Illhoof and his little imp buddy

[Rex Normal]

We wiped about 15 times today on illhoof, best effort was getting him down to 16%. We had two warlocks, a mage, 2 hunters, Warrior MT, druid OT, 2 pallies and a holy priest. That should be an awesome group with us warlocks AOEing the crap out of the imps, but we couldn't do it.

I have a few questions. The RL was under the impression that the demonic chains suffered from the same weakness that Illhoof does when his little imp buddy dies. So we were not killing the imp until just before the chains phase. Is this true? none of the strategies I read mention anything about this and thus we spent most of the weaknes phase DPSing the chains when we could have been focusing on Illhoof.

My other question was as a destruction warlock what AOE method is considered best? I had read that with Nether Protection, Intensity, and a pally concentration aura, I should use hellfire since I'll be immune to fire most of the time and I will not suffer from inturruption from damage at all. I used this method and the other warlock who was SM/Ruin spammed SoC for the first several attempts. My DPS was about 7% above the SM/Ruin warlock with the only data coming from this fight since we had cleared up to shade the night before. But the healers complained that they were wasting a lot of mana on me keeping me up. I think it was because they didn't realize my nether protection was keeping me alive and were overhealing me, but to appease them I switched to spamming SoC. Maybe it doesn't matter, but it seemed like things wen't better when I was using hellfire. Any thoughts?

[wesje]

The way we like to do it

Everyone stand on the back end of the room (apart from the hunter or hunters), at the orange window.
The MT takes illhoof, the OT the imp.
Both targets get tanked in the middle of the raidgroup.

The warlock spams seed of corruption, lifetapping back up. We have a pally dedicated to heal him, ez job.
As the imps explode, this way the imps die, the bigimp get damaged and illhoof gets damaged.

If theres abit too many imps around, the mage whacks 1 or 2 arcane explosions to trigger a seed explosion to clear it all again.

Our druid dedicate heals the MT and OT, the pally heals the lock, i (priest) heal the raid and spamheal the shackled target.

We allways go in the order of Shackles, imp, illhoof. Nomatter what HP the imp is on, the chains go down asap.

Pretty ez to do it this way, u can really notice how much of a difference the seed detonating on illhoof is.

[Jlor]

The problem you are having sounds like lack of concentrated dps. Two people on aoe damage is alot of concentrated dps lost off the chains and Illhoof.

The kill order should be Chains>Illhoof>Imp

If someone is in chains all dps + tanks changes targets and dps the chains, create a macro /target demonic chains, so all retarget asap. So the chains should be attacked by 6 to 7 people depending on how the aoe warlock is going. The imp will die from aoe damage and cleaves/bladefury from melee not that big a deal.

One warlock should SoC or Hellfire. A simple HoT (well two or three) will keep a warlock up if he doing hellfire and he does significant damage if he is destruction speced. One healer should be assigned to heal the lock specifically and they may be able to raid heal at the same time. We normally assign a druid to this role. If the imps get out of control a mage can do arcane explosion/blast wave once or twice and go back to dpsing Illhoof.

The main thing is to focus your dps on illhoof though, if there are no chains up, nuke boss as hard as possible (with one warlock doing aoe damage all the time).

Oh and having whole raid standing in close circle around the Deomoic chains area is a big help. Imps do not run out of the aoe to hit a healer, and melee do not have to move to target and hit the demonic chains.

[Twoflower]

SoC the little imps. NO damage on the big imp, he will die from the SoC spam. ALL AND EVERY damage on the chains as soon as someone is captured. Yes, even the tank hits the chains. When the big imp dies, full damage on Illhoof, but you can hardly time that since the SoC spam is a bit random. Anyway, it is a little bonus, but whit the right execution you should also be able to kill Illhoof whibout the extra damage he takes ater you kill his little buddy.

ps : there are may threads about this encounter, try the search feature.

[Pongle]

Nether Protection Warlock sits in the Sacrifice zone and spams hellfire, Tanks have Illhoof and the big Imp next to the warlock, all dps switches to chains when they spawn, else all dps is bashing Illhoof himself.

The imp hits trivially hard, and isn't really worth the effort of dpsing down (though between bear + hellfire, he will die a couple of times).

If you have a druid tank, use them to tank the imp.

Stuns also appear to work on the demon chains, not sure if that stops them doing damage though.

Thats how we do it (got him second try, so it must be a decent plan), no Nether Protection lock probably murders the viability though.

