Wotlk - Icecrown Citadel - (ICC) - Trash Farming

So myself and another 5-boxer decided to try our hand at building up some Ashen Verdict rep.

The run was going really well. We'd just about cleared the first room, for 435 rep, when inevitably, we tripped one of the hidden alarms.

So out we run, and we strategize our encounter with the Deathbound Ward.

We had 6 Paladins (2 Prot, 4 Ret), 4 Shamans (all Ele). What we found was some really hard to understand behaviour on the Wards part.

We decided that my friends prot would tank, with his shamans at range. Once he had the Ward positioned and faced away from the rest of the group, I'd then run in (my prot had Righteous Fury turned off), position my prot on top of his with my rets behind the Ward (on the same "side" as the Shamans).

The problem was, the Ward just refused to adhere to the tank - he kept going for my friends Shamans (which, of course, didn't last long), or for me or my Rets (who also didn't last too long). Even more strangely, one time this worked as planned and we get the Ward down to 500k health before (very unfortunately) the prot with RF up died (and my guys were below his shamans on threat).

This seems to be bound up in the Wards Saber Lash attack, but beyond that, we can't figure out why he keeps ignoring the tank. We know he's untauntable, but presumably if the tank builds up a threat lead and holds it, the Ward really ought to be never focusing on anyone but the tank..... shouldn't he?

What did omen say? Does your friends' paladin have awful tps? Also unless you guys were farming 25-man, simply having one tank eat all of the cleave is perfectly fine. Also you can tank them at the door with your shamans at max range outside, so even if he does go for the shamans, he'll reset.

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Originally Posted by jimbobobb

What did omen say? Does your friends' paladin have awful tps? Also unless you guys were farming 25-man, simply having one tank eat all of the cleave is perfectly fine. Also you can tank them at the door with your shamans at max range outside, so even if he does go for the shamans, he'll reset.

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It wasn't threat - as a test, one on attempt we had his Shammies sit there fat, dumb and happy doing their nails, and they still got clobbered.

Though thanks for the placement tip, we'll make sure to put 'em outside the room next time.

Likewise, putting my team in between him and his Shammies the Ward would go for me within a second or two of hitting on the tank, even though I'd done nothing but stand there.

Maybe his tank smells funny and he just wants to get away from him? On a more serious note, no idea what's wrong. The wards got nerfed big time from release (maybe it's just the 20+% buff, not sure, but the rep got nerfed, so...). Where we had trouble with 2 healers at the beginning it's now no problem at all to do it with one healer. I don't move my DPS too far away from him either. I just spank him with my pally for 2 seconds and go all out with the nukes. We are doing this with just 6, tank, healer, 4 casters.

I haven't raided ICC for a couple of months now but I did get 7/12 on my DK tank and ele sham before the buff came along. I always noticed with the Wards that regardless of whether me or the other tank I was running with held agro, he did seem to switch to the other tank fairly regularly. I am not sure exactly about the mechanic behind this but it did not seem to be purely agro based and as you mentioned, not taunting. I would suggest putting 2 tanks in range and in front of the ward even if the second is just on autoattack to prevent your dps getting mauled.

PS: I did do a couple of rep runs as a solo tank and I do remember having some issues with agro at those times. Those runs were with 3 insanely geared healers however who were generally capable of keeping most of the dps alive until I could pull the wards back anyway.

Deathbound Wards are immune to taunt.

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Originally Posted by Maxion

Deathbound Wards are immune to taunt.

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Yup, and to threat so it would seem from how this one was behaving.

I'm no ICC expert but I was always told those wards are just a booby trap that you should avoid. Got a rogue handy to disarm traps?

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Originally Posted by jinkobi

I'm no ICC expert but I was always told those wards are just a booby trap that you should avoid. Got a rogue handy to disarm traps?

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Unfortunately not. 6 Paladins, 4 Shamans in one 2-man group, 5 Paladins, 1 DK, 4 Shamans in the other. Sadly, not a Steam Tonk Controller between 'em.

I think this may well have just been "weird" behaviour on the night. In subsequent farming (almost honoured now, and putting the farming on a high priority now my triumph gearing is almost at an end) they've behaved "normally".

About the only thing different, was having both tanks run in at the same time, so I'm still thinking maybe that lash attack of his was causing him to run over to toons who hadn't even put damaged on him when there was only 1 toon in melee range.

the threat issue is probably due to heal agro of some sort and you/your friend not landing an attack on them soon enough. they are taunt immune so you've got to snag them up quickly and consecrate is not the best way to start on these is to slap them with avengers shield :)

you WILL notice while tanking these mobs that they switch targets when they cast saberlash(which is the cleave they use that hits the closest 2 targets(3 on 25 man) they switch targets but dont actually target the second tank for dps, so you'll see them toggle targets quite often. Lord marrowgar does this too in fact.

The threat issue you're all seeing for the mobs to go after someone else with no casting done as yet is a bug that should probably be reported, though it could just be your friends tank didnt land any attacks due to low levels of expertise and hit hehe;) good luck with your rep grind! i did it on my pallys and my dk/druid team and it was a pain, but doable :) easier now with the buff lol