The Heigan Dance - suggestions?

I know several of you here have had great success with Heigan (including getting The Safety Dance achievement) but I still can't get a single follower through the fast dance. I tried the strafing technique yesterday and kept flubbing it up. The first couple passes it would look ok but 1) I found it really hard to get the initial positioning correct, ie having everyone square to each other and square to the platform while not being too close or too far (too close and we get the casting debuff, too far and I can't heal the tank), and 2) followers would get out of whack with my main and eventually start dancing their own dance. I box Naxx with 2 other people and I think they didn't want to sit (or repair) through my trial and error and declared we should just 3 man it as usual. But I'd really like to figure out how to do this right. Any more tips and tricks anyone can pass on? I'd like to stop dreading this boss. If it makes any difference, I 5 box on one machine with latency typically 200ish.

I think the trick is to keep your guys moving, the end zones are where im most likely to get hit. I try turnin them in like a semi circle as quick as I can rather than just turning and facing the otherway, otherwise the the follow mechanics they stop, turn around, look for a second then start running again.

Keep em moving the whole time and know exactly where the zones start and finish. Just takes bit of practice.

I get clipped now and then or lose a guy most of the time but always get 2 or 3 through usually.

Stay as close to the platform during the dance it will give you more time to move as you dont have to move so far to clear the stuff. If you are further back in the room you have to run further to each safe zone.

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/1273/heigans.jpg

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Yeah... This, admittedly abstract masterpiece, needs a bit of an explanation.

Basicly, you start on the 'left' side (Artistic painting PoV :P ), first follow the black lines, then trail back along the red lines. The trick is this.

1. Before the lava comes up on the next part, you want your main AND alts to be close to the edge.
2. When the lava jumps up and it is save to move on, you have to run all the way to the other edge, and quickly divert to a side. (To pull your alts close to the line as well as you wait for the lava to jump on the next bit)
3. Repeat until the turning points, the turning points can be doen with one movement by dragging your alts just over the line as in the picture (last black trail).

This way has been, for me, the best and easiest way to do heigan. Now, I have had lagspikes and such that mess it all up a few times. But that's something you can't really deal with anyhow. When things are as how they are supposed too, I don't get hit at all, at most one tick accidentally with my main for running too far up ahead accidentally. But that usually doesn't kill. :P

That's how I do Heigan now. (At first I was doing the constant running thing, which worked pretty well as well. Halfway up the room just far enough to be able to non stop run. But that was succeptable to lag more in my experience.)


edit: The second black trail goes a bit too far into the room. My mouse must have slipped. The idea is to trail your alts close along the edge of the next lava bit.

Memorize when the last eruption of the slow dance takes place. It should be when the safe zone has moved to the other side of the room and back, and then gone 1 more to the safe zone after the first. Once the last eruption has taken place, don't wait for Heigan to teleport, immediately run to the first safe zone, facing the back wall with the portruding section of the wall to your right with your followers at the same angle. Use a strafe key bound to all your characters to make them all strafe at the same time. The angle may get slightly messed up, but that's not so important as just geting them in to all the safe zones. Because they are moving back and forth on a straight line, you should be able to tell if they are close enough to survive by the end of the first pass. Just strafe back and forth until the fast dance ends, and repeat.

It sucks and there is a ridiculous learning curve, but if you can nail that initial position, you should be able to do it.

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Originally Posted by 'Bigfish',index.php?page=Thread&postID=186663#post 186663

Memorize when the last eruption of the slow dance takes place. It should be when the safe zone has moved to the other side of the room and back, and then gone 1 more to the safe zone after the first. Once the last eruption has taken place, don't wait for Heigan to teleport, immediately run to the first safe zone, facing the back wall with the portruding section of the wall to your right with your followers at the same angle. Use a strafe key bound to all your characters to make them all strafe at the same time. The angle may get slightly messed up, but that's not so important as just geting them in to all the safe zones. Because they are moving back and forth on a straight line, you should be able to tell if they are close enough to survive by the end of the first pass. Just strafe back and forth until the fast dance ends, and repeat.

