attack.
On a side note, u'll find it 100 times easier by the time you hit lvl 61-62, I didn't think it would seeing as I already had 12% crit/hit but it does make a surprising difference :) and then just wait till you get watershield muahahahaha

just in case you were thinking about the last boss I can only suggest a few things :)

first set ur team up at the top of the ramp.. right on top .. then pull the two mobs with your main and kill them where your group is.. then the boss will activate, but the guy wont come running at you (because you are so far away). then make sure all your grounding totems are up and keep that dragon as your target so you can see when he's going to be throwing fireballs at you, and time your grounding totems accordingly..
Don't try to leg it down the hill. Once you feel comfortable enough and have enough hp you could go for it, but for now move from grounding totem base to the next grounding totem base :) take your time

once you reach the bottom, be sure not to walk in too far or you will agro the melee boss. again set ur totems up (wrath etc) making sure that above all grounding totems are up at all times (also - don't simply put them down every time the CD is up - there are times when he casts a few more in succession and you have to be sure that you use every single one of the totems before you place the next batch down - maybe that only applies to 4shams)

he will fly back and forth out of range and sometimes in range.. don't move a muscle.. you don't have to. he will eventually move back in range and you can carry on dps. again making sure above all else to have groundings up at all times (i made that mistake at the start, i chased him around and only ended up agroing the other guy and wiping because of it - also trying to dps too hard got me killed as suddenly 2 fire bombs hit my shammy group and again I was a gonner)]
when you get him down to around 50% take a quick pause, place ur totems down again and begin separating your group ( line formation or whatever you are comfortable with - not too far apart for now)
now carry on dpsing. He will descend from the sky. pause behind the other boss (don't worry he wont agro) and run towards ur group (the guy with the main character). What you should have been doing at this point (ie when he's out of range) is separating ur team a little more. not insanely far, but just far enough so his big fire breath doesn't affect multiple toons at once.

I have still wiped at this point often enough (before lvl 62) because I made some silly mistakes. But the last thing to remember, if you got this far, is to go nuts at the point when he's running directly for you. Unload trincklets, EM CL, HP pots when needed, anything you can throw at him. if ur dps is high enough you should be able to take him down before he reaches you. if not, don't worry about wiping once in a while (or surviving with just a few), it's to be expected at this point.

Ð

I was trying to kill those two guards at the bottom of the ramp by pulling them to the top, but one would keep respawning whenever I killed them. The melee boss would always aggro me soon as I killed both the guards (and they didn't reset).

I had to kill one several times... each time I would move further down the ramp. Finally he died and stayed dead, but then the boss aggro'd me right away :(

Is this a bug or is it normal?

I'm going to try Ramps and BF when I ding 62.

[Tasty]

Tip: Don't die :D

[Fuzzyboy]

Practice practice practice :) At first I was having problems too even with a pally+4sham set-up. learning curve from pre-tbc to tbc was steeper then I thought :S right now I'm in Underbog and despite an initial wipe on the last boss (had no idea what the hell his attacks were :P ) you will learn very quickly :)

although having a pally as a tank is a lot easier (ie you can let him take some damage), with a 5 sham set-up you should try to learn an pre-empt incoming damage to make sure your heals land as shortly after the damage lands as possible. This will allow you to dps safely without having to worry about the next attack.
On a side note, u'll find it 100 times easier by the time you hit lvl 61-62, I didn't think it would seeing as I already had 12% crit/hit but it does make a surprising difference :) and then just wait till you get watershield muahahahaha

just in case you were thinking about the last boss I can only suggest a few things :)

first set ur team up at the top of the ramp.. right on top .. then pull the two mobs with your main and kill them where your group is.. then the boss will activate, but the guy wont come running at you (because you are so far away). then make sure all your grounding totems are up and keep that dragon as your target so you can see when he's going to be throwing fireballs at you, and time your grounding totems accordingly..
Don't try to leg it down the hill. Once you feel comfortable enough and have enough hp you could go for it, but for now move from grounding totem base to the next grounding totem base :) take your time

once you reach the bottom, be sure not to walk in too far or you will agro the melee boss. again set ur totems up (wrath etc) making sure that above all grounding totems are up at all times (also - don't simply put them down every time the CD is up - there are times when he casts a few more in succession and you have to be sure that you use every single one of the totems before you place the next batch down - maybe that only applies to 4shams)

he will fly back and forth out of range and sometimes in range.. don't move a muscle.. you don't have to. he will eventually move back in range and you can carry on dps. again making sure above all else to have groundings up at all times (i made that mistake at the start, i chased him around and only ended up agroing the other guy and wiping because of it - also trying to dps too hard got me killed as suddenly 2 fire bombs hit my shammy group and again I was a gonner)]
when you get him down to around 50% take a quick pause, place ur totems down again and begin separating your group ( line formation or whatever you are comfortable with - not too far apart for now)
now carry on dpsing. He will descend from the sky. pause behind the other boss (don't worry he wont agro) and run towards ur group (the guy with the main character). What you should have been doing at this point (ie when he's out of range) is separating ur team a little more. not insanely far, but just far enough so his big fire breath doesn't affect multiple toons at once.

I have still wiped at this point often enough (before lvl 62) because I made some silly mistakes. But the last thing to remember, if you got this far, is to go nuts at the point when he's running directly for you. Unload trincklets, EM CL, HP pots when needed, anything you can throw at him. if ur dps is high enough you should be able to take him down before he reaches you. if not, don't worry about wiping once in a while (or surviving with just a few), it's to be expected at this point.

