Tactics of the week: Julesidron

Hi there, fellow guildies. Today we'll talk about the strategy to defeat the new raid boss, to be launched in patch 3.4.

Julesidron is name of the new boss. He'll be at the new wing in RFC which can be accessed by creating a summoning stone at the top of any hole in the old RFC and summoning players to that location until the floor cracks and everyone falls into the instance inside the instance.

Contrarily to what has become usual, this will be a raid for 10 and a half players. This means that one the players will have to be cut in half. The decision of which half will enter the raid can be crucial to it's success:

• If you choose to take the upper torso you'll gain a DPS. The half-player will have a +200% damage buff. Just remember that if he's a melee DPSer, the carrier will have to carry him to melee distance. If he's a ranged DPS, remember to avoid the ranged attacks with your head. This option, however, has disadvantages: having no legs, the half-player will have to be carried by one of the other players, reducing the carrier's run speed to 65% (15% if the half-player is a Tauren), thus making getting out of the AoE harder. Also, from time to time, the half-player will fall of the backs of the carrier. When that happens, the former carrier will gain the "Back Hurts" debuff and will be unable to pick up the half-player, which will have to be carried by someone else until falling again. Please note that if a Forsaken tries to pick up the half-player, he'll also break in half and you'll have to deal with 2 half-players. Avoid stepping on the half-player while he's on the ground as this will cause a DoT which can lead to some very damaging complaining screams.
• You can choose to take the legs. The legs will have a 200% speed and haste increase aura and make excellent interrupters. Choose this if you're having troubles interrupting the boss's spell cast. There are also disadvantages: the legs, having no eyes, will have to be guided and that player's screen will be almost totally blank, with the exception of the cast bars. The only output from the game will be sound and the other raid members will have to give directions to the legs. Also, they have a chance to trip once every 1 minute. That will cause them to be stunned for 5 seconds and any player coming close to them may be kicked in the balls, causing him to be silenced in a very noisy way for 15 seconds.

The fight itself has 5 phases.

PHASE 1:
Simple tank & spank. The boss will be tanked in the center of 3rd vortex counting from the left when you enter facing right, next to the exit. Failing to tank him in this spot will cause a 30% damage increase and a static noise that will increase over time, causing vomiting and general discomfort. This phase will require 2 tanks which will have to swap tanking every 45 seconds. The swapping, however, will not function will simple taunting. To actually make the swap the 1st tank will have to use the emote /point with the 2nd tank selected and say with the /s command "He did it!", with no spelling errors. It's advisable to make a macro and assigning it to a key. This phase will end after 3 minutes or when the boss reaches 80% HP.

PHASE 2:
You'll know that you've entered phase 2 when the boss starts to sing Surfin' Bird. The boss will be immune to all attacks and all the DPS and Healers can stop using their attacks to regain some mana and energy. This phase requires a lot of attention from the players. Every one will have to jump at the sound of the word "Bird". Each time someone misses it, the boss will gain 50K HP and every time anyone does it correctly, he'll lose 20K HP. This phase can end back in Phase 1, if the boss regains all the HP he lost, or in Phase 3 if there are enough coordinated jumps.

PHASE 3:
This phase will begin as soon as the boss reaches 50% HP. The song will end and all the players will enter a phased zone. There they'll have to deal with "Recount Apparitions". These apparitions will behave differently according to your role but, in essence, you'll have to enter a vehicle where you'll gain access to several abilities and spells to counter the apparitions attacks. They are:

VEHICLE 1(STFUopter)

• "FEIGN DC" - You'll be shielded from attacks for the duration of the feign, which will be based on the amount of times that you have used this ability. It has a cooldown of 30 seconds.
• "NO GEAR" - Absorbs 50% of the incoming damage. It lasts until canceled or until countered by another spell from one of the apparitions.
• "LAG" - Reduces damage taken by 40% and disorients the apparitions for 15 seconds. During this time you can cast the last power.
• "MY RECOUNT" - The only offensive spell available with this vehicle. It disorients the apparitions, confuses them and makes them attack each other for 1 minute.

VEHICLE 2 (L2Popter)

• "METER" - Increases attack speed, haste and damage done by 200%. Lasts until countered.
• "SPAM" - Spams the damage/healing meters all over the place, blocking the vision of the targets and disorienting them for the duration.
• "BRAG" - Shoots the apparitions with damage missiles that deal a lot of damage. This is an AoE spell and causes a lot of threat.
  
• "OVERALL" - Attacks the apparitions with a massive explosion. Cooldown of 45 seconds.

This phase will when all apparitions are dead.

PHASE 4:
When the last apparition dies, phase 4 will begin. Players will receive a item in their backpack which will contain random instructions/tactics. Each one will have 1 minute to read them and memorizing them as they will disappear 1 minute after being used. Currently there's a bug. If you don't use the item at all the fight will reset. After 1 minute, you'll be presented with the chance to put the tactics on practice and you'll have to do EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of you've read before. Doing the right thing at the right moment will cause immediate death. This phase will end when all players have failed in all the tactics and the next phase will begin.

PHASE 5:
This phase has some PvP variety. Randomly, the boss will throw a "BLAME BALL" to a player. That player will receive a run speed buff and will have about 10 seconds to pass the BLAME to another player, which will have another 10 seconds to pass it, ad eternum. Anyone failing to pass the BLAME will die, resulting in less players to receive BLAME and possibly causing a wipe. While having the BLAME, the player's damage will be reduced in 80% but everyone else's will increase by an equal amount. This phase ends when the boss is dead.