Post by Lochart on Feb 14, 2008 21:10:46 GMT -5
Curator (Required)
The Curator is widely accepted as the first major gear check for Kara raiders after you get in and try to down Attumen. It requires major coordination, and excellent gear. Wearing greens for this encounter is wholly unacceptable, unless you are being run through by a group who has Kara on farm.
That said, Curator is actually a fairly simple fight to explain.
Every ten seconds, the Curator uses 10% of his mana to spawn an Arcane Flare. The Flares spawn with aggro on a random party member, and head towards them, throwing out arcane lightning that can hit up to 3 targets. The lightning hits every second, so the Flares can do substantial damage, keeping healers busy. All dps should be on the Flares to down them as quickly as possible and limit their damage to the raid.
After 10 Flares have spawned (when Curator’s mana reaches 0) the Curator will cast Evocation. During this time, damage done to Curator is increased 200%. So when the last Flare has died, ALL dps should switch to the Curator. Curator is completely immobiled and does not attack during Evocation, so everyone can just go crazy.
When Evocation is up, the Flares begin again, and the cycle repeats itself. The raid should aim for 25 to 30% of the Curator’s health during each Evocation, because longer than that the healers will not be able to sustain the raid from the Flare damage. Further, after 10 minutes, the Curator goes Berserk, increasing his damage output by 500% and ensuring a wipe.
At 15% health, the Curator enrages, at which point Flares and Evocations stop, and it’s a straight up dps race. He hits harder, but not enough to wipe the raid, just enough that you want to go all out on him and get him down.
Important to note, but far less troublesome than the Flares, is the Hateful Bolt that Curator throws at non-tank party members occasionally. Healers just need to be aware of it so they can toss heals on people who need them, but otherwise it’s not all that big a deal.
General Strategy
Only one tank is needed for the Curator himself. The offtank should switch to dps or healing, depending on class and alternate gear.
The tank holds Curator in the middle of his hallway, facing away from the rest of the raid.
Typically, the tank is the only toon attacking Curator during the Flare phase. This is for two reasons.
First, it allows the tank to build up so much aggro on the boss that during Evocation, all dps can go crazy and not worry about stealing aggro from the tank.
Second, it ensures that all dps is on the Flares, downing them as quickly as possible.
Now, there are several ways to position for the Curator fight.
1) Have the entire raid except the tank group up just behind the Curator.
This increases the overall damage done by the Flares, but also decreases the time it takes to destroy the Flare itself. If you down them extremely quickly, you can also have dps switch to hit the Curator a few times before the next Flare spawns. This is a useful strategy if you have numerous melee classes in yoru raid group, because you don’t have to chase the Flares: they come to you and you can smash them down. It does put strain on the healers, so make sure your group can handle this.
2) Have the group spread out well behind Curator.
This decreases damage done by the Flares, but increases the time it takes to kill them. Ranged player can kite the Flares around and if they stay spread out, the Flares won’t arc to more than one player. This is useful if you have 1 or 0 melee classes in your party, and everyone can attack from afar. It also reduces the strain on the healer because only 1 person should be getting hit by the Flares at a time.
However you decide to do it, the Flares must die quickly. If you have two up at a time, it can be devastating, and it means you’re dps is too light on the flares. Many groups try to only leave 1 or 2 dps on the last flare when Evocation starts to maxmize the damage against Curator when he is vulnerable. But on undergeared raids, that Flare takes a lot of time to go down, and it’s possible that the Flare will still be up when Evocation is over, meaning a second one will spawn. That in turn means that 1 or 2 dps classes weren’t attacking the Curator AT ALL during evocation, which is a massive loss of dps.
Exceptions to the general rule of “all dps on Flares” depend on the group make up and gear status. Over geared raids can probably afford to stick one or even two dps members on the Curator the whole time to speed up the fight, and leave the Flares to the rest of the raid.
Additionally, even normally geared raids can have people with dots (warlocks, hunter serpent sting, priests SWP) toss those on the Curator in between fighting the Flares, but they should remain concentrated on the Flares to help the healers and reduce damage from the Flares.
Hunter pets can be stuck on the Curator the entire time, or used as added dps on the flares. The advantage of using them on the flares is they can soak up some lightning damage and help kill the Flare itself.
The advantage of sticking them on the Curator is hunters can leave them alone, there’s more dps on the Curator throughout the fight, and the pets won’t take damage from the flares, so neither healers nor the hunters need to waste mana healing pets. Try both, go with what works for you.
The damage increase applies to pets as well. This means that priests can use their Shadowfiend on Curator during Evocation and restore their full mana to keep going.
All trinkets and abilities with cooldowns that enhance dps should be saved until the first Evocation to maximize dps against the Curator. 2 minute CD’s will be able to used twice due to the length of the fight.
Arcane resistance gear is of limited use because healing, dps, and effective tanking is so crucial in this fight. If you are overgeared, you could swap in some arcan resistance gear to mitigate Flare damage. But then, if you’re overgeared, the extra Flare damage probably doesn’t affect your party all that much anyway.
