Vael - What we SHOULD be doing

This is copied and pasted from the rogue forums. Yeah, it's in 2 places because it is that important.

 

OK. We had some heartbreakers tonight. I am not alone in saying that we just werent on our game when we needed to be. The second that we pull aggro from a tank, it is a wipe. Flame breath kills you and all the people behind you, while tail whips kill everyone in front of you. So, here it goes. This is the guide for exactly what we should be doing during the Vael fight.

 

We have started to go with full DPS gear for this fight. The majority of the fire damage taken is in the form of the flame breath which FR gear won't save you from. Using full damage gear and a few FR pots should keep you covered pretty well.

 

When the Essence of the Red buff hits, run straight in and position yourself about 2 tiles away from him between his left front and left rear leg.

1. Jam that Backstab button as fast as you can and hit Feint EVERY TIME IT IS UP! I cannot stress how important this is. It is huge in keeping you off the hate table.

This next part is the most important step of the whole fight.

2. When CT Raid says that "(MT) is Burning" vanish. Right then, right there Do not wait for the tank to die. It will be too late. You vanishing before the tank dies drops you off the table and makes it so the next tank in line gets aggro.

3. If you have Preparation, use it now. Go back to jamming that Backstab button and feinting.

4. If you do not have Prep, let your auto attack do the work for about 5 seconds before going back to Backstabbing and feinting.

5. When CT Raid announces the second tank is burning, vanish again if you can. You should now be low enough on the Aggro table that you can go all out for the rest of the fight without worry about pulling from a tank.

 

I was crushed when we wiped repeatedly in the 6-9% range due to assorted mistakes (not all ours). These are EASY steps we can take to make sure that we don't cause any mishaps in the future. This is one of the 2 hardest fights in the whole instance. We are poised to dismantle BWL and I don't want this little thing to be a stumbling block for us anymore.

Pop a fire protection pot when your priest dies and you'll live another 30 seconds perhaps. In truth our rogues go mostly FR gear for this fight. Priests die, and when your's eventually does, it means you're soon to follow. At that point it's your FR gear that means you live longer and do more DPS than a few added points of damage from gear that has better stats.

 

If your tanks are doing their job correctly, then it's best to vanish at the 2nd transition. You get more bang for your buck. If you've stolen aggro after the first transition, your tanks are failing and they need the work, not the rogues. Of course, you should ALWAYS be hitting feint.

 

I've also seen a rogue tank for a little bit using evasion and FR gear to resist the breaths. This is usually at the 1-2% ish mark where the aggro table starts leaning in favor of the rogues.

 

If you notice the BWL fights all prepare you for later bosses. Razor teaches you how to handle swarms of mobs like stage one nefarian. Vael teaches you perhaps one of the most valuable lessons in BWL: juggling tanks. You'll need this skill for the drakes big time. Broodlord of course teaches you how to tank Nef stage 2, the wyrmguards teach teh casters how to handle chromaggus, etc etc.

 

The vael fight is pretty much where your tanks go through a huge learning curve about how to know where they are on the aggro table and be able to manipulate aggro on a very reliable level. Once they get that, it's a stone's throw from firemaw and ebonroc.