Twin Emps Warlock Tank
#1
So my guild has just reached the Twin Emperors in AQ40 and I had some questions about the warlock tanking method for this fight. I've been trying to collect SR gear for a while now, and I've found that I can't really get close to 315 without gimping my stats AND being specced at least 30 points in Demonology for MD for the Felhunter buff. However, I've been told that most guilds don't even use Demonology locks for this fight. Can I get by in this fight with just like 220 SR or so and a decent life pool (5k raid buffed)? Any input from people who have experience with the situation would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Tichondrius
Arnath - UD Warlock (Tailoring/Herbalism)
Seirei - Troll Priest (Mining/Skinning)
Bhim - Tauren Warrior (Mining/Herbalism)
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#2
Quote:So my guild has just reached the Twin Emperors in AQ40 and I had some questions about the warlock tanking method for this fight. I've been trying to collect SR gear for a while now, and I've found that I can't really get close to 315 without gimping my stats AND being specced at least 30 points in Demonology for MD for the Felhunter buff. However, I've been told that most guilds don't even use Demonology locks for this fight. Can I get by in this fight with just like 220 SR or so and a decent life pool (5k raid buffed)? Any input from people who have experience with the situation would be much appreciated. Thanks.

It really depends on how well geared your healers are. 30 Demonology helps a lot, but you don't really need it per se. You'll probably want to flask up (yes, Titans) for your first kill, because that hp buffer is really handy when your healers are running out of a Blizzard or away from a bug.

Depending on your raid composition and relative levels of gear and experience, you may not even want to tank this fight with warlocks at all.
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#3
Our warlocks go the full 315 SR route and use Flash of the Titans. This part of the fight is usually a break for the healers compared to the more hectic melee emperor. Keep in mind that you'll have a priest 60 SR buff on you and a Gift of Arthas (+10 shadow resistance) on you, too.
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#4
We're not even using locks for this fight. We have all the magic dps on the spawning bugs, and all physical dps on the melee twin. The tanking warriors just keep the magic twin under control with shouts until they get the melee one back at the next teleport.

We do use a lock for the pull though, think he has around 300 SR fully buffed.
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#5
Quote:So my guild has just reached the Twin Emperors in AQ40 and I had some questions about the warlock tanking method for this fight. I've been trying to collect SR gear for a while now, and I've found that I can't really get close to 315 without gimping my stats AND being specced at least 30 points in Demonology for MD for the Felhunter buff. However, I've been told that most guilds don't even use Demonology locks for this fight. Can I get by in this fight with just like 220 SR or so and a decent life pool (5k raid buffed)? Any input from people who have experience with the situation would be much appreciated. Thanks.

It's quite possible to hit 315 buffed SR without gimping yourself.

Here's a list of items to use to hit get high SR and not too hard to get:

Nemesis Skullcap w/ +10 SR enchant from LHC (Ony drop)
Amulet of Shadow Shielding (Red Scepter Shard line)
Felheart Shoulders w/ +5 SR enchant from LHC (Geddon drop)
Palemoon Cloak (Maleki), Juno's Shadow (World drop in Stratholme), or one of the Cloaks that Fankriss can drop (AQ40) w/ +10 SR enchant
Polychromatic Visionwrap (UBRS) or Garb of the Royal Ascension (random trash drop in AQ40)
Funeral Cuffs (Troll Shadow Hunter Boss in LBRS)
Nemesis Gloves (Drakes in BWL)
Nemesis Belt (Vael) or Darkrune Belt (Crafted)
Darkrune Pants w/ +10 SR enchant from LHC (Crafted)
Darkrune Boots (Crafted)
Ukko's Ring of Shadow (Yauj drop in AQ40)
Green rings of Shadow Resistance (AH/Random world drops)
Ward of Elements (Quest reward)
Smoking Heart of the Mountain (Enchanting)
Skull of Smoke and Shadow (Maleki)
Wand from Jed Runewalker (UBRS)
Sith Warriors - They only class that gets a new room added to their ship after leaving Hoth, they get a Brooncloset

Einstein said Everything is Relative.
Heisenberg said Everything is Uncertain.
Therefore, everything is relatively uncertain.
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#6
Quote:It's quite possible to hit 315 buffed SR without gimping yourself.

Here's a list of items to use to hit get high SR and not too hard to get:

Nemesis Skullcap w/ +10 SR enchant from LHC (Ony drop)
Amulet of Shadow Shielding (Red Scepter Shard line)
Felheart Shoulders w/ +5 SR enchant from LHC (Geddon drop)
Palemoon Cloak (Maleki), Juno's Shadow (World drop in Stratholme), or one of the Cloaks that Fankriss can drop (AQ40) w/ +10 SR enchant
Polychromatic Visionwrap (UBRS) or Garb of the Royal Ascension (random trash drop in AQ40)
Funeral Cuffs (Troll Shadow Hunter Boss in LBRS)
Nemesis Gloves (Drakes in BWL)
Nemesis Belt (Vael) or Darkrune Belt (Crafted)
Darkrune Pants w/ +10 SR enchant from LHC (Crafted)
Darkrune Boots (Crafted)
Ukko's Ring of Shadow (Yauj drop in AQ40)
Green rings of Shadow Resistance (AH/Random world drops)
Ward of Elements (Quest reward)
Smoking Heart of the Mountain (Enchanting)
Skull of Smoke and Shadow (Maleki)
Wand from Jed Runewalker (UBRS)

Mmm -- no Stygian gear? Stygian belt/leggings/boots combined have 65 SR and decent stamina. (And mana regen but that's not quite so nice.)

