Watcher 3.0

[kristle]

Some very helpful videos - please watch.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQpUO3EScrw part 1
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4y4_N9wIJs part 2
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCsGPVh1x-0 part 3

Not going to over the early part of the fight, as we know how to do it.

The Transition

Bridge comes down, everyone waits for a heal. The two Hunts, who have already been assigned left or right tentacles, pick-up aggro. The LM puts wind lore on both tentacles. We all move out to the bridge before anything spawns on the shore. Hunts keep tents in ranged by standing on opposite ends of the bridge from their tentacle.

The melee classes starts dps-ing down the left tentacle. Two high dps classes - normally Champs - will be assigned to deal with any spawns we get (Question: do we get spawns on the bridge? I think we do).

At two (two right?) minute intervals, some one will get hung by a tentacle. It is the Champs job to free them. We will have a Champ RAT to help this. The Burg can also free in an emergency with a cj.

Once the left tent is down, dps moves to the right. Exactly the same deal except we need to stop hitting him at 7k. At this point, we all group on the left of the bridge. We wait for someone to get hung and clear that. The tent will be taken down to about 5k by the time that is done. We quickly heal up and then use two HoTs (FH/green cj from Burg).

We then nuke the last 5k out of the tent.

The aoe tents spawn. All DPS goes on these EXCEPT Hunters. Tank moves to his spot behind the watcher, ready to turn him around. Hunters are ready to pick up their tentacles.

Aoe tents are still being taken down. Watcher and big tents pop up 15 seconds (question - is it still 15??) after the aoe tents spawn. Tank gets aggro, hunters aggro tents. LM uses wind lore on both tents, debuffs watcher (with what Edi - Fire Lore?). Burg disables Watcher.

Aoe tents down. Hunters move to the ends of the bridge (opposite end to the tent ur tanking).

Last Phase

The Watcher Becomes Enraged - corruptions start. Corruption team starts doing the removal. hunts are on tents. DPS classes are on left tent, cjs, oath breakers etc - its all out dps. Watcher will take no damage at this point.

The Watcher Shakes With Anger - everyone moves back in a big hurry to edge of bridge (ruins for tank) to avoid his aoe attack.

Back to positions. Left tent down, start dps on right tent. Take right tent to 10k (10k? - what did we use to take it to?).

Watcher will now take damage. Everyone switches to Watcher (hunter must be careful not to lose aggro on right tent). As much dps as possible. LMs/burgs debuff as necessary.

Corruption removal. During all of this, the LM is leading the corruption removal team. LM will call out when extra removal is needed from the team, or in an emergency, from dps or mins.

Rinse and repeat. Loot the chests.

So, the raid set up. This is the set up we will need to have any real chance on this fight.

Minstrels x 2 (FH slotted, traited for healing).
Capts x 2 (traited for ).
GRD x 1 aggro and mitigation - not sure how tank traits?
Hunters x 2
LM x 1 - traited for debuffing, eagles or ravens??
Champs x 2 - death storm/strom of death traited - aoe

I'd add a burg and another champ to that, but it doesn't have to be. Most classes would be useful.

Anything to add anyone please? Capts - are you popping LS/IHW on aoe tents? What do we know about his attacks when he spawns - these seem to be killing us atm.

I'll research his attacks in a bit more detail.

[Demonjay]

i love how they do it
and that there is no crap heavy metal music on it so u could hear them talk over the tactic

d**n looks easy huh how they pull it off
just backup when he shakes in anger! omg just like balrog

[thrar]

They were quite lucky if u ask me - didn't see tank hanging even once d**n it looks so easy when u watch it

[kristle]

lol yeh maybe they did get a bit lucky:) But definitely some things for us to try tonight.

[kristle]

Bump - started a more detailed guide above.

[g3nesisuk]

Nice read mate, looking forward to taking down this big piece of sushi

[wardo]

I found an related thread in the us forums about the crushing dev attacks from the watcher.
See forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=278685
More ppl seem to have problems when the watcher spawns (one of our biggest challenges in the fight at the moment), and this thread gives some ideas how to improve things:

1). Everyone: Get your melee damage reduction up!
Pocket item, midnight raid scroll, scroll of warding lore, trait (innocence)
Quote from us forum:
"i don't know that i'd allow someone into raid if they didn't have at least -12.5% incoming melee (from innocence + midnight raid scroll + scroll of warding lore), and ideally over -15% (from a t8 rune on top of that). ditto for someone who didn't have +10% incoming healing."

