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Throne of Thunder

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Mistweaver Monk Revival no longer dispels Matter Swap

If you have killed or are working on heroic Dark Animus, one of the most useful raid cooldowns, Mistweaver’s Revival, is pretty much a death sentence to anyone who has Matter Swap when the monk pops it.  So monks either would have to time it extremely carefully, or would have to assassinate one of their fellow raiders with the dispel portion of Revival for the greater good of keeping the rest of the raid alive after a bad Interrupting Jolt.

Good news for Mistweavers and raid leaders, the June 4th hotfixes finally included a change that sees Revival no longer dispelling Matter Swap.

Monk’s Revival ability will no longer dispel the Matter Swap debuff.

I only wish this happened while we were working on this boss for progression!  Blizzard also made a change where players will no longer get multiple Matter Swap debuffs together.

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Players should no longer get multiple Matter Swap debuffs at once

If you have worked on heroic Dark Animus, you are probably familiar with the bad RNG death sentence of a single player being targeted with multiple Matter Swaps at once.  Fortunately, Blizzard has finally corrected this, and the Massive Anima Golems shouldn’t give multiple debuffs to the same player.

Massive Anima Golems will no longer target the same player with multiple Matter Swap debuffs.

With this change, and the hotfix where Revival no longer dispels Matter Swap, this very intense fight just became a bit easier for guilds tackling this boss soon.

 

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Primordius hotfix targets dispels that do not remove positive buffs

Primordius dispels are a tricky task – you want to be careful you aren’t dispelling away positive effects when they are stronger than the negative effects or offset each other, because when you dispel, you dispel all positive and negative effects.  (Read our Primordius Healer Raid Guide here)

However, raids had discovered a few tricks to make dispelling much easier, by utilizing dispels that only dispelled the negative while leaving the positive.  But Blizzard caught on and issued a hotfix that will prevent warlocks (with Sear Magic and Singe Magic via Fel Imp) and Priests (Mass Dispel) from being able to do this.

During the Primordius encounter, spells which dispel a single harmful effect (Sear Magic, Single Magic, or Mass Dispel) will no longer work if any of the positive effects are active on the target (Improved Synapses, Keen Eyesight, Thick Bones, Clear Mind, or Fully Mutated).

Dispelling on this fight is pretty easy, with raiders simply calling out for single target dispels when negative buffs outweighed the positive ones.  It saves healers from having to try and guess who needs dispelling… however it won’t prevent those people from being annoying by dispelling helpful effects of fellow raiders they want to piss off.

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Dispelling on Horridon Heroic & Normal

Most fights that require dispels, Blizzard is usually kind enough to make it a magic effect so all healing classes are able to dispel.  However, Blizzard threw us the Horridon curve ball in Throne of Thunder.

There has been some confusion over dispelling this fight because there are multiple debuffs that need dispelling, and not all healers are capable of dispelling each one.  There is nothing like getting yelled at for not dispelling diseases when your class is only capable of doing curses or poisons.

This fight has been a stumbling block for many guilds, particularly slightly undergeared or less-than-ideal raid comp 10m groups, hopefully this will help clear up some of the confusion over how to handle all the dispelling on this fight.

Here are the various debuffs and how you can dispel them, along with priority of most painful debuffs to least painful (although depending on your particular raid comp, venom bolt and deadly plague can be equally painful).

Note: Click here for the complete Heroic & Normal Horridon Healing Guide

Venom Bolt Volley (2nd door)
If the venom bolt volley isn’t interrupted (Gurubashi Venom Priests and Venomous Effusions both cast this), it applies a debuff to targeted raiders.  This debuff is a poison effect.  Druids (Remove Corruption), Paladins (Cleanse) and Monks (Detox; Revival) can dispel this.  This is a stacking debuff, ticking damage every three seconds for one minute.  You can also dispel the raid using Detox at the end of the phase.

You can pre-mark the venom-priests for interrupts, assigning an interrupter for each one to help with the amount of poison going out.