Stygian recipes are mailed to you by the hermit in Silithus and can be found in AH. Stygian gear also appears in AH occasionally.
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#7
Quote:Mmm -- no Stygian gear? Stygian belt/leggings/boots combined have 65 SR and decent stamina. (And mana regen but that's not quite so nice.)

Stygian recipes are mailed to you by the hermit in Silithus and can be found in AH. Stygian gear also appears in AH occasionally.

Where I said Darkrune, replace with Stygian. Was thinking about the plate items at the time. In truth, you're better off going with the Nemesis belt if you can get it over the Stygian belt. Yes, it has 10 less SR, but it has many more useful stats that the Stygian belt doesn't have.
Sith Warriors - They only class that gets a new room added to their ship after leaving Hoth, they get a Brooncloset

Einstein said Everything is Relative.
Heisenberg said Everything is Uncertain.
Therefore, everything is relatively uncertain.
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#8
I'm one of the warlock tanks for my guild. I'm over 315 with the MD buff, but I'm trying to scrounge out the extra shadow resist to hit 315 without it (freeing me up to respec if I want).

I''ve got a lot of the items on Lissa's list with some variations:

- Using Felstone Good Luck Charm (quest reward) instead of the Amulet of SS for the moment (need to get hold of the Broodlord head).
- Using the Demon's Blood trinket (10 shadow resist) which is a reward from the Defiler questline in the Blasted Lands.

Engineers can also wear two Shadow Reflectors (20 SR each).

As far as actual tanking goes, I haven't settled on which method I prefer for getting aggro yet: running in to get the proximity aggro, or standing back and peeling with spells.

Standing back is safer, but sometimes it seemed to take me 20 seconds to get aggro (made we wonder whether I had be re-salved after I clicked it off). Running got me aggro almost every time, but I frequently ate uppercuts or arcane bursts.

Chris
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#9
Quote:I'm one of the warlock tanks for my guild. I'm over 315 with the MD buff, but I'm trying to scrounge out the extra shadow resist to hit 315 without it (freeing me up to respec if I want).

I''ve got a lot of the items on Lissa's list with some variations:

- Using Felstone Good Luck Charm (quest reward) instead of the Amulet of SS for the moment (need to get hold of the Broodlord head).
- Using the Demon's Blood trinket (10 shadow resist) which is a reward from the Defiler questline in the Blasted Lands.

Engineers can also wear two Shadow Reflectors (20 SR each).

As far as actual tanking goes, I haven't settled on which method I prefer for getting aggro yet: running in to get the proximity aggro, or standing back and peeling with spells.

Standing back is safer, but sometimes it seemed to take me 20 seconds to get aggro (made we wonder whether I had be re-salved after I clicked it off). Running got me aggro almost every time, but I frequently ate uppercuts or arcane bursts.

Chris

We let the warriors keep prox aggro. I just move out of arcane burst range with my tank until Lissa grabs aggro off me, and then I reposition for prox aggro on the transition if the caster emp moves any when the warlock grabs aggro. Safer that way. If the warlock dies, I just eat some more bolts, and the emp doesn't run off to heal his brother or eat a healer.


--Mav
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#10
We've had two sessions with them so far.

On the first session, the prox aggro seemed to work well. I died on one attempt when I ate two uppercuts before the transition (lesson: move in as late as possible).

In the second session, it seemed less stable. I still got uppercut every now and then (since there is a variation of up to 10 seconds as when the teleports can occur) and I seemed to get hit with Arcane Bursts more often - sometimes it seemed immediately after teleporting (which they have allegedly fixed). I couldn't really tell whether the bursts were actually happening after the teleport, or whether it was one of those "Onyxia deep breaths more!" illusions and I just needed to move quicker.

Chris
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#11
Quote:In the second session, it seemed less stable. I still got uppercut every now and then (since there is a variation of up to 10 seconds as when the teleports can occur) and I seemed to get hit with Arcane Bursts more often - sometimes it seemed immediately after teleporting (which they have allegedly fixed).
What makes the Twin Emps hard isn't so much what they do, it's what they do over a 15-minute time frame. In other words, you have to run these guys for up to 15 minutes without something Going Wrong.™

The reason we stopped trying to have Warlocks gain prox aggro is because it's more dangerous. It simply increases the chance of something Going Wrong™ during a transition and eventually one of them's going to go badly, causing you to take an uppercut or an arcane burst. And as a healer, lemme tell ya that it's not easy to heal a Warlock through that. If a Warlock takes an uppercut + arcane burst combo, they're probably going down.