Note: we have 1 healer on Illhoof tank, one on Warlock, and one on spots, they ALL spam heal their targets to full when we have the Sacrifice inc warning (Deadly Boss Mods is awesome, especially for illhoof).

[Rex Normal]

I see what we were doing wrong now. No need for constant AOE from 2 sources, just one. No need to focus any damage on the imp at all. Everything else we were doing was correct, our heal priority and positioning was already as suggested above.

@twoflower: you are right, sorry I was a bit lazy and only checked the first two pages. Altho I was looking for speciffic answers to my questions rather than general strategy advice. Thanks everyone for your input I'll go back and tell my RL they're on crack.

[Dallana]

This is dead easy for me as a full Affliction Lock.

1. 200+ FR
2. Pally in my Group for Concentration Aura
3. Dampen Magic
4. Shadoweave set (Unsure as to how much difference this makes but it's nice for damage anyway)
5. A Shadow Priest

I basically just spam SoC for the entire fight slapping on a few siphon life spels. Sometimes the Imps get a little out of control (usually after I've been sacrificed) at which point a Mage jumps in and drops a couple of AOE spells.

I usually don't need a great deal of healing and the healers can concentrate on healing the person in Demon Chains making things a lot easier.

[Shellar]

3. Dampen Magic
Quoted for extra emphasis.

[lofta]

Get the first jump by nuking Kill'Rek and dps'ing Illhoof before the first sacrifice. Offtank him to about 20% then wait for the next sacrifice. Kill the chains, kill Kill'Rek then dps the boss. Repeat.

For the adds, you don't need a destro lock. SoC spam is good. 1 lock backed up with one dedicated healer plus mage or hunter is fine. Clear them out when more than about 8 are around.

Get rogue to put wounding poison on Illhoof.

[Pongle]

For the adds, you don't need a destro lock. SoC spam is good. 1 lock backed up with one dedicated healer plus mage or hunter is fine. Clear them out when more than about 8 are around.

While this is accurate, it isn't accurate in the context of the hellfire spam method because the lock would just take too much damage and die =)

[YamahaGuy]

I've done illhoof a couple times in an old guild

But this guild has never done it

And most every group skips him anywhow

But, one of the druids really really wanted that staff, so we went there.

It wasn't bad. One try and we got it. A lock with SoC and a mage doing AOE. Bear on imp, myself on illhoof.

When someone got sacrificed we just used that macro and healed the person.

There was some serious mana issues with our aoe at the though. Shadow priest or waiting for more ads woulda helped.

But anyhow.

First try, and the staff dropped.

We may go back though. I was looking at the cape he drops. Humm.

[Shellar]

Get rogue to put wounding poison on Illhoof.
Another important point that is often overlooked.

[Pongle]

Another important point that is often overlooked.

Provided your dps isn't asleep at the wheel on the demon chains, it's a trivial point at most.

[Imraath]

Out of interest, how fast are groups getting the demon chains down? ie; how many 1500 ticks before it's destroyed?

[moopy]

Out of interest, how fast are groups getting the demon chains down? ie; how many 1500 ticks before it's destroyed?

"Not many" would be the vague and non-specific option, usually within 3-4, for us, I'd say. More than that, and it becomes a mana sink for the healers (who are usually spending more than enough in this slightly chaotic fight).

The "/target demon" macro is a must, unless you have someone in your raid called "demondonkey" or somesuch, then it must be "/target demon chains" :) Use a bossmod of some kind to spam who is sacced, and have the healers use raid frames (ctra, grid etc) to target the sacced person, and you'll be golden.

To be honest, the chains are one of the easiest bits of the fight- making sure shadow prot/aura are up and people are wearing stam gear are worth it, but getting everyone safely inside the AoE seems to be more crucial to success. People who are using stam gear should seek a balance between stam and gimping their dps/healing, of course. You'd hope that fully buffed, everyone in your raid can withstand at least five ticks (7500HP)- reduces the random factor, and really isn't hard for even a healy priest to manage, once the raid buffs are up (heck, get a couple of Veteran's pvp purples if it's that hard, okish stats and a chunk of stam :).

(We use one lock SoC spamming, and when they are sacced, I spam a raid warning to get other AoE-capable classes to take over AoE for a bit, works well for the few seconds needed. We have healer on lock, healer on MT, raid spot healer, with role crosshealing when a healer gets sacced. All healers spam heal sacced players.)