2). Everyone: Get incoming healing up!
+5% healing relic, trait, ..

3). Debuf the watcher on melee dam. LM and burg focus on that as soon as he comes up, much more important then doing dps for those 2 classes when the watcher pops up. Main task!

Quote from us forum:
"Debuffs - Your Lore Master and Burglar are your best friends. The LM has a few jobs to do, and none of them involve DPS. If your LM wants to DPS, tell them to find a different raid. Debuffing is very important, and they need to make sure they have a good cycle going for Debuffing, Feeding Power, and Burst Removing Corruptions when they start to stack."


4). Corruptions (weren't our problem, we didn't survive long enough yesterday to be bothered by them)

Quote from us forum:
"Corruptions - Stacking corruptions really boost the Watchers DPS. As others have already said, make sure you keep these under control"

5). The number of Shaking Tentacles up, also dictates how much your getting hit for. If you have 2 Shakings up, your going to get hit by Crushing Devastation twice, if 1 is up, than only once.

Quote from us forum:
"Ideally you want one shaking tentacle dead before guardian has aggro. If guardian pulls aggro immediately on spawns, you'll take 2x crushing devastation until one tentacle can be killed."

Means we should do the transition quikcker and get 1 tentacle down ASAP, if we can't manage, and we still survive then things should get easier if we get 1 down and get into the rhythm
.
6). More hope.

Quote from us forum:
"One other possible insurance policy is to max out your Radiance (if you haven't already) by getting a chain drop from the Rift or Helegrod (or buying DP hope) and equipping your squishies with two pieces of the +15 Radiance armor sets from the Book 8 instances, to gain another point of Hope.
+2 Hope can make a difference of +10% maximum morale and -2% incoming damage/+2% incoming healing. Every little bit helps!"
The chain now stays on even if you log off, so if someone is popping in riv, go there, get the chain and stay logged off until the raid starts (do some alt leveling :-))

7). Get morale up. Use trait, legacies, +30 vit food, ..

Quote from us forum:
"Unbuffed people need to have at least 4500+ morale (without dread) for squishies and 5500+ for heavies. Any less and it'll only be a matter of time before the wipe after just one Crushing Devastation crit."

Crushing Dev cant be evaded, so we gonna have to deal with this!

[wardo]

Oh and not sure if this is usefull for our champs, but just in case:

Quote from forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=258403&page=10
"
I suppose that there are a few different ways that the Champs could go about their part in this, but the following is what I've found to be the most helpful:

(before the Massive Tentacle dies)
1) Dirt Cheap/Fighting Dirty on the strangling or Massive tentacle (+25% damage on next AoE);
2) Controlled Burn;
3) Adamant;
(massive tentacle dies)
4) Raging Blades;
5) Fervent Rage (must be traited, otherwise it's only 3 Fervour and not nearly as helpful);
6) Deathstorm;
7) Raging Blades;
8) Improved Rend;
9) Bladestorm;
"

[kristle]

Thanks Wardo - I'll amend the guide later.

[wardo]

Jul 12, 2009 7:17:51 GMT -1 @kristle said:

The melee classes starts dps-ing down the left tentacle. Two high dps classes - normally Champs - will be assigned to deal with any spawns we get (Question: do we get spawns on the bridge? I think we do).

Yes we do. First one who enters the water towards the big tents also gets picked up, so we should move rdy to free that person as well.

Jul 12, 2009 7:17:51 GMT -1 @kristle said:

At two (two right?) minute intervals, some one will get hung by a tentacle. It is the Champs job to free them. We will have a Champ RAT to help this. The Burg can also free in an emergency with a cj.

Its every minute I think. I'll rdy a stopwatch for next run to make sure. And I'll try to give a shout just before the minute is past so we can look for it.

[kristle]

The morale issue needs a bit of thought. If I trait and equip for morale (with lvl 10 traits and pretty good gear) I can make 4.5k morale unbuffed. When I add some power and icpr gear/traits instead of vit/morale it goes to 4.2k. I could probably make 5k unbuffed, but I'd hate to see my fate/will ;D

I think we should probably suggest that people need level 10 traits rather than a set amount of morale. As I said elsewhere, letting the side down a bit if you come with less when it's easy to level these (even tho the grind is dull).

We all need the max amount of morale possible - and this is very clear for the tank and champs - for the Watcher. They should do what they can to make this happen.

FWITW we had Thrar at 8.3k morale last night ;D