You might think "well, it works great 90% of the time though, I don't see why we can't do it that way" and you're right. This is what one of our Warlocks kept arguing. But unfortunately, a 10% chance of it going wrong means that over a 15-minute time span, it's going to go wrong at least once, which means you're dead, which greatly increases the chance of a wipe. Ultimately, to succeed in the hardest of encounters, the way to go is to find a method that reduces the margin for error or funky unexpected mob behavior.

I heavily recommend you abandon trying to get aggro via proximity and instead steal it off the Warrior. If you've got a Priest with power infusion, they're good to have assigned for healing you because they can give you a leg up on stealing aggro faster from time to time.

-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.
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#12
Just to add on to what Bolty has said, if you look around and read some of the strategies that people using the Warrior/Warlock tanking method is that very few people bother with trying to get proxy aggro off Vek'lor. My understanding from what I have read is that before 1.11, Vek'lor didn't AB much at all and usually you could get proxy aggro without getting ABed and also he rarely meleed when in melee range which has also changed as he will melee now instead of shadowbolting most the time if you're in melee range.

Just make sure you have a lot of +hit and no threat reduction and you should be able to pull him off the tank very quickly (I use Shadowburn, Deathcoil when available, Searing Pain, and Curse of Doom when we have extra Warlocks around to put up CoE and CoS on him).

I have also found that if you can get the right gear, and it requires the trash in AQ40 to co-operate, you can achieve enough SR without having to go MD/Ruin for this fight. I'm very close to acquiring everything I need (if Geddon co-operates this weekend, the trash finally coughs up a Garb, and I can farm a little more plant, skellie, and/or spider bits, I'll be set):

Head: Nemesis Skullcap w/ Shadow Guard
Neck: Amulet of Shadow Shielding
Shoulder: Felheart Shoulders w/ Shadow Mantle of the Dawn
Back: Cloak of Untold Secret w/ Lesser Shadow Resistance
Chest: Garb of the Royal Ascension w/ Greater Stats or Major Health
Wrist: Bracers of Arcane Accuracy w/ Greater Intellect or Superior Stamina
Hands: Nemesis Gloves w/ Fire Power
Waist: Nemesis Belt
Legs: Runed Stygian Leggings w/ Shadow Guard
Feet: Runed Stygian Boots w/ Greater Stamina
Finger: 2 Green +20 Shadow Resistance Rings
Trinket: Ward of Elements and Nelatharion's Tear
Weapon: Azuresong Mageblade
Off Hand: Royal Scepter of Vek'lor
Wand: Bonecreeper Stylus

This will put me at 230 unbuffed SR which is enough to get you to 315 SR with Prayer of Shadow Protection, Gift of Arthas, and Demon Armor. This also gives me +6 to hit which means that roughly 1 in 10 spells are going to miss, but I don't see any real way to get more than +7 to hit without going back to MD/Ruin or gimping your SR.
Sith Warriors - They only class that gets a new room added to their ship after leaving Hoth, they get a Brooncloset

Einstein said Everything is Relative.
Heisenberg said Everything is Uncertain.
Therefore, everything is relatively uncertain.
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#13
As a random sidenote, last night we had an interesting scenario. Warrior tank got a little too close right before a teleport and got Arcane Burst -> sent flying past those of us on the brink for the teleport. Calls went out to backup, but it didn't happen in time.

Luckily a rogue ended up closest during the teleport and, instead of freaking out, hit Evasion. While Rogue evasion tanked, warrior furiously built up aggro and took over just in time for the Rogue to bail for the next teleport.
Trade yourself in for the perfect one. No one needs to know that you feel you've been ruined!
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#14
Quote:Luckily a rogue ended up closest during the teleport and, instead of freaking out, hit Evasion. While Rogue evasion tanked, warrior furiously built up aggro and took over just in time for the Rogue to bail for the next teleport.
Cleoboltra's eye view:

1) Target Vek'nilash
2) Hit F
3) Oh Crap It's a Rogue
4) Shield
5) Queue Flash Heal
6) Cancel
7) Queue Flash Heal
8) Cancel
9) Queue Flash Heal

...

20) Oh Good, Warrior Has Him Now. *goes back to other duties*

Not that it can really save the day - one Unbalancing Strike and the Rogue's one-shot dead no matter what - but every second I could buy having that Rogue tank would help. Evasion FTW.

-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.
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#15
For everything that can go wrong on this fight, and how you have to last 15 minutes without a "major" screw up, you can survive a few small ones. In our four kills we have had warlock tanks die and get battle ressed. We've had warrior tanks get knocked into the middle of the room and have the emps heal for a few percent. Multiple DPS and healers die. Yellow bug aggro. I think we've messed up as much as possible and still killed them :wacko:.

Battle resses from druids are definatly very important for this fight.
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