(No, no clever April Fool’s trick or gag.)
In February, on a night I desperately wanted to sit myself out due to a migraine (but ultimately couldn’t, due to lack of healers that night), we went in, killed Conclave for the first time and then pulled Al’Akir 16 times. All wipes. Some were comical in nature. Most were frustrating.
On March 31st, we went back to Throne, killed Conclave for the second time and then pulled Al’Akir 20 times. All wipes. Some were comical in nature. Most were frustrating.
Yeah, I see the trend, too.
We got him down to 27% on our best attempt. The trouble is that our best attempt was, oh, before the midpoint of our raid.
Picture it, if you will.
I’ve spread everyone out on the platform. 7 groups of 3 people and 1 group of 4. This is due to the lightning that bounces around.
So there’s me and Majik and Dayden standing there and Dayden runs in and pulls.
Time and time again, the damn Squall Line hits us riiiiiiiiiight when Wind Burst just comes off of cooldown. It’s so ridiculously dumb when the following combination happens:
– There is ice on the back of the platform.
– The gap is in the middle of the Squall Line.
– Wind Burst is casting OMG NOW, so you HAVE to move forward.
– The resulting Wind Burst throws you to the back of the platform, where the ice is and even when you USE Blessing (goddammit) Hand of Freedom, you can’t get there in time, not even with Holy Radiance/Speed of Light.
That EXACT scenario happened to me at least three times and possibly a fourth over 20 wipes. I also ate a few Squalls and Wind Bursts while trying desperately to avoid the other mechanic.
So, being relatively new to the fight, we tried moving me to a place that would require less combinations like that. I was feeling like ass. Was it really always just me getting screwed over by this Wind Burst/Squall Line combo? Or was it really bad luck? Or what? I mean, Dayden and Majik were having trouble, too.
So I switched myself with Walks, because there’s a point where you just have to start throwing things at the wall to see if they’ll stick.
Walks got blown off the platform!
Sorry, buddy, you know I think you’re awesome, but I about cheered. This terrible combination is NOT just my fault. That was a pretty huge weight off my shoulders and I stopped feeling like I was a horrible failure, even though I am not the best on mobility fights. At least I wasn’t a liability to the raid. That combo was giving everyone problems.
So I shifted everyone one pattern over to the right, as we faced him. Just to see what would happen. Football joked in officer chat that “hey, wouldn’t it be funny if it was in the same place and it’s all dependant on where the MT is standing?” and then a raider said the same comment two minutes later in raid chat.
So what happened? That’s right. The same damn thing. The spawning of everything happens in direct relation to where the main tank is and is PURPOSELY DESIGNED, as far as I can tell, to ENSURE that the MT will have to juggle Wind Burst and Squall Line within a second or two of each other.
(Five minutes with the joker who designed this. Five minutes and a sturdy hockey stick.)
So we went back to our usual positions and we had Fog, the OT, grab aggro first. Once the squalls had spawned, Dayden taunted and THAT seemed to change how things were spawning. And, for some reason, we had the two Squall Lines intersect without one of them despawning.
On our last attempt of the night, we tried that again, Fog pulling first, then Dayden taunting off, and while a lot of people had to re-adjust to the way things were spawning for them, which was completely different than how it had spawned for the entire night, we saw that the colliding Squall Lines was a fluke of Lady RNG, since it didn’t happen again.
So Al’Akir lives to torment us another day. From what I can tell in a bunch of videos I’ve watched since the raid ended, the tank (the one who pulled) and others with him just deke the Squall Line BEFORE the Wind Burst comes up. I think it’s just something we’ll likely have to deal with (someone will need to deal with it at any rate) and then burn the crap out of him so that we get through P1 really fast.
On the bright side, we’re probably just going to kill Nef on Sunday real quick (haha, hopefully, anyways) and then come back to Throne and… wait, that’s not a bright side. Ah, well!
It was educational, if nothing else. :)
(Okay, not five minutes. Three minutes? How’s that? Three minutes and a wiffle bat!)
