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re: Blackwing Descent - Magmaw
 by NinjaGamerGirl on Mon Jan 10, 2011 12:52 am
Magmaw
Special Mechanics
Following each Ignition he casts, Magmaw will “slump forward and expose his pinchers”. There is an in-game announcement saying as much when it happens. While his head is lowered, two players can jump on his back (by being in melee range and moving their mouse over his body; the enter vehicle mouse action will appear). Once on his back, the players will see that they have a single action button, which is the Constricting Chains ability below. This ability must be used on the giant spike coming out of the floor by both players within a couple seconds of each other. If you don’t coordinate well enough to get both chains on at once, he will break through the single chain holding him and you will have to try again. If he’s not successfully chained down within 30 seconds, Magmaw will insta-kill the main tank. If you coordinate properly and get both chains on Magmaw at once, he will be tied down and debuffed with Point of Vulnerability for 30 seconds. While tied down, he will not attack in any way, so healers should help DPS during this time if they can, or simply regen mana if they need to.
Composition
2-3 tanks – You will need two tanks to alternate handling Magmaw throughout the encounter, and possibly an add tank to pick up Lava Parasites, if your raid chooses to tank these adds rather than kite them.
3-4 healers – You will need 1-2 tank healers and 1-2 raid healers to counter the damage during this encounter. As is usually the case with 10 player raiding, the healers will likely need to help with each others’ duties.
3-6 DPS – There are no special requirements of your DPS players, other than that they be alert and good at swapping targets as needed. If you have 2-3 good AoE ranged, you can use them to kill Lava Parasites rather than bringing a second tank.
Boss Info and Abilities
Magmaw
101.4 million HP in 25 player/33.5 million HP in 10 player.
Magmaw is a half-submerged, stationary boss similar to past bosses like Kil’Jaeden. Because he cannot move, he has an ability in place to keep players in melee range. So long as there is at least 1 player within melee range of the boss, he won’t become buffed with Molten Tantrum.
Molten Tantrum –(10/25 player version) Increases Magmaw’s fire damage dealt by 100%. Stacks 10 times.
Normal Abilities:
Lava Spew –(10 player version)(25 player version) This ability will be used every 25 seconds to hit everyone in the raid with a very large amount of fire damage. It will tick each second for 3 seconds, with each tick doing ~30k fire damage.
Ignition –(10 player version)(25 player version) This ability is used every ~1 minute and 35 seconds to create a fire that will cover roughly half of the useable floor space for ~10 seconds; run quickly to a non-ignited area so healers aren’t unnecessarily burdened.
Mangle –(10 player version)(25 player version) Following each Ignition, Magmaw will slump forward to grab the active main tank in his mouth, applying this debuff. Doing so is what makes him vulnerable to Constricting Chains, so the assigned players should watch for this to happen. The Mangle debuff ticks for a large amount of damage every 2 seconds (despite the tooltip saying per 5 seconds). If Magmaw is successfully chained down, it will fade after 20 seconds. However, if Magmaw is not chained down by the time the full 30 second duration of Mangle runs out, the debuffed tank will be Mangled Lifeless.
Mangled Lifeless –(10/25 player version) This is an instant-kill attack that cannot be avoided or mitigated. The only way to keep the tank alive is to successfully chain down Magmaw in time.
Massive Crash –(10 player version)(25 player version) This ability is what happens when Magmaw is successfully chained to the spike on the floor. It will deal a … well… massive… amount of damage to all players within an ~30 degree frontal cone that only extends 5 yards. It will also stun everyone it hits for 3 seconds. To avoid widespread damage, all melee players should back away while Magmaw is being chained down, and move back in once he has fallen and the Exposed Head of Magmaw is open to attacks. Tank healers should make sure the active main tank is at full health as Ignition ends, so this attack isn’t deadly.
Sweltering Armor –(10 player version) When Mangle fades from the active main tank, he or she will be debuffed with this. It is a 50% reduction in armor that lasts for 2 minutes. When this debuff appears, the non-active main tank should taunt the boss and begin tanking.
Pillar of Flame –(10 player version)(25 player version) This ability is targeted at a random raid member’s location every 30 seconds. As long as there are viable targets at range from Magmaw, melee range players will not be chosen for this ability. As soon as Magmaw chooses a target, a pulsing animation that looks like a ring of lava will appear at the spot, warning players to move away. About 2 seconds later, a fountain of lava will shoot up out of the ground in the center of the ring, knocking all players within ~6 yards into the air while hitting them for a significant amount of fire damage. The fountain will persist for around 5 seconds as it releases a pack of Lava Parasite adds (8 of them in both raid sizes). The Lava Parasites need to be killed immediately. They have normal agro tables and can be tanked, but it is generally more effective to bring an extra DPS rather than a second tank, and just kite them while AoE’ing them down. If the Lava Parasites are not killed quickly enough, they will begin to infect whomever they are agro’d on. Note that if a Lava Parasite is rooted, it will begin to melee and possibly infect whomever is in range, regardless of threat tables.