It sucks and there is a ridiculous learning curve, but if you can nail that initial position, you should be able to do it.

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This is how I did it the first time as well, it took me like 4 wipes before I came close and the fifth time I even had to sacrifice one of my toons because the direction of two characters was wrong and I only had time to correct one. :<
Doesn't take away that it isn't doable, ofcourse it is doable. But mmh, if you can manage with follow, which I seem to be able to do fine now, it's prefered over strafing.

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Originally Posted by 'Kaynin',index.php?page=Thread&postID=186709#post1 86709

This is how I did it the first time as well, it took me like 4 wipes before I came close and the fifth time I even had to sacrifice one of my toons because the direction of two characters was wrong and I only had time to correct one. :<
Doesn't take away that it isn't doable, ofcourse it is doable. But mmh, if you can manage with follow, which I seem to be able to do fine now, it's prefered over strafing.

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Well, I prefer strafing. Wider margin of error and less distance intensive.

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Originally Posted by 'Vmpwraith',index.php?page=Thread&postID=186529#po st186529

Stay as close to the platform during the dance it will give you more time to move as you dont have to move so far to clear the stuff. If you are further back in the room you have to run further to each safe zone.

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How close can you get to the platform and still avoid his Plague Cloud in phase 2?

Enough good sounding solutions here that I'm almost looking forward to trying this fight again (never thought I'd say that after the past 3 weeks)! I'll be sure to post back on how it goes this weekend.

If someone could make a flawless video of this that would be awesome. I'm curious to see how others do it as well.

I don't know about flawless, but I'll see what I can come up with.

Still haven't been back to Heigan but for anyone still not sure where the boundaries are, I found this great animation while surfing around. Whoever did this had a lot of time on their hands...and I'm glad they did!

http://www.theorderls.com/belt/wm/wow/heigan.html

I tried out this strat tonight and it actually worked extremely well :) was very happy with it.

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Originally Posted by 'Ellay',index.php?page=Thread&postID=187790#post18 7790

I tried out this strat tonight and it actually worked extremely well :) was very happy with it.

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Which strat was that. :P Multiple strats were mentioned in the thread. x)

The one with the awesome MS paint skillz! haha, was very surprised.

Glad you like the strat. ^^

yeah that's pretty much the way to do it :)

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Originally Posted by 'Ellay',index.php?page=Thread&postID=187790#post18 7790

I tried out this strat tonight and it actually worked extremely well :) was very happy with it.

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Alas, it didn't work for me last night. My girls were being incredibly sluggish on the follow. Just really bad lag and latency...about double the usual. So once again...3 man Heigan (nobody wanted to just wipe and let me try strafing since we know we can 3 man it). Anyway, next week, I try strafing again. I appreciate your explanation on how to get everyone lined up to strafe, Bigfish, and I've got high hopes that it will work.

I had bad luck with follow also... its just so latency dependant.

I have had good luck strafing lately... 2 of 2 and 4 of 4 survivors in both my 10 and 25 man Naxx runs this week.. its just fragile, and has to be executed well on your part. I'm still amazed at how far from one another they end up by the time the fast dance is complete.

Ok, the strafe method is amazing. The only gotcha is that you have to be really confident in your position before you start because there isn't much chance for any sort of recovery from misalignment. Anyway, for the first time ever I got all 5 of my girls through a fast dance. What a fabulous feeling. If only I had remembered to hit follow again after the fast dance was over and I ran back to zone one...uh yeah...
But now I must also praise the follow method. As it turns out, at 2am lag is much lower than prime time (duh) and it is indeed possible to get toons to follow safely.
No Safety Dance this time, but our fastest Heigan kill ever. :D
Thanks for all the great advice!
Now if only someone could come up with a great way to multibox Grobbulus and Gluth. ;(

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Originally Posted by 'Ellay',index.php?page=Thread&postID=187391#post18 7391

If someone could make a flawless video of this that would be awesome. I'm curious to see how others do it as well.

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I'll record it next time im in there, I have done 5 shams no deaths since day 1 of Naxx. I'm confident I use the quickest safest route.