I feel your piain kurn we just started trying al’akir as well and lady rng has not been merciful I think it may be time for the ritualistic sacrfices to appease her
A little known piece of advice.
Al’akir can not cast Windburst if he is channeling Electrocute. As such, your tank can intentionally stall a Windburst a couple of seconds if need be, but would need to burn a cool down for it, by running out of melee range for a couple of seconds. Since there is no real “Huge Tank raid spikes” in the encounter, this shouldn’t be too bad (TB Trinket + Shield Wall should be more than enough to cover nearly a full duration Electrocute). Even if you only stall the Windburst/Squall line by a second or two, it’s usually enough to cover the ‘perfect storm’ of all abilities lining up, and due to how long the phase is, you should only have to deal with 2 Windbursts.
Also, not sure if you know, but if you push him into phase 2 while he is casting a Windburst, he interrupts himself and cancels it as well.
What we’ve found you have to do is look for the squall line, and move through it before the burst. Even though this moves you into the other groups area for Chain Lightning – you just have to grit your teeth and heal through it (I use HR speed for this). It sucks, but not much else you can do.
Oh – you can Life Grip someone out of the squall.
Cyranor – It’s a diabolical encounter to be sure! Good luck to you! :)
Selyndia – Uh. I’m not sure of your gender or orientation, but at this point, I think I would kiss you regardless of your preferences or mine.
I know I read that in my initial research back in February, but I had completely forgotten about it in my research this time. But I really think that nugget of information is a game changer. Electrocute damage didn’t seem too bad and, like you said, the first phase is pretty short. That is brilliant and fantastic and if we get Al’Akir down due to this bit of knowledge, you are getting thanked on our main guild page where the kill shot will go.
adgamorix – Moving through the squall line pre-burst worked for us now and again, and now I understand why, thanks to Selyndia’s comment. It worked for us when the gap in the line was further back on the platform, but not so much if it was closer into the platform, because my tank wasn’t getting Electrocute and so we occasionally would all get wind bursted off or wind bursted into the squall line.
LGing someone is something we’ve unfortunately had to do on most squalls, but in the end, I told the nearby priest (and stacking priests near problem people isn’t a solution I’d love to turn to, but…) to reserve LG for the MT. Still didn’t do a whole lot of good, but at least I now understand what the deal is.
As I tanked him, essentially what I did was, right before the offending Windburst (And its USUALLY the second one that caused problems), I would run out of melee range, hitting cool downs for the electrocute, then move either left or right to go through the coming squall line, then move back into melee, and then return to my spot. It would often delay it a couple of seconds, and ensured I would never be hit by the line. It would occasionally make me move into a 3 group for the lightning; however, since I was already under cool downs, and the side groups only ever had 3 (We had the same set up as you, with the group of 4 directly opposite the MT), it would be healable if he actually hit them.
Electrocute builds in damage, so the longer you take it the more it does. Not sure of the exact numbers, but an example is, the first tick does 10k, second, 20k, third 40k, fourth 80k, etc. Once you go back into melee to reset it he’ll start the Windburst, but the damage is extremely predictable, and there is no Acid Rain or Stormlings to do additional tank damage. This also does double duty ensuring the tank is in melee already, and can’t be knocked off.
Once your tank gets used to this, they shouldn’t be hit by squall lines or knocked off the ledge again unless they are being careless and accidentally clip a squall line, and it allows you to use Lifegrips on people caught. The great thing about the fight is almost all of the challenge is front loaded in the first phase. Once you handle being able to consistently get through phase 1 with everyone alive, and start stacking the Feedback debuff from Stormlings reliably, the kill should come shortly thereafter.
We for pretty close to that today, but sadly we did’nt have the numbers for 25 so got our first kill on 10. Our main issue was it;s really hard to learn p3 when your only reaching it every few attempts. In the end we gave up on trying to do p3 the “correct” way and just burnt him down. But yea squall line approaching and wind burst or crossing the squall line early or late only too get to close to your fellow raid members and zap them