Baleroc, The Gatekeeper

by Lady Wenaeleyn



Baleroc earned a reputation as a merciless combatant during the elemental wars of ancient Azeroth. Now that he is confined to the Firelands, Baleroc's sanity has dwindled. Few elementals dare disturb him, fearful that they will become victim to his battlelust.


    Overview

    The encounter can be done with one or two tanks, but for this strategy, two tanks will be used. The Baleroc fight is a single phase encounter, but does have a 6 minute berserk timer.

    The encounter consists of a series of buffs and debuffs that each role must utilize to defeat Baleroc. Throughout the encounter, Baleroc will use abilities that will increase the tanks' health pools as well as increase the damage he deals.

    Likewise, the dps in the raid will be gaining a specific debuff that, when they are healed, will grant another buff to the healers. This buff will increase their healing and allow them to heal through the massive damage.



    Tanking

    Using the two tank strategy, the first tank will pull the boss. Baleroc will use Blaze of Glory, which will increase the tank's health and his own damage output.

    Once the first tank's health reaches at least 250,000, the second tank will taunt and begin gaining health. From this point on, the second tank will be the only tank except in one specific instance: Decimation Blade.

    The first tank built up a large health pool specifically to withstand this ability, which will always hit for at least 250,000 damage. Once Baleroc's Decimation Blade wears off, the second tank will taunt back.

    It is important to note that the second tank will be tanking through another special ability: Inferno Blade. This ability is not as dangerous as Decimation Blade, but will do extra damage while it is active.



    Shards of Torment

    The second aspect of the encounter involves the dps in the raid. While there are no attackable adds in this encounter, there are static crystal shards that spawn throughout the fight.

    These Shards of Torment will do constant shadow damage to the player closest to them. One player must be within 15 yards of a crystal at all times to avoid Wave of Torment.

    • Create two teams of two players and assign them as first and second shard tank.
    • Team one will take turns "tanking" the first shard by standing close to it.
    • The first player will gain stacks of Torment while standing in the beam.
    • The second shard tank will take over when his partner indicates that he cannot withstand the damage.

    Each shard will last about 30 seconds before despawning. About 5 seconds later, a new shard will spawn. The second team of shard tanks will do the same as the first. This pattern will continue for the rest of the encounter.

    Once a player has stood in the beam, they become Tormented and cannot take damage from a shard again until their turn in the rotation happens again.



    Healing

    The healers should also be divided into two groups. One healer will start the fight as the shard tank healer and the other two healers will start the fight as the tank healers.

    In order to heal through the massive amounts of incoming damage, the healers will need a buff called Vital Spark. Each time a healer heals a player afflicted with Torment, they will gain stacks of Vital Spark. One stack of Vital Spark is gained for every three stacks of Torment on their target.

    A healer with stacks of Vital Spark will receive a new buff when they begin to heal a target affected by Blazing Glory (the tanks). The Vital Spark stacks will be replaced with Vital Flame, which does increased healing based on the number of Vital Spark stacks present.

    Once the buff ends, or the healer stops healing a tank, their Vital Spark stacks will return. The healers should create their own rotation to match the shard tanks:

    • The single healer starts by healing the first team of shard tanks while the other two healers heal the tanks.
    • When the second shard spawns, the healers will switch roles.
    • The single healer will now heal the tanks with his Vital Spark stacks.
    • The two healers will heal the second team of shard tanks, gaining Vital Spark stacks of their own.

    Each group of players will very quickly learn the pattern. The real danger is having enough dps to beat the 6 minute enrage timer. If everyone stays focused on their particular job, the boss will be defeated without much effort.


Posted: 07/22/11 | Filed Under: WoW, WoW Raiding