Tier 17 are 2 Raidinstances, Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry. Tier only drops in Blackrock Foundry. Highmaul is accessible already, Foundry will be opened Normal/Hc on 27.01, Lfr on 0302.
Highmaul Tactics
(Parts of the Texts are copied from http://www.icy-veins.com/wow/highmaul-raid )
Overview:
Highmaul has 7 bosses, partly linear.
First boss is Kargath Bladefist, he must be killed.
Then there are 3 optional Bosses that are free to choose: The Butcher, Tectus, Brackenspore
After that as i undersatnd it the last 3 are linear to kill again.
First Twin Ogron, then Ko´ragh and Imperator Mar´gok
Kargath Bladefist is accompanied by a set of adds, with some raid members regularly behind sent "into the stands of the arena". This boss will also act as an initial gear check for your raid.
The Butcher is a single-target fight that will put your raid's tanks and healers under a lot of strain. The Butcher's damage output is truly massive. The fight is somewhat reminiscent of the encounter against Patchwerk in Naxxramas.
Tectus is a boss that has somewhat peculiar mechanics, compared to the previous encounters. Only killable at certain times during the fight, when Tectus finally does die, he splits into two copies of himself and the fight continues from there, and this process happens once more before the fight is over. This is an encounter that will require your raid to move and position themselves very accurately.
Brackenspore is a giant bog monster that continuously covers the floor in damaging moss that your raid needs to keep removing. Your raid will have to battle Brackenspore and his minions, while also seeking the favour of some friendly adds.
The Twin Ogron encounter has your raid face off against Pol and Phemos. This is the "twin" encounter of the tier, one which places a lot of emphasis on the positioning of the two bosses relatively to one another.
Ko'ragh is probably the penultimate boss of the raid. The fight against him is repetitive, although it does gradually increase in difficulty as it goes on. DPS players have a lot of important responsibilities during this encounter.
Finally, your raid will have to defeat Imperator Mar'gok, the last boss of the instance. This is by far the longest and most complex encounter in Highmaul, consisting not only of 4 phases, but also of two transition phases. Every aspect of your raid will be put to the test.
Difficulty:
Searching a bit i found that:
The "non-optional bosses" are Kargath Bladefist, the Twin Ogrons, Ka'rogh(the felbreaker captain) and Imperator Mar'gok(the final boss of Highmaul). Their difficulty on heroic is exactly in that order.
The optional bosses are The Butcher,Tectus and Brakenspore. Their difficulty on heroic depends on your raid, but they are roughly at the same level as the Twin Ogron.
Following visual guides come from http://imgur.com/a/mUvLO
Complete Normal/Heroic Highmaul Quick Guides
My goal for these guides was to try to fit every boss encounter on a single page for quick reference or print out. I received a lot of feedback for other strategies in which I'll be putting them in EDIT, or going back and revising the guide when I have time. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can message me on reddit /u/pushme or email me at pooshmewow@gmail.com Happy Raiding!
Personally im a fan of such visual guides, that not only have wall of texts of abiltys tactics etc. The best way to use that Tactics are as written there to actually print out that tactis and have them ready on your Table while raiding.
Some General Toughts about Tactics:
I thought i write a few general things about tactics and communication about them here, since its over a year since the last raidinstance did go live and we since then have quite some new raiders. In most cases there are many many resources and different tactics around for the bosses - like Icy Veins, Mmo-Champion Forums, Wowhead comments, Youtube Videos like Fatboss etc etc.
It usually starts to get complicated when there are more people in a raid who did research and have different tactics as their source. Combine that with people want "their" tactic to be used over a other, and you have a mess
Some Things i have learned over the years while raidleading:
- Less is more. There was bosses where i did talk 5-10minutes before frist try about tactics - and everybody, including me, knew that the things i said 4 minutes ago was already forgotten. Its better to have some pregnant keypoints of the fight, and learn the rest of the abiliys on the go(s). Often there are mechanics in a fight that are written rather short in a tactic, but its that one stupid mechanic that lets the raid wipe, and needs to be focused on.
- Being Persistent and minimizing the individual Errors are usually the way to go. One of the common behaviours of raiders i see sometimes is to try one tactic, have 2-3 wipes, and then wanting to change tactic and go with another way. This might work in some cases, but usually that only prolongs the time needed for a boss. If theres not a major flaw in a tactic, its normally best to stick to that tactic and just learn and perfect the fight and the tactic. It might be frustrating then when you personally are doing things right but the wipes are because of other reasons, but thats something that sooner or later happening to every raider. In the next fight it might be you that have troubles with one aspect of a mechanic, being calm and trying to help others always pays off
- Raiding time should be used for Boss Trys and Learning Encounters, not Discussing Tactics.
This is a important point, If not handled corectly, raids can quickly become dicsussion forums where the raiders are maybe standing in the raidinstance, but nothing happens on the screen because 1,2,3,x People are discussing on vent if its now better to stand left or right to that pillar, if heroism should now be done at 90% or 10%, and so on and on. We have this forum here, so everyone can post here after a raidnight with ideas or different ways of how to handle a mechanic, but please dont start a discussion about it while we are in a raid. If theres something that has to be changed immidatly in your opinon because it lets the raid wipe and its not taken care of by the raidleader, please whisper him so it will be taken care of.
As a reminder, what you need for raids:
- Ventrilo is mandatory, you need to be able to at least hear the tactics, or when mechanics are called out on vent
- DBM or BigWigs, to have the mechanic timers also on your screen so you dont "Need" the mechanice called out on vent. Gtfo is also a useful Addon
- Apropriate Itemlvl, as well as repaired Gear at raidstart, as well as proper Enchanted,gemmed
- Flasks, Food and other Buffs
- Knowledge of the boss fights, bascially if you read thru this forum topic once, you should be fine !
Thanks for your attention Might sound like quite some rules and guidelines, but when everybody is acting accordingly to them, you can be sure the raiding will be a ton easier and less stressy