TOGC (10) tactics.

Hi all. Probably what i'm going to write is somewhat useless for you experienced players (couhg couhg ) but since i tanked TOGC 10 until the end yesterday night with a semi-guild (another guild ofc ) run i learnt the harsh way the differences between normal and Hc versione af the fight.
1st thing to note is that i found it quite challenging, more difficult that, for example, ICC 10 normal (at least the Boss i saw there which are 1st 6). This is just to point out some tactics for a possible guild attempt to the place (much better than trying to PUG it since 99% of times PUGS disbands at 1st wipe and yuo have wasted your weekly save).

1) Northrend Beasts. From a tanking point of view the fight is quite the same as in normal. Gormok and Bosses in general hit harder and dots tick heavier (which is something expected anyway so not a surprise). Important differenze is that the Worms (Dreadscale and Acidmaw) spawn at a timer, not when Gormok is killed, so you need solid DPS on Boss in order to beat the timer and get them when Gornok is dead (while killing last snowbold). I'm not sure if even Icehowl is on a timer, but i guess not. About Icehowl i really didnt notice something special but him hitting harder than in normal.

2) Lord Jaraxus. The fight is kinda the same if yuo look at Boss. The real difference is about adds. Portals (Mistress of Pain) and Volcanoes (Infermals) have to be targeted and DPSed down asap since until they are up they will continue to spawn adds. So as soon as a portal or a volcano is up DPS have to switch on them to burn them down. If your DPS is good enough you will get only 1 Mistress of Pain and 2 or 3 Infernals, with whom you deal as in normal.

3) Faction Champions. The more challenging fight imho. Bosses are stronger and are NOT tauntable, so keeping ppl alive is much harder. Tactic was burning down 1 healer at start, then killing war and rogue. Ppl in raid confirmed that was the way to deal with them: CC healers and kill DPSers. After 3 wipes we made it.

4) Twin Valkyrs. As a tank i didn't really notice anything really different from normal, but maybe there are some things which interest DPSers and healers. From what i saw the "shield" has more HP until burned down and i guess the vortex hit harder than in normal but since yuo shouldn't get hit by a vortex anyway if yuo correctly switch color that's probably not a concern

5) Anub. Anub's fight differ in many ways from normal. 1st of all there are much less ice "patches" to be brought down, so positioning the Boss and adds can be trickier. Big adds always spawn in 2 so tanking them and interrupting them is more difficult than normal. Ofc both Boss and adds hit harder as it is harder the ice dmg on Tank (nothing to get worried about, tho, if healers do their job). Notice that ice patches on the groud slow you much more than in normal and you're slowed as well after you reach the normal ground for a bit. Be aware of that if you happen to be pursued by the burrowed Boss.
Ph 3 is kind of hard. 1st of all the swarm ticks much harder (healing is much more difficult than in normal). Big adds continue to spawn (in pairs again) while in normal they stop spawning in this phase. They told me that in this phase ie better NOT to tank adds on patches but let them burrow. I'm not sure why that should be (i was tanking Boss) but i trust them. Maybe having them burrowed let ppl concentrate DPS on Boss instead of dividing it on both Boss and Adds. At any rate as i was busy on staying alive on Boss i didnt realy notice if the other tank was letting them burrow (which i guess he was) or not.

All in all: i enjoyed the challenge. What a pity the Hc version doesn't drop Frost Badges which, imho, are better deserved fot TOC HC than ICC normal but still .. .

I was also lucky and got some nice Off-Spec loot which i will brag around in g-chat so beware!

have you all a great time.

Serjo

Nice one Serjo...

and Gz to loot...

Yes, nice guide you made there and gz on completing the run

Got 1 question though:

Serjo wrote: 1st of all there are much less ice "patches" to be brought down, so positioning the Boss and adds can be trickier.

I read somewhere that there is a maximum number of ice patches, so those orbs will not re-spawn. Did you see how many there actually were? Just curious

Shanla wrote:Yes, nice guide you made there and gz on completing the run

Got 1 question though:

Serjo wrote: 1st of all there are much less ice "patches" to be brought down, so positioning the Boss and adds can be trickier.

I read somewhere that there is a maximum number of ice patches, so those orbs will not re-spawn. Did you see how many there actually were? Just curious

I am not sure if orbs will respawn or not, since i didn't check that out 'cause i was quite busy on TPSing Boss. I am quite sure that there aren't more than 5 or 6 orbs at any time, maybe there only are 5 - 6 at all during the whole fight. I would think that some will respawn, tho, since only 5 or 6 (which i'm sure no more are floating around) seems a bit too few for the lenght of the fight.

I will check on the net to get a better answer.

Have a great time!

Serjo