Will of the Emperor

[Tinderhoof]

This topic is for discussing Feral DPS tactics and/or general raid strategies for the Will of the Emperor encounter.

Please feel free to post tips, tricks, videos or ask questions. I will do my best to keep the top post updated with information as it arrives.

When discussing, please mention raid size (10/25) and difficulty (normal/heroic).

[Annalese]

For feral (and any melee, really), the most dps you can do will revolve around getting as many Opportunistic Strikes off as possible, and that involves learning how to do the "cleave dance."

If you didn't get to practice it on beta, you will probably spend one night learning how to do this properly. However, I found this video (http://youtu.be/sVL5mAxENkU) to be a very useful guide for a "on the ground" visual for what to look for. You need to avoid all 5 of their Devastating Combo moves in order to get the Opportunistic Strike button (ExtraActionButton) to show up.

I found it extremely useful to spec into Feline Swiftness for this fight. I also used Stampeding Roar very liberally.

[Viray]

I'm a bit baffled by that log:

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/1dvb ... 79&e=17634

I mean 21% dmg form melee? Is the dmg from Elemental Force included in melee dmg on WoL? I see that this guy has really low Windforce proc count, probably only from weapon swap during HotW.

BTW Got ranked on 4th place myself, yaaay :3

[bearpelt]

You definitely want Feline Swiftness for this fight on top of your boots speed enchant. Can anyone confirm if the Meta gem speed boost stacks?

For me, the most reliable way of telling where the slash will end up is to look for the flashing white 'line' graphic as he's about to cast it. Say you see the flashing white lines thing going off to the left; the slash will end up there. Right to the right side. If you see 2 lines to the front side of him, the slash is a 180 degree arc in front. No flashing line graphic? It's going to be the 360 stomp.

Use Dash and Roar cautiously; if you run out too far from the boss you lose the chance to get Opportunistic Strike (happened to me a number of times T_T). Saving Opportunistic Strike for Courage adds backfired on me as the buff wore off before they spawned/ I could get to them.

I'm currently using my Symbiosis on Rogues for Redirect but feel it's not really well utilized given how switching to the Courage adds can be predicted pretty accurately. Tried giving the mages that so I could gain Frost Nova to help CC Rage adds but I didn't have much time to actually tear away from the boss area/ Courages.

Managed to get into WoLs for the first time ever at #34 for 25man (please excuse my cruddy haste reforge): http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-3jsol5j76idis5n8/

[Viray]

Sorry bout posting this again, but has anyone figured out melee damage from the previous log I've posted? I'm really curious how has that kitty managed to pull it off. 21% damage (#1 dmg source) from white swings...?

[aggixx]

Can anyone confirm if the Meta gem speed boost stacks?

I definitely wouldn't recommend using it if it did. 55% run speed from Boots + Cat Form + Feline Swiftness should be plenty to be able to dodge the combo consistently.

Also, general pointer that I found out last night: the Opportunistic Strike only lasts about 3 seconds or so so make sure you use it quickly after you get it otherwise it's gone!

Sorry bout posting this again, but has anyone figured out melee damage from the previous log I've posted? I'm really curious how has that kitty managed to pull it off. 21% damage (#1 dmg source) from white swings...?

After looking at it a bit in-depth, he was reforged for haste, which should put his autoattack damage around the same damage done as his bleed, but in addition to that he got pretty lucky with his crits, out of 402 white attacks 185 of them crit which is equivalent to 46% crit rate which is significantly higher than an expected crit rate of about 31%. When you account for those two things his damage breakdown is pretty much what it should be compared to a patchwerk fight.

[Viray]

And what about Elemental Force? His Windsong proc count is so low I believe he had it only for his hotw-phase weapon. Didn't see anything about ElF procs in the log though.

[aggixx]

He's probably either running +130 agi, or no enchant at all (when I poked around at his armory he was wearing int gear so perhaps feral is his OS?).

PS: I edited my last post a zillion times.

Edit: It's possible he just got ludicrously shit luck with his Windsong procs. His 5 procs were across a 3 and a half minute period and none of them were during HotW.