[PIBSkootar]

The way our group does Illhoof is to have me (the only lock) with 2/2 intensity and nether protection hellfire throughout the whole fight. Everybody stands on top so no imps end up out of range. No pushbacks and everything remains in control. The only time Hellfire stops is around 15%, when DoTs need to be applied, and on Chains.

As far as Kil'rek goes, killing him will not apply the Broken Pact debuff to chains. The best advice I can give you on dealing with Kil'rek: bring him to about 15% before a Sacrifice, right after chains die finish him off. You'll have a large window of time to focus a great deal of (increased) DPS on Illhoof.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of Seed of Corruption for that fight if you have Intensity and/or Nether protection available on one of the locks.

[moopy]

Again, pushbacks on the SoC can be ameliorated with concentration aura or earthshield. It's doable without, but much easier with.

[Fenris Ulf]

Just a little note about the OT.

From my guild's perspective, using an OT can that can dish out damage on Kilrek helps things along. This isn't to say the damage would be better spent on illhoof, we just do it this way and haven't had many problems.

i.e. Fury warrior OT, druid in cat form OT on Kilrek...druid OT is nice for tranqs and innervate, but potato potatoe.

[moopy]

Hmm, we don't use an offtank- can clear the whole of Kara with a single tank. On this fight, the tank just picks the imp up too. Yes, it makes things a little different, yes, it needs a good tank. However, there's more than one way to skin a tauren :)

[PIBSkootar]

Again, pushbacks on the SoC can be ameliorated with concentration aura or earthshield. It's doable without, but much easier with.

But it can't be completely avoided, whereas you can avoid any pushback with Hellfire. SoC, in that fight, is also less mana efficient and the DPS will be lower due to pushbacks as opposed to the sustained hellfire. But to each his own.

[moopy]

But it can't be completely avoided, whereas you can avoid any pushback with Hellfire. SoC, in that fight, is also less mana efficient and the DPS will be lower due to pushbacks as opposed to the sustained hellfire. But to each his own.

Tauren, skinning thereof :)

[Fenris Ulf]

Hmm, we don't use an offtank- can clear the whole of Kara with a single tank. On this fight, the tank just picks the imp up too. Yes, it makes things a little different, yes, it needs a good tank. However, there's more than one way to skin a tauren :)

You don't use an OT for attune and moroes...Attune I can see at the limit. Moroes blinds and goes to #2 threat. Netherspite, need 2 tanks as red beam can't be done 2 times sequentially...now the definition of tank I'm using is someone who can take moroes for what 6 sec and netherspite out of the red beam for a couple whacks every 10 or so sec, for 3-4 sec.

[PIBSkootar]

Tauren, skinning thereof :)

Maybe I'll skin the same tauren as you when Fel Concentration effects SoC. =P

[Imraath]

"Not many" would be the vague and non-specific option, usually within 3-4, for us, I'd say. More than that, and it becomes a mana sink for the healers (who are usually spending more than enough in this slightly chaotic fight).

Yeah, that was my feeling as well. I'm raiding as a priest and swap out gear for this fight. I have approx 8.5k HP buffed and the two paladins in my group can't keep me and the tank alive for the duration of the chains.

I want to identify where the problem is. 1, I guess I can nerf my stats more and try and get over 9k to survive another tick. 2, the dps guys need to react faster. 3. Surely two paladins can heal a MT and chained victim at the same time?

[wesje]

Everyone goes on the chains when they come, apart from the warlock. That means EVERYONE, even the MT (he only has to turn around to hit it anyway)

If they cant keep u up with 2 paladins, your paladins need to learn to spamheals abit more. I can easily keep up the chained persons troughout the whole of the fight as a solo priest doing it.

Sure when i get shackeled i b fcked ;)

[Aerath]

We even drag the Locks onto the chains (depending on raid DPS). Searing Pain spam a bit and the chains should be down fast enough that the imps don't overrun the raid.

[moopy]

Maybe I'll skin the same tauren as you when Fel Concentration effects SoC. =P

Well, we normally use concentration aura or earthshield for our cow skinning adventures, works well. There's rarely an issue with the lock (earthshield helps top health off too), so long as people stand on the green circle so they're in AoE range :)

Yeah, that was my feeling as well. I'm raiding as a priest and swap out gear for this fight. I have approx 8.5k HP buffed and the two paladins in my group can't keep me and the tank alive for the duration of the chains.