Parasitic Infection –(10 player version)(25 player version) The Lava Parasite multiplies while inside a player, dealing damage to that player every other second for 10 seconds. After 10 seconds, the multiplied Lava Parasites cause the debuffed player to spew Infectious Vomit. If a player already has 3 stacks of this debuff, additional worms agro’d on them will not burrow in.
Infectious Vomit –(10 player version)(25 player version) Deals a large amount of damage to all fellow players within 8 yards, and expels Lava Parasites. Once expelled, the Lava Parasites will again seek out new players to burrow inside if they aren’t quickly killed.
Magma Spit –(10 player version)(25 player version) Every 5 seconds or so, balls of lava arc out from the boss and hit random raid members, dealing a hefty amount of damage. This ability targets 8 people per cast in the 25 player raid and 3 people per cast in the 10 player raid. This ability cannot be avoided; healers must simply counter the damage.
Strategy
25 player or 10 player:
Before starting the encounter, plan out raid positioning. Your raid will stay piled at all times, except if someone gets Parasitic Infection. The plan should look something like the diagram below:
The 2-tank Method:
Once everyone is in position, the first main tank will attack Magmaw and begin the encounter. As soon as he/she has a solid threat lead, DPS can begin attacking as well. ~25 seconds into the fight, Magmaw will use Lava Spew for the first time, so healers should be prepared. A few seconds later, when the first Pillar of Flame is targeted on the ranged pile, all ranged DPS and healers should move to their designated second position. Drop Frost Traps or Earthbind Totems or anything else that will slow the Lava Parasites as your raid pile relocates, and start AoE damage ASAP; there is no tank to wait on before going full-in on DPS. Use knockbacks such as Typhoon if any Lava Parasites make it close to the raid pile, to give yourselves enough time to finish them off. As soon as they are all dead, ranged DPS can swap back to the boss. Melee DPS should stay on the boss throughout rather than risking a Parasitic Infection, unless your raid composition doesn’t have enough ranged to kill the Lava Parasites quick enough alone.
A second Lava Spew attack will be used around the time the first wave of Lava Parasites are dying off. Healers will have ~20 seconds between this Lava Spew and the next Pillar of Flame, so they should try to get the entire raid topped up to full health. When the Pillar of Flame does come, the ranged pile should move back to their initial position while repeating the slow/damage/knockback/kill process with the Lava Parasite adds. Raid healers should be especially quick to move to their new location, so they can stand stationary and heal during the third Lava Spew coming just a couple seconds later. Ranged DPS should try to kill the second set of adds even faster than the first, because Ignition will be cast just a bit after they appear, and you don’t want your raid pinned between oncoming adds and standing in fire. Throughout all of this, the melee DPS and tank should not need to move.
When Ignition goes off, the ranged pile should move to whichever of their positions are not in flames, being careful to stay outside of melee range from any Lava Parasites still alive. The 2 players assigned to jump on Magmaw’s back should get ready to do so the moment its possible. Once Magmaw lowers his head he will Mangle the active main tank; so tank healers should be ready for the heavy healing needed. Once the boss is successfully chained he will fall with a Massive Crash. As soon as that has happened, all DPS should use every cooldown available to pump maximum damage into the Exposed Head of Magmaw. Tank healers should continue to heal the Mangled tank heavily until Mangle fades. After 30 seconds of being chained down, Magmaw will break free of the chains. At this time the off tank should taunt, and then the encounter will resume as if from the beginning.
The rest of the fight is a matter of repetition; the same sequence of events will happen until Magmaw is killed, with the raid making the same movements and the two main tanks alternating after each Mangle/Massive Crash sequence. The challenge in this encounter is not complexity, but endurance. Your raid will need to have enough gear to survive the whole fight without going OOM, and enough concentration to cleanly execute the same motions over and over without becoming complacent.
The add-tank Method:
This method is not as ideal as the 2-tank method because taking a dedicated add tank will make the fight last longer, further straining healer mana and player concentration. The difference is especially noticeable in the 10 player version of the encounter. However, if your raid simply cannot support a composition capable of killing the Lava Parasites before they reach anyone due to a lack of slows/knockbacks, then an add tank will be necessary as the Lava Parasites hit quite hard and can easily kill a caster.
The basic strategy is the same as laid out for the 2-tank method above, except that the add tank will need to position him- or herself between the ranged pile and each pack of incoming Lava Parasites, getting agro on them all and holding them until they are killed. It is very likely that a raid lacking ranged slows/knockbacks will also be lacking in AoE, so make sure your raiders are prepared to deal with Parasitic Infections if they happen. If someone is infected, everyone else needs to shift >8 yards from them, and healers need to heal them through the infection’s DoT damage. The off tank should also be ready to pick up the extra Lava Parasites that will pop back out of the infected player(s) after 10 seconds of infection.
Reference: http://www.raidbs.com/blackwingdescent/magmaw/totalbs-magmaw/
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVZMP1RCivs
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