Let's Give Kromog a Hand!
WoW has been something of a haven for me this past week as my life in the real world has been fairly chaotic. Thursday night, we started on Kromog. After much discussion on Twitter and Maintankadin, we found a suggestion that the first tank on Kromog only take one stack of Warped Armor and then the second tank would pick him up and get two stacks. Then we would rotate as stacks cleared.
It was a good plan and with me starting initially, my stacks were cleared by the time the 'hands' phase was over. I only had to remember to taunt him to make sure my co-Tank didn't get his third stack. We still had to deal with three stacks from time to time and we used external cooldowns to help him through.
I continued to use "Stupid Paladin Tricks" to avoid the 'rune' phase completely.
The first 'rune' phase, when the Runes of Grasping Earth are showing up, make sure you are NOT in a rune. Yes, that's right, don't be in a rune. When Kromog is about to cast Thundering Blows, you hit Divine Shield. You'll still get knocked up into the air but you'll take zero fall damage. Once you land, Taunt the big guy and continue tanking. You need to be ready with a cooldown in case he casts Fists of Stone before you co-Tank is out of his rune/hand.
For the second rune phase, you use Blessing...errr...Hand of Protection. I'll get that change through my head at some point. When the third rune phase comes up, Divine Shield should be ready again. The one thing you've got to remember is not to use Lay on Hands as an emergency button in the 30 seconds before Thundering Blows is cast. Otherwise, you'll have Forbearance and not be able to cast Divine Shield.
What that meant was that as soon as Kromog was finished channeling his stomp, I was already in melee and he never used Stone Breath on the raid as a whole. It also meant one less hand for DPS to have to help free up. They could concentrate on my co-Tank and the healers.
That helped us out. The other strategy note we made was putting our DPS DK in the middle for AoE. It took several attempts, but we kept getting to enrage before we would lose people to attrition or we'd lose a tank or two. Finally, we had that pull where everything comes together and we downed him.
I managed to win the roll for the Tier helm. Of all the Tier pieces, this was the one that would be an actual iLevel upgrade (about 20 iLevels to be precise). The Tier piece reminds me a bit of Tier 5.
The next night, we didn't raid, so I hopped in LFR and did the Black Forge. I was after Kromog specifically. He cooperated and dropped the LFR shield. I was finally able to replace the 363 Ogre Dinner Plate I had been using since pretty much I hit 100.
With Kromog dead, we headed over to put in some attempts on Thogar. This fight is chaotic. You almost have to know where the next train is coming to know where to go. The biggest problem Steel and I had was managing the debuff during the phase where the two trains separate the raid. Even if one of us taunted right before that phase, the stacks still seemed to get too high before the phase ended. The adds seem to hit pretty hard and my health yoyos a bit too much for my taste.
We didn't get very far on Thogar usually dying during the split phase. We'll get back to him soon and hopefully start making some progress.
It was a good plan and with me starting initially, my stacks were cleared by the time the 'hands' phase was over. I only had to remember to taunt him to make sure my co-Tank didn't get his third stack. We still had to deal with three stacks from time to time and we used external cooldowns to help him through.
I continued to use "Stupid Paladin Tricks" to avoid the 'rune' phase completely.
The first 'rune' phase, when the Runes of Grasping Earth are showing up, make sure you are NOT in a rune. Yes, that's right, don't be in a rune. When Kromog is about to cast Thundering Blows, you hit Divine Shield. You'll still get knocked up into the air but you'll take zero fall damage. Once you land, Taunt the big guy and continue tanking. You need to be ready with a cooldown in case he casts Fists of Stone before you co-Tank is out of his rune/hand.
For the second rune phase, you use Blessing...errr...Hand of Protection. I'll get that change through my head at some point. When the third rune phase comes up, Divine Shield should be ready again. The one thing you've got to remember is not to use Lay on Hands as an emergency button in the 30 seconds before Thundering Blows is cast. Otherwise, you'll have Forbearance and not be able to cast Divine Shield.
What that meant was that as soon as Kromog was finished channeling his stomp, I was already in melee and he never used Stone Breath on the raid as a whole. It also meant one less hand for DPS to have to help free up. They could concentrate on my co-Tank and the healers.
That helped us out. The other strategy note we made was putting our DPS DK in the middle for AoE. It took several attempts, but we kept getting to enrage before we would lose people to attrition or we'd lose a tank or two. Finally, we had that pull where everything comes together and we downed him.
I managed to win the roll for the Tier helm. Of all the Tier pieces, this was the one that would be an actual iLevel upgrade (about 20 iLevels to be precise). The Tier piece reminds me a bit of Tier 5.
The next night, we didn't raid, so I hopped in LFR and did the Black Forge. I was after Kromog specifically. He cooperated and dropped the LFR shield. I was finally able to replace the 363 Ogre Dinner Plate I had been using since pretty much I hit 100.
With Kromog dead, we headed over to put in some attempts on Thogar. This fight is chaotic. You almost have to know where the next train is coming to know where to go. The biggest problem Steel and I had was managing the debuff during the phase where the two trains separate the raid. Even if one of us taunted right before that phase, the stacks still seemed to get too high before the phase ended. The adds seem to hit pretty hard and my health yoyos a bit too much for my taste.
We didn't get very far on Thogar usually dying during the split phase. We'll get back to him soon and hopefully start making some progress.
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