I might try the strafing method as well, I've yet to do a dance run with all alive at the end, the best is 3 of 4 >< pooey.

I tried Kaynin's method as shown in the picture and it worked fine. No strafing was used.
I was playing 1 shaman DPS and 1 offtank. I only hit the waves once and that was caught up by one of the healers in the raid \o/

To borrow from pinonoir in the "Able to /follow /assist players on vehicles / mounts now" thread:

This is how I felt after finishing Heigan this week

Upon starting the slow dance I knew lag was going to be too high to use follow during the fast dance. So I psyched myself up for strafing. And for the first time ever, I got all of my dps to survive the entire Heigan fight! The big thing for me was that on the 10 second warning, I'd make a huge loop around to ensure that the laggy followers would come in perfectly straight behind me to square up with the platform. It worked fabulously. I don't dread this fight anymore.

Yep, in my experience strafing is vastly superior to /follow for Heigan.

Then again, whatever works to get past the gimmick.

I was too lazy to set up the strafing technique this week and did the dance without any Shamans dying. I got hit once or twice but never a death. It's still iffy to me :)

are you 4 boxing in 10 or 25 man ellay? and just curious how you find Kel'Thuzad.

So you guys are actually using /follow to pull this off?

I am more inclined to try the strafing method, but alignment is a problem. How do you guy pick up your followers and start strafing?

Or am I the only guy crazy enough to main tank, heal, and DPS this fight?

Hi Hairball.

This is what I've been doing: Start with everyone on follow, 1 tank, 3 healers, 6 DPS. Attack Heigan from his side/back from the entrance where the trash is (just helps in lining things up). Hit him with my tank and get my guys lined up on the platform facing the back wall. Line them up so they are facing squarely into zone 2 of the green explosions. Drop a disease totem on each team. Break follow and move my tank to the first zone. All this takes just a few seconds, but getting them lined up is the important part.

BTW, Heigan's casting speed debuff is definitely on all my guys at this point, but I use only instant casts to heal (hence three healers just to be safe). Two priests are using Prayer of Mending, PW: Shield, and Renew, while my Boomkin (lolz) puts HoTs on the tank. I drag him around with the tank trying to keep Heigan far enough from the platform so my toons don't get the casting speed debuff but close enough so my tank is still in healing range (which is definitely a difficult thing that requires some practice). When he makes a full circuit then gets back in zone 2, I line him up with the toons on the platform, stop DPS, and hit follow even before the last slow explosion goes off. Then comes the easy part - strafing with all 10 at once. I've never had any problem with this. When the fast phase stops, I run up on the platform from zone 2 and take my time ensuring the team is lined up behind the tank facing zone 2. I then break follow and repeat.

All this said, I have gotten through multiple phases solo but with only 6 DPS that have the casting speed debuff a lot of the time my tank has always eventually died due to bad transitions or being out of range healing. So I haven't finished it completely solo yet. I am cerain it is possible, but didn't have the patience for it. After messing with it for a few hours the day before the reset, I brought in a tank friend and just played the other nine. Same strategy as before but with Zaelea (my DK tank friend) doing the tanking we had no problems. Got the Saftey Dance achievement when we downed him.

I hope this helps!

Downed Heigan last night. 23 minutes, 9 second kill. :D

I was able to get my Shaman through about 4 phase changes before they finally died. The other boxer with me (3 toons) was able to get his through about 9 or 10 waves.

Basically we're just lining up at the beginning of zone one right next to the platform and running straight through - tank runs "into" the next wave and takes a little damage, which is healed up with the alts in tow.

Grats Hairball, glad you were successful!

Got The Safety Dance today! One boxer running melee/tank, the other running ranged/healers. And which method did we use? Well, he used the follow method, while I used the strafe method, so it's all good! :)

I use the follow method exclusively but with a twist. I strafe my main while my other toons are on follow. We've had quite a few flawless kills now, but I will say, the follow method is susceptible to lag. Your main toon has to stay ahead to such a degree that you are always pushing the boundary for being caught in the wall in front of you. It's gnarly, it's exciting, and it's difficult. It does however, work if timed correctly.