What all stuff can you guys farm on your melee teams?
I'm still at it with my DK/Ret team and loving it. Every bit of gear is a very noticeable so it appears that melee is still gear dependent. For PVE, I switch only my PVP trinket for a +str trinket, and buffed, the paladins are all sitting just over 10k AP. I may have to change some stats around as I bought the new PVP cloak last night and lost some hit.
I always run with Seal of Insight as you'll never have any mana issues and the self heals seems to really pay off - This seems to work well for PVP as well. While my setup isn't optimal for managing TVs, most of my HP is used for healing anyway. I know everybody wants a HP addon, and I may decide to take some time to learn LUA and start working on one. I've been a software developer for nearly 20 years now, so I'm sure if I put a little time into it, I could figure it out. If I get serious, I'll create an addon thread and get some more input on it.
Anyhow, if this is TLDR: I'm able to clear SFK (skipping 3rd boss) and VP, but haven't tried any of the others yet, so I thought I would share my experiences/strategies for these two for running it with DK/Rets, but would love to hear experiences from others.
-- Vortex Pinnacle:
Very easy overall. The trash in this place is actually harder than the bosses, IMO.
First boss, tank and spank. Very little healing required - just make sure after you start the fight to get your team to attack him from all directions - pentagram ideal, but even having them face NSEW makes it trivial as the mario mini bosses will never appear. PTR notes on this one scare me a little bit as the knockback may hurt, however it seems there is so much time that we should be able to walk backwards with plenty of time.
2nd boss - take your entire team and stack them on the pillar to the right of the boss, and inch them towards the front of the pillar, but not all the way - the boss should pull at this point. Take your tank and face the boss the other direction and watch for the cyclones. The rest of your team won't get hit, so you only have to worry about your tank. Just take your time and you should have no problem with it. If your team takes too much aoe damage, then use holy radiance on all of them. I have holy radiance also bound to divine protection as it's on the same CD. Next patch will change this and make this even easier as it won't matter if they get hit or not as you'll only be cycloned straight up.
Getting to the third boss, you'll need to CC the adds, which they are all humanoids. I use a quick F7-F10 keybinds which my tank marks targets, and each of my paladins set a focus target, then when I pull, i hit my CC macro which will repent their focus targets. From experience here, you'll want to kill the Adepts before anything else. You must interrupt their heals be it using arcane torrent, mind freeze, hammer of justice, rebuke, etc, but that's #1 priority, or else they will be right back at full HP.
3rd boss, easiest tank and spank boss ever. Simply go to town and jump whenever you see him cast static cling. In the unfortunate event you don't make it, cleanse it on your paladins. While it's magic, it's still a movement impairment debuff, so talented cleanse will remove it. You'll need to use freedom on your tank to remove it. Even if your not quick and your tank dies, 4 rets can still kill this guy. After your first or second attempt at it, you'll learn the timings of the jump, then it's a piece of cake. You have plenty of time to move into the electric field. PTR changes on this fight could be interesting having skyfalls stars in the mix, but still should be doable.
--- ShadowFang Keep:
First boss. If your paladins have rebuke, this fight will be even easier. Mine do not, so I have to count on arcane torrent. This fight is one of the more interesting, and it's all about managing your interrupts. Your first few tries, and you'll be ready to pull out your hair, but once you understand it, it's fairly easy. When you first start the fight, DPS like normal. I usually pop wings at the start as the fight takes a good 3 minutes so you'll be able to use it again towards the end. The key here is to watch for Pain and Sufferring. Interrupt this immediately as this will be targeted on one of the paladins and will slowly melt him. If you interrupt quickly, your paladin will take next to no damage. Don't waste your HP healing your paladins as seal of insight should provide them plenty of healing. When he casts Asphyxiate, the first time you see it you'll panic and think you did something wrong and just wiped - this is not the cast and why you don't spend time topping off your paladins - he'll take everybody down to 1HP. As soon as you hit the ground, use your HP and heal your tank - if you're talented with selfless healer, this is enough to where you can interrupt his stay of execution immediately, but be prepared to interrupt pain and suffering the instant you see it. If you don't understand the fight that well, then let stay of execution tick once as it heals everyone by 10% including the boss. Continue the fight as normal, then once he hits 50%, he occasionally cast Mend Rotten Flesh which needs to be interrupted as well - PTR stays this ability goes away next patch. Once you get him to 20%, he'll begin casting Dark archangel form - pop all CDs here - wings + holy radiance + divine protection and you're entire team will be back to full health. You'll need to use your HP here to keep your guys topped off, and if things get hairy, you can still bubble them. After a few tries, you'll have this encounter down with no problems - the key here is all about managing those interrupts, and if I can do it without Rebuke, then so can you. :)
2nd boss - tank and spank. Nothing that special about this boss at all except for timing your heals. Don't waste any HP healing when you have Cursed Veil as the debuff only lasts 8 seconds. He'll also summon worgen spirit. When he does that, I put down D&D to grab aggro, then kill the adds. Again - very easy fight that you'll likely 1 shot on your first attempt.
3rd boss - skip him. I'd love to know a good strat for this guy, but he is brutal on melee teams.
4th boss - This guy is my favorite fight in here. Very, very easy. start off the fight as normal, and it's more of waiting game. ignore frost mixtures and just go to town. When he cast ice shards ignore the boss entirely and manuever your team so they don't get hit. It's very easy to avoid if you watch where you are walking. His other two abilities are his poison mixtures. Cleanse poisons when you get the debuff. The two channeled mixtures he does is the key. Most of the time, the mixture is green, which means MOVE! Doesn't matter where, but just keep your guys moving. I use my run forward key on my entire team while spamming IWT and they take no damage. If the mixture is Red, then make sure you have none of your guys doing the circle dance as they must be stationary.
Last boss, you'll need to be on your healing game a bit. Mortal wound hurts bad, especially stacked with cursed bullets. Right now, I pull the boss, then face him away from my paladins, and just tank and spank and keep heals on whoever gets hit with cursed bullets. If you don't keep an eye on this, they'll die rather quickly. It seems the end of the duration hits for about 40-50k as well, so make sure they are topped off. When he summons ghouls drop D&D and 4xconcecretion, and that should kill all the adds, but you'll also need to heal your tank like a mofo as the mortal wounds and all the ghouls will do a lot of damage. Once he casts Pistol Barrage, simple sidestep it. Rinse and repeat. Almost everytime I've found myself with 2 paladins with cursed bullets and my DK taking massive damage. This is the time to burn CDs - wings, radiance, Divine Protection, etc as that'll top your team off rather quickly. In next patch Pistol Barrage will be targeted randomly, so I'm thinking just run through the boss when he does this.
Good luck, and I'm interesting to hear other heroics others are doing with this setup.
