So we took our first look at the new raid content tonight. We’d planned on hitting up 10-man Ulduar, but that was a bust, as some folks couldn’t make it, and others were saved.
But we had Wintergrasp, so we figured we’d take a look at the new boss – Emalon the Stone Watcher.
Emalon is located in the same instance as Archavon. At the circular room, there’s now a right-hand wing available. At the end, beyond a couple of trash mobs is the boss. Once again like Archavon, getting there is straightforward.
The fight requires two tanks. One tanks Emalon near the rear wall, and the other takes the four adds up the stairs. Two healers keep the two tanks up. There’s no raid damage to speak of, assuming folks pay attention.
And that’s the crux of the fight – paying attention.
Emalon himself has a lightning nova, similar to Loken in Halls of Lightning. Melee will want to run out of it. He also has a chain lightning, so ranged will need to spread out to avoid damage.
As for the adds, that’s where the gadget for this fight lies. Every 30 seconds, Emalon will “charge” an add. Once the charge is up, DPS has 10 seconds to down the add, or the resulting explosion will wipe the raid. In 10-man, the adds have ~200k HP.
The key lies in locating the charged add quickly. The longer it takes your DPS to focus, the harder this boss will be. On average it took us 2-4 seconds to get focused. The times we got it in 2, we were fine. The times it took us 4 seconds, we wiped. Simple as that.
Whereas Archavon had a tank switch, and was essentially a DPS race, this one is all about DPS being fast at focusing.
With gear from Ulduar, he’ll become easier, but right now, he’s quite unforgiving. I have a feeling we’ll take him down next time, but with a mishmash of Naxx10/25 gear, he’s a challenge for us, with little room for error.