[Qbear]

Sorry bout posting this again, but has anyone figured out melee damage from the previous log I've posted? I'm really curious how has that kitty managed to pull it off. 21% damage (#1 dmg source) from white swings...?

Titan Gas – Titan Gas fills the room, inflicting 17000 Frost damage every 1 sec. to all players and energizing both players and constructs, increasing melee damage dealt by 25%.

[threeeyedcat]

on heroic will of the emperor: Should feral stay on bosses the whole time [doing the dance].. or run around killing adds? My raidleader is asking me to kill adds on the heroic attempts. i was curious what people were doing here.

[Tinderhoof]

As our single target damage is way better then sustained aoe staying on the boss is the best place for us. However we do have a lot of utility and can soak a lot of sparks. Dispersion is your friend.

[Dysheki]

Depends on the raid. If you can get away with staying on the boss and can dodge all the time, you're likely better off.

In our 10 I tank all of the strengths, do decent dps, basically get nearly all of the sparks from them (SI+Barkskin at full health or Dispersion from Symbiosis), and then get a little bit of boss time, but never enough to actually dance for the full amount to get an overwhelming strike or whatever they're called.

Constant target switching with the rages would be brutal for feral dps.

[threeeyedcat]

yep I used a bunch of dispersion.

So I would dot rages at the beginning.. then grab the first strength. Basically I'm the strength offtank. I would absorb sparks every other strength. {rogue would get the other one} SI+BS on one and dispersion on the other. When strengths weren't up.. charge courages and dot them up. And then I would leave them to dash and grab the next strength spawn. I am using HotW on the gap between adds reset. I always do the dance on normal. But this seems to be working as intended.

oh one thing I found if you roll your PS + HTs... they might put you on the aggro list at the boss spawn. Then he will magnetic armor you. This really sucks when you are dodging the strengths. So don't heal yourself.. even in doc.. at the beginning of boss spawn. I never noticed this on any other mode. I might be imagining this. But once i stopped doing this... i wouldn't get magnetic armor anymore.

[Tinderhoof]

I would absorb sparks every other strength.

If you use the SI Glyph it has a 2 minute cooldown and you can get every spark. Also if you find you need a back up Ursols Might + Barskskin can be enough to survive if you have the gear. Also to help healers out shift into Bear form before doing SI for the soak.

Myself I go full guardian for our kills just for the 25% DR. During the time that DPS is focused on the boss I am able to use my cooldowns to solo the strength so dps doesn't have to waste time on them.

[threeeyedcat]

what a great suggestion on that glyph. thanks! I will look into that tonight.
yeah - dispersion would always be 30 -15 secs until reset when the next strength spark would spawn. So the rogue would cloak it. [or feint it].

edit:
the SI glyph is only guardian. guardian isn't my offspec. doh.

[Frozzenfire]

SI glyph works fine as feral

[Tinderhoof]

Ya it works fine for Feral (I know I use it a LOT). It is also a great Guardian glyph as well. I mostly use it there too.

[Frozzenfire]

Tinderhoof

when you go guardian and take the strengths do you gain vengence since they dont have a normal melee hit.

[Tinderhoof]

I only get vengence from the gas debuff (not much), when soaking a spark (nice chunk, but not like tanking), and when I take a hit from the circle the Strength puts down. That usually happens when I have to solo the Strength down cause the rest of the DPS are on the boss and the next one comes out. None are super huge though. I go full guardian for the built in 25% damage reduction of the spec that allows me to survive soaking all the sparks.

[Frozzenfire]

how are you useing your cooldowns and stuff so you can take all?

sparks that is

[Tinderhoof]

I put my Symbiosis on one of our DK's for Boneshield. That plus Barkskin for the first spark. The second I use the SI glyph and SI. I keep MoU as a back up in case the DPS helps and we kill the strength to quick. However that doesn't happen to often but it's nice to have a back up. As long as you have over 550k health you can likely take one of the sparks with just Barkskin. You will dip pretty hard so save up your rage for a big FR as soon as your health takes a dump.

[Frozzenfire]

Ok ye think thats pretty much what i thought i should do if tanking the strength as guardian