Ragnaros questions

[BarryManilow]

Our guild gave him our first 4 shots last nite...lowest we got his was 52%.

A few questions about our attempts and the vids ive watched of guilds killing him.

1) is the punt into lava based on aggro or is it totally random? one attempt myself and a rogue friend were positioned at the tip of the question mark-shaped land mass you fight him on. neither of us got hit once (until MT died)

2) is he even worth attempting unless you have tons of fire prot/mongoose/mana pots? (im guessing no)

3) is chain fear/single target DPS the best way to handle sons? the one vid showed this, the sons seem to spawn around 2:40 in so everyone groups up before they pop, then hunter marks, fear the rest. repeat

we are trying to do this with a balanced group (5 rogues not 20 ;). any general tips/suggestions would be appreciated.

on a funny note, i would recommend *not* charging or trying to intercept rag. our MT died so i took over, got punted, intercepted, then ended up right inside his guts & in the lava. not good ;)

[Prometheus]

Hey, I figured I'd help out a little bit (where I can):

1) Can't really answer for this one, I didn't pay enough attention to the guild ragnaros briefing.

2) I would personally say yes it's worth attempting because every time you attempt you (hopefully) learn something, although when taking him down, I'm sure these pots will come handy (they did for us).

3) For the 3rd one, I figured you might want to watch the video from our guild (it's from a paladin point of view so you get a close look at the sons of flame), http://files.filefront.com/Righteous_Might_downs_Ragnaroszip/;3860080;/fileinfo.html

Hope that helps (sorry if the answers seem retarded, just woke up so making sense is not my #1 priority) :P

[Asp]

Very nice video, btw.

[Khalaio]

o that vid brings back memories of diablo 2 ( in the sig)

[Scorpicore]

1) is the punt into lava based on aggro or is it totally random? one attempt myself and a rogue friend were positioned at the tip of the question mark-shaped land mass you fight him on. neither of us got hit once (until MT died)

yes, it's random



2) is he even worth attempting unless you have tons of fire prot/mongoose/mana pots? (im guessing no)

shrug
try it



3) is chain fear/single target DPS the best way to handle sons? the one vid showed this, the sons seem to spawn around 2:40 in so everyone groups up before they pop, then hunter marks, fear the rest. repeat

any kind of CC (banish, fear) and likewise items (nets, really sticky glue etc) helps there and you need to assist and keep them away from your healers or their mana gets burned

[Manorien]

1's been answered.

for 2, on your first trys, go without them. you need to learn alot before burning them up.

once you are spawning sons consistently, start using pots on your attempts.

as you get better at rag you'll need them less and less. they are a nice oh shit button.

3. sons are where this battle is won, that is if you dont dps him down before they spawn.

Fear is bad, banish is ok. towards the end of the sons timer, stop the banishing, as it sucks to have them up when rag pops back up.

you need mages and hunters doing CC, and need good warriors saving casters asses.

look at their abilities and all that and you can figure out placement of folks etc.

GL! just keep trying, it can take a while but you can get it.

[BarryManilow]

good tips again, thanks. ive been hoarding DKP for the spinal reaper, dying to get my hands on it.

we are going to try again tonight if we can get the darn priests to logon...

from the vids i watched rag starts doing some crazy fire AOE damage after you down the sons...do you usually save fire prot pots for then?

ive read of some guilds downing him before the sons spawn, but that sounds like you need some pretty imbalanced groups (i.e. tons of rogues)

why is fear bad? i know when i was tanking the sons all ran over me and dropped me in about 2 seconds on their way to the ppl grouped up behind me.

[Myrsnipe]

just a pop question, is it true that ragnaros is in "mad" mode when he is initially spawned? He always seems harder on the first attempt.

[Backdoor Beauty]

some things to know about ragnaros.

1) When you first spawn ragnaros, their is lava that spews from the middle circle, if you stand far enough away, ranged DPS can avoid this lava, but melee and the MT cannot. This lava in phase 1 is currently bugged, and is non-resistable. It is also bugged in that if you attempt ragnaros a 2nd time, he does not activate the lava until phase 2 (sons).

2) The "knockback" is from the fireball. The person who gets hit with the fireball doesn't recieve knockback, but everyone else within range does. This makes it integral for casters/ranged/healers to stay spread apart, so they don't get knocked around or into the lava. As for melee DPS this is unavoidable as they are all bunch up so close. The only thing i can suggest is stay at max melee range, and give the main tank as much room as possible. NOTE: totems will take this hit, and knock your main tank back, so it's best to not have totems near your main tank. Max range is a possibility, but we just decided to not take the risk ourselves.

3) Most guilds do this before the 2nd group of sons spawn (the rest do it before the first). Melee DPS as in rogues and warriors are key in this battle (hunters aswell) as they tend to be able to do the most DPS over the longest period of time. Mages/warlocks usually run out of mana too quickly to be as effective as a rogue. My guild usually only brings about 8 or so rogues, and about 4 or so warriors and about 5 hunters (not that we intentionally bring those numbers, those are just who get into the raid).
You should try for about 40% in the first 2:45 before he summons the sons. During and after the sons, people will start to die. Don't be too worried about this as it's bound to happen, especially on the first kill.

4) The sons of flame are the hardest part of this encounter (if you can call it hard). They have mana burn, and AoE immolate similar to the Infernal. The good part is, they are susceptible to almost every form of CC and snare. Banishes are okay, but usually our warlocks only use 1 banish, and then resort to fear. Priests should AoE fear if one gets near them, and warriors should be standing in front of the casters in order to pick up the sons as they come in. You're entire group should be fairly bunched up for this phase. Also, don't get too close to the inner circle, as you will periodically get nuked for 1500ish damage (until next patch apparently).


The biggest and most important thing i can say about this encounter is this.

The sons are key, once you are able to get the sons down on a fairly clean attempt (2-3 deaths or so at most by the time the sons are killed). The rest of the encounter is a matter of DPS and Healing. My guild has killed ragnaros 4 times now and our most recent attempt was the best (no wipes except to clear his initial spawn to "bug" him"). It's just a matter of practice before you actually get the encounter down pat. it's definately not a difficult encounter at the moment, but it does present some challenges.