Ð

I was trying to kill those two guards at the bottom of the ramp by pulling them to the top, but one would keep respawning whenever I killed them. The melee boss would always aggro me soon as I killed both the guards (and they didn't reset).

I had to kill one several times... each time I would move further down the ramp. Finally he died and stayed dead, but then the boss aggro'd me right away :(

Is this a bug or is it normal?

I'm going to try Ramps and BF when I ding 62.I had the same problem last night (with the mobs respawning) - just keep pulling and killing them, eventually the encounter will start, and make sure that when it does, you're at the "flat" area at the top so Vaz doesn't aggro you.

[Ðeceased]

hmm that is strange :S I've never had that happen to me :S sounds like a bug

EDITL: although where exactly are you standing?

on the flat bit where loads of mobs were? or on the flat bit where you walk up a little bit before it drops down the hill?

[Otlecs]

had to kill one several times... each time I would move further down the ramp. Finally he died and stayed dead, but then the boss aggro'd me right away
Is this a bug or is it normal?
After a wipe, I've had the last two trash mobs constantly respawn on me too. It's deeply painful. They do eventually stop respawning, but by that time I'm usually out of mana!

It's a bug, and I'm pretty sure I saw it mentioned in the WowWiki article for this encounter.

ps- note small, relevant quoting technique :)

[Hokusai]

Tip: Don't die :DThis is the most important info that I ever learned when playing mmorpgs. For those of you who think I may be joking I am not. While things work a bit differently with multiboxing, this idea remains the same. Remember: dead rogues do no dps! (old EQ mantra :P)

[Mendicant]

Update 2: Wow wow wow... I dinged 62 today and gave it another shot. 100% easier. No wipes. First boss downed with no deaths. Total 2 deaths in party from trash (and sloppily not healing). 2nd boss fell easy as per usual. On last boss followed tips here and pulled the guards back so that the boss-man didn't aggro me. Took nazan down to 33% while he flew around using grounding totems for his fireballs. He descended and came at me... died easily (though his breath hurt). The boss-man was soo easy after that.

So, record for me: Full clear of Ramps, no wipes, lvl 62.

[balboa]

Wish I had posted this sooner, but not on the forums as much as I like to be.. I had put a video together a bit ago with a group in ramparts. Had cleared it at 61, hope this helps any others who are having trouble at it.



http://www.vimeo.com/1163803

[Mendicant]

Wish I had posted this sooner, but not on the forums as much as I like to be.. I had put a video together a bit ago with a group in ramparts. Had cleared it at 61, hope this helps any others who are having trouble at it

http://www.vimeo.com/1163803

That does help. I didn't realize that you could go down into the ring area without aggroing him. I stayed on the bridge area because I was being cautious.


For the first boss: I noticed you killed the healers first, then took a while to kill Gargolmar himself. At 62 I could just DPS him down first, then worry about the healers. I imagine people at 61 could do the same (I'm sure you are past 61 at this point). My reasoning is that the healers really don't heal for that much to begin with... maybe 15-20% of his health per heal (total) and they have a 20 second CD on their heal. In that initial opening I could burn him down to below 50% with LB, EM/Trinket-CL, LB, ES. The healers will get one heal off (less if you can remember to ES one of them or kill them with fire nova/CL aoe damage).

Melee-wise they do so little damage it hardly matters... but he does hurt.

[balboa]

Yeah actually I just hit 70 today.. Posting the pic up in a bit when I get my flyers. Every so often I go reading through here for any strats on upcoming instances or to see if people are going through some hardships that I did and post when I can. About the first boss, I figured I do the healers first, but when I hit 62 I just went straight for boss first and then healers. And as far as last boss goes, I found that strat on the wiki here up above. Ended up trying it and worked like a charm. Amazing what you can find here at times!

[Oswyn]

I was trying to kill those two guards at the bottom of the ramp by pulling them to the top, but one would keep respawning whenever I killed them. The melee boss would always aggro me soon as I killed both the guards (and they didn't reset).

I had to kill one several times... each time I would move further down the ramp. Finally he died and stayed dead, but then the boss aggro'd me right away :(

Is this a bug or is it normal?

I'm going to try Ramps and BF when I ding 62.

I experienced this last week while running ramps. If another one spawns after you kill one, step back and wait for the second one to spawn. So, after the two are there again, engage them. This worked everytime for me when I encountered the problem.

Edit: Wanted to add note about some of the mobs in ramps. A few of them are immune to stoneclaw totem which makes some of the mob pulls a little difficult. I usually keep my shammies at max range, drop tow's, target and take these guys down first. I believe these mobs are the Bonechewer Beastmasters and Rippers.

[Nepida]

The hardest part about ramps for me were the dual destroyer pulls (especially heroic). As for Nazan and pulling him without pulling Vazruden I pulled the 2 guards all the way back across the ramp (where you can reset the boss). When I killed them there I was able to move up and kill Nazan without aggroing Vaz greatly simplifying the fight.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

That first boss in ramps was much easier for me with the following strat:

Target the far healer --> lightning bolt
Target Gargolmar --> EM+CL
Target the other healer (only one left alive now) --> lightning bolt to kill him
5x downranked lesser healing wave on whoever has aggro
DPS Gargolmar normally with the occasional LHW on the aggro target.

He's stupidly hard at 59/60 due to crushing blows. Once you hit 61/62, he gets WAY easier.

And I'll post a vid of my Vazruden strat later. Holy shit was that the easiest fight ever.