Thoughts and musings on Kara – part 1b

Ok – as important as some of that long-assed post on starting out is, lets move to the first real boss in KZ. Attumen the Huntsman. I’m skipping the animal bosses but you don’t have to. The only reason I skip these is that I’ve never done them. The raids I’ve joined skip these and I’ve been told the animal bosses give little in the way of rep or rewards. However I do know they are meant as a gearing, coordination tool for beginner raiders.

As you get in and gather in the courtyard, get your buffs up – mage table up. lock cookies have been handed out, stam food, raid buffs stack and your MT and OT get into position while the raid leader starts marking targets and announces the kill orders and CC icons. The horses aren’t that hard, but you should focus fire on them (all DPS on targets in a pre-determined kill order) until they are down. Let your priest shackle one as CC to help with that. You can also have your hunter toss out a trap to hold one for a few secs. If anything breaks off CC it again or one of the tanks will need to pick it up. Horses will often charge the ranged casters/DPS so it’s important that two things happen on the first few horse pulls.

First is your tanks need to bring the pulls into the main room, away from the hall (cause there’s a pat that comes by). The other thing is that you can mitigate the charges by grouping closer together – don’t let your hunter stand off by the door and lob shots in – or he’ll pull the horse across the room, wasting valuable tank rage and threat.

The trash leading up to the boss will respawn faster than most of the trash in KZ, you have a very short amount of time, I think 20 mins. So no afk breaks until after the first boss.

Yeah, 20 mins sounds like a long time but it isn’t. I’ve seen new raids miss this and have to go back and re-clear EVERYTHING – if you start the boss fight without doing so, anything alive in the hall will come up behind you and give you a big ole sloppy kiss. Once you start the boss fight the trash will not spawn while you’re engaged. Wipe and it’s a different story.

When you get the pull order down (basically take groups one at a time and use your CC when you can, try not to pull pats with other groups and when you get to the bigger room, pull the nearside first (right side)). Then pull the two left side mobs, then the 5-pull mob standing just outside Midnight’s stall. Once you clear this trash you see Midnight standing in the stable. She’s yellow until attacked.

As the first and easiest boss in Karazhan, Attumen is considered a gear check for those who wish to move further in. He’s optional; it is not necessary to kill him in order to progress to the later bosses.

As a bear OT my job is to tank Midnight. (I know Paly tanks that can tank both simultaneously as well, you just need to make sure the raid watches threat) You really want a warrior to tank Attumen if you can – simply for the disarm ability. At 95% dmg on the horse,. Attumen comes out to kick your raid’s butt for messing with his pony. Your MT picks him up, a hunter can toss a misdirect up on the MT as well. This is Phase 2. When the horse OR Att get to 25% health Att jumps up on his horse and Phase 3 starts. All DPS needs to stop here and the MT takes over both targets – which are now just the one.

Let your tank get Attumen’s attention and to also turn him so his back is to the raid. Now we hit a KEY POINT. The entire raid has to scooch up and sit at minimum range on the horse’s rear end. Why? Because Attumen gets the Beserker Charge ability in Phase 3 and if you have people spread out he’ll leave the tank and charge across the room. Keeping your raid bunched tight on his horse’s rear mitigates his charge, and won’t leave the tank to twiddle his thumbs.

Attumen actually goes down pretty easily and drops a few nice items. Once Attumen is down, clear the mobs near Koren the Blacksmith. He is required for quests, and your raiders who have at least Honored reputation with the Violet Eye can use him to repair and purchase Blacksmithing recipes. You don’t need to fully clear the trash at the end of the room Koren is in – just don’t let anyone wander over there.

Grtz! You’ve downed your first KZ boss and the trash around him. Now quit lollygaggin and git yer butts back into the entry hall and UP ON THOSE STAIRS!