Instant BC Dugeon Tips: First hand advice and notes for 5x shaman teams.

I have decided to begin this thread in order to cataloged my experiences with the BC dungeons before they fade from my mind. I know I personally had a great deal of trouble finding good advice on these instances. Some of them I never ran before on my 70s and so they were complete unknowns to me. Personally it was a little frustrating getting into an instance and then not being able to complete it because of a) lack of knowledge b) simply not high enough a level (see a).

First, an invaluable link for knowing which instances to run: http://www.wowwiki.com/Instances_by_Level

And now, my first tip: With a 5x shaman team, you will have trouble with instances when you are on the lower end of the level spectrum. I high recommend that you wait until you are the same level as the instance bosses. Everything will go smoother. In fact, the higher the better. Even a single level will make a huge difference. Don't even bother trying if you are at the low end of the level range.

Totems:

Here is my standard totem setup:
5 grounding - at 64 replace 1 healing with a wrath of air totem
5 totem of wrath
4 healing, 1 mana
1 earthbind, 1 stoneskin, 1 windwall

another key on round-robin for all stoneclaws, and another for all tremors
keys for all magma, nova, and searing

Healing binds
Everyone a sequence they use for max dps. This is mine:
Before opening: Lay down all totems
- Lightning Bolt
- Chain Lightning (hits as LB hits)
- Earthshock (depending on your level, will kill your first target)

On all characters:
1,2,3,4,5 - /cast [target=Name] Lesser Healing Wave
6 - /cast [target=focustarget] Lesser Healing Wave
7 - /cast [target=focustarget] Chain Heal

Opening Sequences

Burst damage is what a 5x shaman squad is all about. Initial burst is perhaps the most important. Killing them before they even get into melee range.

I find the best burst (without using cooldowns) is:
Lightning Bolt -> Chain Lightning -> Earth Shock.

This is ideal since while LB is traveling to the target, CL is being cast. Both can hit at about the same time, and then ES as soon as the target gets in range. Depending on your gear and relative level, this should kill the target.


1. Hellfire Ramparts (Ramps) [60-62]

At lower levels (60-61) will find stoneclaws very useful for the trash throughout the instance. Personally I prefer to just DPS and not worry about stoneclaws, however depending on your level this may not be possible. Always target the melee first. Hungerers go down first as they have the most DPS. Interrupt any casters using rain of fire with an earth shock.

The biggest tip I can give is to be careful not to pull multiple groups. This will wipe you until you are 63/64+.


Watchkeeper Gargolmar - Pats back and forth with 2 weak healers. After you have cleared the area around the end of his pat, get ready with all totems. I target him first. The initial burst you can get in before he gets to you is greater than what the healers can heal for. Pop trinket, LB, pop EM, CL, ES, nova totems. This initial burst should drop him to below 50%. The two healers can only heal once every 20 seconds, and both their heals combined will only give him like 30% more health. Don't worry too much about them healing, but earth-shocking one of their heals isn't a terrible idea.

At lower levels (59-60) he will be incredibly difficult and/or impossible. At 62 he won't be too difficult. At 64 he will be at like 15% (or less) by the time he reachs you.

Fortunately he most does single-target damage. Use your healing macros to top of anyone who drops below 60% or so. The healers melee DPS is pathetic, ignore them. He also has a knockback move who will (duh) knockback anyone within melee range. This shouldn't be bad, just a short interrupt of DPS.

Moving on...the spiral staircase, the hall, and the courtyard

After you've downed him, don't forget to loot the chest nearby. It is locked 50% of the time. Continue clearing trash. You can skip the trash on the right side. At the top of the spiral staircase, there is a group of 4x casters around 1 melee. Grounding totems will make this a breeze, as each of their salvo's only takes away one.

After clearing the hall, I recommend using earthbind kiting to pull in the groups from the next area into the hall. Position 4 of your shamans part way down the hall and not on follow. Totem up. Use your main to place an earthbind totem at the exit of the hall, and use CL to pull a group then run back into the hall. The group will follow and get slowed by your earthbind while you start DPSing them. Do not pull the guy with 2 dogs who pats around until you have cleared the groups to the immediate left and right.

Omor the Unscarred

Coming out of the hall, the path to Omor is on the right. Past the courtyard there is some simple 2-man groups of trash guarding him.

Omor is the easiest boss you will ever fight. Just keep grounding totems up and DPS until he is dead. He may summon a non-elite felpuppy, but it does almost no DPS. Either burst it down or ignore it.

Vazruden

The final boss is through the strait-ahead/left path coming out of the hallway.

You MUST use this trick to beat this boss, or you WILL wipe. Just before the circle opens up there are 2 level 59 guards. Once these 2 die, the dragon (Nazan) circling the place will decend and drop off Vaz. Vaz will aggro you immediately UNLESS you pull the guards up the bridge. At the top of the path/bridge you will see the floor becomes darker colored. Sit 4 of your shamans just in front of this line and use your main to pull the guards back to them.

Once Vaz descends, Nazan will begin shooting fireballs at you. They deal direct damage and then have an AOE area-effect DOT around where it landed. They will go for grounding totems, but the AOE damage can still hurt, so make sure you move away from your groundings. Now that he has descended, move down the towards the dragon. Vaz now has normal aggro radius, so feel free to decently close.

Be patient, and start burning down Nazan while he is still in the air. Do not use your cooldowns. Save them for later.. At 30% he will land. Quickly make sure your totems are down (as well as a fire resistance totem). This is OH CRAP PANIC time. Now use your trinket and EM to destroy him ASAP. He has a fire breath attack which deals insane AOE damage, and caused several of my characters to die until I hit 64, and even then it does considerable pain. If you don't CL, Vaz will not be pulled with Nazan, so feel free to drink and heal up after he's slain.

Vaz himself is a pushover (imo). Just get a nice opening burst on him and burn him down. Heal if you must. At 64 you can kill him before he even reaches you.


Yay, you win. Now go get your blues out of the chest.




---- more added later ----

Very nice! This is something that surely has a lot use here. Keep up the good work Mendicant.

This is a great write up...I can't wait to read more. I just cleared HFC for the first time with my 5x shaman team and realized that I discovered most of the tips you outlined the hard way. :)

Can't wait to read your BF write up :)