Not being able to sleep sucks, so here’s something I’ve been meaning to post for a few days. You are free to snag this particular image, so long as it is NOT modified, and post it to your guild forums or whatever. I’d prefer it if you uploaded it to photobucket or something as well, instead of using up my bandwidth by hotlinking it. If that proves to be an issue, I’ll disable that. Obviously, click on the image for a larger version.
Obviously, some classes (mages, paladins, shadow priests) are able to work around Unchained Magic at least once, perhaps twice throughout the encounter. This should be viewed as a general, beginner’s guide to Sindragosa’s Unchained Magic on heroic, where the Backlash caused by dropping your stacks of Instability will hit people within 20 yards of you once you drop your stacks.
Still, enjoy. Please. Spread the word.
Pretty please.
I am confused about the “cast again until icy grip is within 5-6 seoncds” part.
Are people casting if they have unchained magic and there is more than 5 seconds left on Icy Grip? Do you have low DPS, to where losing the DPS of 3 people every application means that you’ll hit the enrage timer?
We found the best way to simplify this fight, and the easiest way to do it, is to simply make a “you do not cast, period, no matter who you are, if you have unchained magic”. As soon as a fresh debuff goes out the 6 people that it is cast on run out – as it’s more likely than not you were mid cast when you got the debuff and you have one stack of instability to let loose. Once you explode you come back in and /dance or whatever until your unchained magic wears off. But after that initial application you *never* cast if you have unchained magic.
I found it just makes it easier on the raid as a whole. You never have to worry about anyone blowing the raid up on icy grip. You never have to worry about people not paying attention to their instability stacks and exploding the raid. As long as people are aware when they have Unchained Magic – and do not ever cast – it completely negates the ability.
We 7 heal the fight so that we have 4 healers always active. Because the active healers are always changing we tell our healers “you are responsible for whom ever in the raid needs healing, including the tank”. During phase 3 for each ice block we call out two healers to stay out from behind the ice blocks and “tank heal” and two healers to “raid heal” and drop their stacks. This also constantly changes because of which healers are debuffed or didn’t get their stacks dropped, but is fairly effective as long as your healers are quick to adjust their responsibility as the active healers change.
If you aren’t trying that now – perhaps give it a go and see if it makes Sindy a little less painful for you? :)
Beruthiel – This is really a chart based on what was drilled into my head from my previous guild, where we did get Sindragosa down on heroic 25-man. My current guild doesn’t quite do this and the raid leaders ask us not to cast with Unchained Magic unless we absolutely have to (as healers, and not at all as casters). For my previous guild, though, it wasn’t a matter of worrying about enrage, but more that every second the fight lasted, it was another second for someone to screw up, which happened with alarming frequency. They encouraged people who were Unchained to cast if they were in a good place and although I rarely had time to cast after I hit four and they dropped, I thought I’d include that particular method of dealing with it. I think it works best for healers — tossing out a couple of shields, a POM, refreshing Sacred Shield/Flash of Light, etc. versus DPS.
If everyone is placed properly and they’re able to cast a couple more times, there’s no real harm — except that you can’t always trust that everyone IS placed properly. ;)
Admittedly, in theory, it works a lot better than in practice, but my previous guild rarely had any issues with Backlash.
We weren’t allowed to cast at all with it in the last phase, though. Mystic Buffet + Frost Aura + Backlash = bad!
If it were up to me, we would be doing different stuff on Sindragosa in my current guild. But it’s not up to me, so I do what I’m told and try to play my best. All I can do, really. :) I’d prefer:
Dedicated tank healers: 2 paladins
Dedicated raid healers: 2 resto druids
Backup tank healers/otherwise on the raid: 2 priests (1 disc, 1 holy), 1 resto shaman
If EITHER of the paladins get Unchained, all three backups (well, those without Unchained) assume responsibility for the tank. The druids just blanket the raid in hots as they’re so awesome at doing. But like I said, I’m not in charge. :)
What’s astounding to me is the amount of people who don’t understand the basic concepts of Unchained Magic, Instability and Backlash. I hope the flowchart will help them to make smarter decisions, y’know? :)