Deadly Plague (3rd door)
This is a disease effect which lasts for 5 minutes on the target.  Paladins (Cleanse), Priests (Purify) and Monks (Detox; Revival) can remove this.  A resto druid can also symbiosis a pally to get Cleanse and help dispel (Bonus tip: You can symbios a pally outside of raid and still use it inside).

However, one great way to combat this is to have your DKs save army for this phase, as the Risen Drakkari can target each mob in each army for the plague.  Time your armies out, if you have more than one, so you don’t get overwhelmed, so make sure your DKs know the order of their armies.  You can also use earth elementals to help, since the diseases are applied when the Champions and Warriors melee a target.  Raid stacking up and using slows can help keep them off range.

Also, some classes with immunities can self-dispel with things like ice block and greater invisibility.

Hex of Confusion (4th door)
This is a curse effect.  Shamans (Cleanse Spirit), Druids (Remove Corruption) and Mages (Remove Curse) can dispel this effect.

Blazing Sunlight (1st door)
This is a magic effect and ALL healers can dispel this debuff.

Stone Gaze (1st door)
All healers can dispel this stun.

Oh, and think Blizzard will balance healers in LFR so there is at least one healer capable of dispelling?  Think again, I have been in groups that couldn’t dispel Deadly Plague in LFR.

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What spells cause Corrupted Healing stacks on Twin Consorts

Remember the good old days of Yor’sahj and managing the healing stacks of Deep Corruption so you didn’t blow up the raid?  Welcome to Deep Corruption 2.0, also known as Corrupted Healing courtesy of the Twin Consorts encounter.

When you have one of the tanks on the side tanking one of the adds called Beasts of Nightmares, most heals that you put on the tank will result in the caster gaining a stack of Corrupted Healing.  One or two stacks isn’t a big deal, but ramp that up to 6-8, and it becomes a bigger issue.  And add heroic, suddenly that 10k a tick per stack jumps to 30k a tick per stack  Couple that with the fact some odd spells are causing healers – and some DPS – to gain stacks, it definitely requires some management and knowing what does and does not cause stacks.

Hots pre-cast on the tank prior to that tank picking up the add seem to be fine.

Also, Hand of Purity will remove Corrupted Healing debuff (however there are conflicting reports over whether the casting Paladin will then get a stack) and moving the boss as far away from the raid as possible will prevent inadvertant bounce heals, such as Chi Wave, from increasing stacks on raiders.

Here is a list of what we know causes stacks, and some notes about some heals that do not cause stacks (I will continue to update this list, please post with additions).

Druids

Does Give Stacks: Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Wild Growth, Swiftmend (including near the tank)
Does Not Give Stacks: Cenarian Ward

Monks

Does Give Stacks: Uplift, Soothing Mist (both direct and statue), Chi Wave (all specs), Expel Harm
Does Not Give Stacks: Healing Spheres, Emminence

Paladins

Does Give Stacks: Eternal Flame, Beacon transfers (with Beacon on add tank), Light of Dawn, Holy Prism
Does Not Give Stacks: Seal of Insight, Sacred Shield

Priests

Does Give Stacks: Renew, Circle of Healing, Cascade, Prayer of Mending
Does Not Give Stacks: Atonement

Shamans

Does Give Stacks: Riptide placed on tank while tanking add, Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, Healing Surge, Healing Rain (1 stack)
Does Not Give Stacks: Riptide ticking on tank before add is picked up, Earth Shield

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Hand of Purity hotfix makes heroic Throne of Thunder harder

Tuesday’s hotfix of Hand of Purity left many scratching their heads over the unusual wording of the hotfix. Not surprise, it was hotfixed to prevent raids from stacking pallies to make some heroic mechanics a joke in Throne of Thunder.

Paladin
Hand of Purity no longer reduces the damage dealt by effects that ignore immunities.

One use was to chain cast Hand of Purity on those affected by Frostbite on heroic Council of Elders (click here for the Council Healing Guide). It was also be size some progression guilds were using HOP for Ignite Flesh on heroic Magaera (click here for Magaera Healing Guide).

There have been some great uses of hand of purity, most notably wind step on heroic Blade Lord in Heart of Fear. It is unknown if it is still usable on heroic 5.0 raids or not yet, since the changes are so new.