The Curator is widely accepted as the first major gear check for Kara raiders after you get in and try to down Attumen. It requires major coordination, and excellent gear. Wearing greens for this encounter is wholly unacceptable, unless you are being run through by a group who has Kara on farm.
That said, Curator is actually a fairly simple fight to explain.
Every ten seconds, the Curator uses 10% of his mana to spawn an Arcane Flare. The Flares spawn with aggro on a random party member, and head towards them, throwing out arcane lightning that can hit up to 3 targets. The lightning hits every second, so the Flares can do substantial damage, keeping healers busy. All dps should be on the Flares to down them as quickly as possible and limit their damage to the raid.
After 10 Flares have spawned (when Curator’s mana reaches 0) the Curator will cast Evocation. During this time, damage done to Curator is increased 200%. So when the last Flare has died, ALL dps should switch to the Curator. Curator is completely immobiled and does not attack during Evocation, so everyone can just go crazy.
When Evocation is up, the Flares begin again, and the cycle repeats itself. The raid should aim for 25 to 30% of the Curator’s health during each Evocation, because longer than that the healers will not be able to sustain the raid from the Flare damage. Further, after 10 minutes, the Curator goes Berserk, increasing his damage output by 500% and ensuring a wipe.
At 15% health, the Curator enrages, at which point Flares and Evocations stop, and it’s a straight up dps race. He hits harder, but not enough to wipe the raid, just enough that you want to go all out on him and get him down.
Important to note, but far less troublesome than the Flares, is the Hateful Bolt that Curator throws at non-tank party members occasionally. Healers just need to be aware of it so they can toss heals on people who need them, but otherwise it’s not all that big a deal.
General Strategy
Only one tank is needed for the Curator himself. The offtank should switch to dps or healing, depending on class and alternate gear.
The tank holds Curator in the middle of his hallway, facing away from the rest of the raid.
Typically, the tank is the only toon attacking Curator during the Flare phase. This is for two reasons.
First, it allows the tank to build up so much aggro on the boss that during Evocation, all dps can go crazy and not worry about stealing aggro from the tank.
Second, it ensures that all dps is on the Flares, downing them as quickly as possible.
Now, there are several ways to position for the Curator fight.
1) Have the entire raid except the tank group up just behind the Curator.
This increases the overall damage done by the Flares, but also decreases the time it takes to destroy the Flare itself. If you down them extremely quickly, you can also have dps switch to hit the Curator a few times before the next Flare spawns. This is a useful strategy if you have numerous melee classes in yoru raid group, because you don’t have to chase the Flares: they come to you and you can smash them down. It does put strain on the healers, so make sure your group can handle this.
2) Have the group spread out well behind Curator.
This decreases damage done by the Flares, but increases the time it takes to kill them. Ranged player can kite the Flares around and if they stay spread out, the Flares won’t arc to more than one player. This is useful if you have 1 or 0 melee classes in your party, and everyone can attack from afar. It also reduces the strain on the healer because only 1 person should be getting hit by the Flares at a time.
However you decide to do it, the Flares must die quickly. If you have two up at a time, it can be devastating, and it means you’re dps is too light on the flares. Many groups try to only leave 1 or 2 dps on the last flare when Evocation starts to maxmize the damage against Curator when he is vulnerable. But on undergeared raids, that Flare takes a lot of time to go down, and it’s possible that the Flare will still be up when Evocation is over, meaning a second one will spawn. That in turn means that 1 or 2 dps classes weren’t attacking the Curator AT ALL during evocation, which is a massive loss of dps.
Exceptions to the general rule of “all dps on Flares” depend on the group make up and gear status. Over geared raids can probably afford to stick one or even two dps members on the Curator the whole time to speed up the fight, and leave the Flares to the rest of the raid.
Additionally, even normally geared raids can have people with dots (warlocks, hunter serpent sting, priests SWP) toss those on the Curator in between fighting the Flares, but they should remain concentrated on the Flares to help the healers and reduce damage from the Flares.
Hunter pets can be stuck on the Curator the entire time, or used as added dps on the flares. The advantage of using them on the flares is they can soak up some lightning damage and help kill the Flare itself.
The advantage of sticking them on the Curator is hunters can leave them alone, there’s more dps on the Curator throughout the fight, and the pets won’t take damage from the flares, so neither healers nor the hunters need to waste mana healing pets. Try both, go with what works for you.
The damage increase applies to pets as well. This means that priests can use their Shadowfiend on Curator during Evocation and restore their full mana to keep going.
All trinkets and abilities with cooldowns that enhance dps should be saved until the first Evocation to maximize dps against the Curator. 2 minute CD’s will be able to used twice due to the length of the fight.
Arcane resistance gear is of limited use because healing, dps, and effective tanking is so crucial in this fight. If you are overgeared, you could swap in some arcan resistance gear to mitigate Flare damage. But then, if you’re overgeared, the extra Flare damage probably doesn’t affect your party all that much anyway.