Master CR (5 Bosses)
By: Oyphisis
Hello there everyone! We did Master CR the other night so I figured i'd post the strategy that we came up with for each of the bosses for others to use or go on in an attempt to come up with their own plan to getting through. As we go on with the Master CR's, we will hopefully add the other 5 bosses.
I will start with the more harder bosses that we did and move down to the easier bosses where it didn't matter but explain exactly what idea's and strategies we came up with.
1. High Thane Hergen - We started this boss off normally but what we realized was the adds not only putting DoT's on everyone but we also saw the higher damage from his AoE's that he drops. While retaining the 2 interrupts for Wild Cudgel, our strategy finalized to having the Cleric go to a Sentinel spec with AoE cleanse and healing. Using that for the DoT control and helping with healing proved to be a vital asset. We had our support go to Bard to give movement speed to help people get out of the AoE circles and to help with the healing from the AoE circles themselves. We had a Stormcaller set to keep control on the adds that spawned and to take them down while the tank had hate on both the adds and the boss. When someone would get hit by the circle we would turn around and go backwards because the circle appears where you stood and once you get knocked back you get put close to the back end of the circle. We noticed people walking through the circle to get out and dying in the process. But by turning around to exit at the closest then we got out a lot sooner. This was not a dps race it was mostly keeping everything together while taking the boss down at whatever speed we could which made it a variable time fight.
2. Coalgut - This was our second to last fight that we did but it proved to be a very dps intensive fight unless you went with the crystal method. As you know from the Expert mode version that he has two ways of defeating him. The first, was to use the crystals to knock off his buffs by destroying them while he was in range of them. That is one way to do it but we chose to do it with the Kite Method. Tank had a 110% mount so it would be advised to have a 110% mount or do it the crystal method way. We also realized that the boss put a Burning Lung debuff on people which if people did not stack then it would one shot the person who had it. So everyone has to stack on the person with Burning Lung to avoid it one shotting people (Tank didn't have to stand because it was 13-14k / 4 = 3250-3500 damage which everyone could live from) We had everyone stack and we waited for the debuff to become applied (Which we discovered that it appears after he throws down an AoE circle for the second time.) Yes, he does drop small AoE circles that the group has to move out of while remaining stacked. After the debuff appeared, the healer would cleanse the debuff to immediately spread the damage out before he would go Unstable. Otherwise, that person and the person who was close to them would get killed which isn't enough dps to handle the Kiting method. After he went unstable the Tank mounted and ran him in a wide oval trying to remain in range of us for our dps. It cuts it pretty close but with good dps it shouldn't be much of a problem to take him down as long as everyone remains alive and keeps consistent dps. He increases speed over time as well as damage after he goes unstable.
3. Ashcaller Zael - We realized that after we got to this point it was pretty much the same as the Expert version except for two things. When he breaks down into droplets he would deal AoE damage, when he would recombine he would deal AoE damage. It was well advised to keep at full to avoid dying from it and to also keep your distance once he separates because the AoE + and Add throwing a fireball or two at you could cause problems. We had our Cleric casting shields to protect from the AoE damage which helped big time. We also realized that he puts a DoT randomly on anyone within 10-15m of him. So it would be advised to maintain a ranged distance the entire time you are fighting him to avoid the damage. It was noted that it did between 3-4k damage and 1k every few seconds. By keeping your distance it should only appear on the tank and those adds would not attack the person close which would help big time. But this would be referring to the boss in the center that puts the DoT. If however someone else gets the DoT, then you will need high heals on them because otherwise they will die from it. So two healers are a very effective method for this. We had the Cleric and Chloromancer heal with the Chloromancer swapping Synthesis if needed to the person with the DoT as it doesn't pop a new one till the old one completes. After all the adds died, he would recombine and you would continue the process like normal. The adds must also be taken all the way down in order to become grey. This is a fight that is very heal intensive to single targets.
4. Hookmaster Palos - This was rather the most easiest boss or one of the most easiest bosses we did. It is exactly the same as expert except it does more damage so it is absolutely vital to stop dps when it appears. It tends to pop a Blood Pact after each of it's Thrashing stomps and sometimes if you don't see it after 2 seconds.. in another 2-3 seconds it will or is about to pop. As it sometimes has a delay on it to throw people off. Other than that it remained the same as always.
5. Headhunter/Disciple - I'd spell their names out but i'm too lazy to go look for them but this was a very easy fight as well. Pretty much they only jump around to attack people but the Disciple goes down first, after he goes down, he turns into a shade to continue attacking. ignore the shade of this phase and just take down the Headhunter. If the Headhunter uses his Inferno blade buff up you can interrupt it but the other attack to note is when he says "%name will stain the leaves." which is also known as "Prey on the Weak." When he does this, the person who he calls can move to another location to avoid most of the damage if not all of it. As his dive is only to the spot where the person was standing and not where they currently are standing. Besides this, it was a pretty easy fight.
Also to note after each boss would die that there was a mini boss that would appear after each fight. The two that we noted from this was the one that appeared after Ashcaller which could put someone in their grasp and kill them in seconds. There was nothing that could be done for this so it is advised to dps it down as fast as possible and battle rez whoever is down to get them back up as soon as possible even if it means they might get targetted again. This was to ensure that it could be dps'd down before the group was wiped. Another note was after Coalgut died, another mini boss appeared of note was a guy who jumps at the person and puts a DoT on them which can kill them. It appeared to be non-cleans able and you would have to try and keep them alive almost like the DoT with Ashcaller. I will provide names the next time we go through this and hopefully will add new bosses to this list and rearrange it to for reference.
Thank you for viewing and sorry if this is the wrong spot for this guide but I couldn't put it in the Legends section so I put it here instead.
I'd like to also thank Ragnaris (Eternia), Wyrick, Rorozoro, and Galyna (If that's who you were with us when we did it) For all the idea's and strategies that we came up with as a group. It was an excellent run and the DD before it was even more excellent. Looking forward for future runs!
Created by: Oyphisis