I want to identify where the problem is. 1, I guess I can nerf my stats more and try and get over 9k to survive another tick. 2, the dps guys need to react faster. 3. Surely two paladins can heal a MT and chained victim at the same time?

It should be possible, though the pallies will have to spam fast heals. It will be dicey when one gets sacced though, if the DPS are slack. The best way to handle it (for me, anyway) is to have someone in the raid running Deadly Boss Mods, set to announce to the raid who is being sacced, so the healers can target them via the raid frames, and have the dps make a "/target demon" macro. Tell the DPS to stop whatever they're doing- not finish the current cast (hit escape if need be) and instantly retarget with the macro. There's no excuse for slacking- only meter sniffers and bad players won't do this. I've done this fight as DPS and as healer, and was usually the first DPS to actually get damage down on the chains. Oh, yeah, and remember that the chains are shadow damage- I am not 100% sure if the damage is resistable, but shadow prot on raid members should be tried.

I think your HP sounds fine- I do this fight with a little over 9k buffed, we get through it with a few people below 8k. If people have very low stam, encourage them to pick up some stamina gear though- as I said before, the BG "veteran" rewards have nice stam on them, and other useful stats. They let you boost HP without gimping yourself too badly.

[Echosnare]

You don't use an OT for attune and moroes...Attune I can see at the limit. Moroes blinds and goes to #2 threat. Netherspite, need 2 tanks as red beam can't be done 2 times sequentially...now the definition of tank I'm using is someone who can take moroes for what 6 sec and netherspite out of the red beam for a couple whacks every 10 or so sec, for 3-4 sec.

We generally use one Feral druid tank as well. His gear is good enough to tank attumen, and on Moroes I stick my pet on moroes with autogrowl on - when MT gets blinded we can keep my pet up long enough for it not to be an issue. Don't know about netherspite, we've generally brought in a 2nd tank.

AS to the OP. We always nuke the big imp (warlocks spamming SoC on the Imp as we DPS) then as the imp dies all onto illhoof and continue the SoC spam. Generally as the imp dies like 10secs later somone gets sacrificed so we pop a CD each to nuke it down then continue onto illhoof while he still has the debuff. IF you need any more AoE control take a mage :) we've even used an arm specced warrior - which can be especially useful when someone is getting sacrificed as the MS debuff lowers Illhoofs healing.

Only problem now is stopping our MT whining that his staff still hasnt dropped :D

[Pongle]

We generally use one Feral druid tank as well. His gear is good enough to tank attumen, and on Moroes I stick my pet on moroes with autogrowl on - when MT gets blinded we can keep my pet up long enough for it not to be an issue. Don't know about netherspite, we've generally brought in a 2nd tank.

Good luck doing Nightbane without a warrior.

[Aerath]

Fearward.

Tremor Totem (2 of 'em preferably).

It ain't pretty, but can be done.

[Pongle]

Fearward.

Tremor Totem (2 of 'em preferably).

It ain't pretty, but can be done.

Stupid ezmode alliance racials disproving my point.

GIVE TROLLS FEARWARD DEMMIT!

[ecanem]

Hey guys quick question, my guild had attempted illhoof a few times and I havn't had the chance to be there but I usually research strats for them and they said they dont think the Homunculus can all be pulled without illhoof, while the strats I read never mentioned any of them. What is your experience with them?

[Aerath]

They can pulled just fine.

Done so plenty of times.

[Zalath]

Hey guys quick question, my guild had attempted illhoof a few times and I havn't had the chance to be there but I usually research strats for them and they said they dont think the Homunculus can all be pulled without illhoof, while the strats I read never mentioned any of them. What is your experience with them?

Pull them and hide out of LOS and they'll stack up nicely for AoE around the doorway.

[drainyou]

Can anyone confirm if ' Escape Artist ' works on the chains ?

I noticed it works for the slowing effect on Shade - didn't think to pop it last night until after we downed him. Just curious.

[Aerath]

No clue, we never had the option to try.

A paladin can bubble out of it (or toss someone a protection), and I'm not entirely sure about Feign Death.

[YamahaGuy]

Oh BTW we did an experiement

Normally our aff lock just seeds them all

He switched gear (one set has a lot of +shadow, one basic +spell) so even then had 1100 spell damage or so

And just hellfire the entire time

LOL it was pretty funny actually... he had some 500k threat on KTM... and everything died

Just healed him as you would before. Fight was so easy