In between dodging sonic circles, sonic bombs, sonic fire on the ground and in the air and some sort of death laser ability, Atramedes is actually (I think) a fun fight. The best thing is, the fight only needs one tank so I can spec frost and get my dps on!
The fight itself is another Cataclysm encounter that moves away from the stand on X, do Y and Z will happen mantra and more to a mindset of making sure you are keeping yourself alive and raid aware to eventually kill the boss (like Omnotron).
The fight employs a mechanic somewhat like the insanity meter in the Ulduar Yogg-Saron fight. Basically, if you take any sort of damage from the boss, you gain sound. The more sound you have, the greater the amount of damage you take from the boss – so it’s a circular arrangement. If you reach 100 sound, the boss will kill you. TLDR: sound bad.
As a melee dps, what you need to do is very similar to the tank so I will cover both roles here. There are a few abilities that you must stay on top of to survive this fight. There are two phases to the fight, both of which I will go through.
In the first phase, in which the boss is on the ground being tanked near the stairs, the following abilities are in play:
Sonar Pulse: This sends out concentric circles (about 4 per cast) that must be avoided. Essentially you need to strafe to one side and find a gap in between two circles, trying not to let one touch you. The trick to avoiding these as melee is to anticipate them. First, try and stay at max melee range. Atramedes has quite a large hit box so you can stand a fair way back. Second, as soon as you see the circles appear underneath the boss, start to move in a direction. This is because the rings are targeting a player and will move in a straight line towards the position the player was in at the time of targeting. If you are on the move early you can find a gap earlier. This is the same for both melee dps and tanks.
Sonic Breath: Atramedes casts a flame breath at a player who must move to one side and “kite” the flame around. The tank shouldn’t get targeted for this, so no need to worry! For melee, just run to one side, away from where the ranged are standing, in a tight circle around the boss. He will follow you, but if you reacted fast enough you should be fine. See one of my earlier screen shots for this ability in action.
In this phase the boss also does some unavoidable aoe, but this must simply be healed through.
In the second phase, Atramedes is in the air and the tank simply becomes another target.
The only ability you need to be concerned about is Roaring Flame Breath. The other abilities constitute crap on the ground that you shouldn’t stand in. The Breath however, is a pain. It will target the player with the highest sound and follow them. If it hits them it both increases their sound and does some nasty damage. Best way to avoid it is to always be on the move. That way if it targets you, you already have a start on it. It will speed up the longer it chases you so this is where the shields around the edge of the room come in.
In the ground phase, the shields should have been controlled by a ranged as they are closer to them. During the ground phase they are used to stop Atramedes casting Searing Flame. Too many ticks of that and it’s a wipe. The shields should be hit as soon as he starts casting it, preferably even before it ticks. When a shield is hit in any phase, all players sound is reset to zero.
In the air phase, the shields fulfil a slightly different role. When one is hit, it causes the Roaring Flame Breath to stop following its current target and switch the player that hit the shield. For this reason its best a player with some form of sprint does this. We use a rogue. They hit the shield and start running, popping sprint when the Breath gets close. If you time this right, that’s all the kiting you should need to do. The boss is in the air for 40 seconds, most of which the Breath must be kited.
Ideally you are looking at using only 1 shield per phase. The problem is there are only 10 shields and each can only be used once. This acts as the soft enrage. If all the shields have been used and subsequently melted, you will wipe shortly because you are no longer able to reset sound levels. My guild tends to go through 4 air phases leaving us with 2 emergency shields if things get a little hairy.
In the end, the fight is a rinse repeat of the ground/air phase. It can take a little while for everyone to get the avoidance down pat, but once you do the fight should be fine.
Loved the fact he dropped my dps chest as well!
As always I leave you with this:
Lord Victor Nefarius: Leave now, pathetic alchemist. I anxiously await your next failure.
V
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