The Naked Fear

General Vezax overview 1

General Vezax overview 2

General positioning:
Tank - Max melee range
Melee DPS - Behind the boss
Healers - Melee range, behind the boss
Ranged DPS - 30 yards out, on the flanks of the boss, at least 15 yards apart.

Things to watch for:
Tank - Surge of Darkness - DK tank can chain cooldowns, trivilizing this ability and eliminating the need to kite/reposition the boss.
Melee DPS - Searing Flames - 2 second cast MUST be interrupted every time. Hit cap and a 2-person interrupt rotation is required.
Ranged DPS - Shadow Crash - This will always target you! Run away, and after it impacts, run in (think Hodir Flash Freeze snowballs). Your cooldowns and massive burst DPS will be done while in the Shadow Crash aftereffect.
Healers - Mark of the Faceless - Put this on your Grid Debuffs! One person at range (ranged DPS) gets it and takes 5k DPS for 10 seconds.

---------------------

The way Mana works - Normal mana regen does not work on this fight. Forget your spirit, MP5, mana pots, mana tide, innervate, replenishment, lifetap, etc. Consider gearing for INT/SP/Crit accordingly. You get mana back by standing in Saronite Vapors. One Healer and one Ranged DPS will be assigned as partners, and these three groups of two will rotate vapor regen. A DK (if available) will death grip a vapor into a good position (20 yards behind the boss), Ranged DPS will kill it, and "Group 1" will stand in it. Mana will be returned to you at the cost of health (1 mana for each 2 health) every 2 seconds. The amount returned will double every tick. The 7th tick will kill you if you get no heals, and the 8th tick will one-shot you, so you must watch your ticks and leave the vapors (and return to your original position) before you die. The healer in the vapor will be responsible for healing him/herself and the DPS partner. Put Saronite Vapors on your Grid Debuffs.

Each stack will increase the amount of damage taken and mana regenerated according to the following:
1 Stack 100 Mana 200 Damage
2 Stacks 200 Mana 400 Damage
3 Stacks 400 Mana 800 Damage
4 Stacks 800 Mana 1,600 Damage
5 Stacks 1,600 Mana 3,200 Damage
6 Stacks 3,200 Mana 6,400 Damage
7 Stacks 6,400 Mana 12,800 Damage
8 Stacks 12,800 Mana 25,600 Damage
No known limit.

---------------------

Mark of the Faceless + Other effects = Chaos! - Ranged DPS must be aware of this debuff, for two reasons: First, because you should not go near another player while you have it, especially your partner healer in the vapors. If you get this debuff while it is your turn for vapor, please wait until the vapor is clear before entering. It is possible for the Healer in the Vapor to get the Mark. The Ranged DPS should always leave the Vapor if this happens. Second, because if you are standing in a Shadow Crash aftereffect and get the Mark, you have to immediately move out of the Shadow Crash (part of it's effect makes you nearly unhealable).

This is a coordination fight - There are three things that require good coordination in this fight. First, the positioning, destroying, and orderly use of Saronite Vapors. Second, the searing flames interrupt rotation. Third, the management of spike damage on the tank during Surge of Darkness, and the Ranged DPS target during Mark of the Faceless.

I CANNOT wait to fight this guy! gunna be so much fun! Nice summary, seems to sum up everything everyone needs to know very well...now it's just a matter of getting to him every single week.

One thing we found out that will make this fight a little easier this time around:

Mark of the Faceless doesn't do damage to the person it is cast on. It only does damage to anyone closer than 11 yards from that person. Ranged and Healers, set your range checker to 11 yards to be safe, and make sure you are extra careful when you are at range from the boss!

Extra care needs to be taken while getting mana back from Vapors. Ideally we won't have anyone take any damage from MotF.

Its all about mastering the gimmicks.

for free interrupts I'm gonna spec frost for this fight, this is just to guarantee we see no Searing Flames

{deleted post} Darkkran wrote:

for free interrupts I'm gonna spec frost for this fight, this is just to guarantee we see no Searing Flames

Hey Ghoul,

Thanks for the post; I hope we can down him soon and follow up Ensidia as the second guild to down Algalon

I really think from a healer perspective we would like to see crystals down quicker and work on saying where they dropped using some system, because when I was told to go get mana I had to run around in a circle looking for the green circle. And is there any way to keep the green orbs closer to the boss? I think I remember being far away for my mana regen and didn't get back to the tank in time for big heals and seeing as the next healer to go out likely has no mana left, it's crucial to have two healers able to throw big heals if needed. My other point of concern is that it seems we need to get 7 ticks if we are going to get back sufficient mana to rotate through before our next turn to get mana.

What things can we healers do to be better prepared? That's a loaded question but I know you'll give me the truth mr. ghouldan. Others are welcome to offer their opinions too.

Thanks,
Varden

Regarding the vapors:

If healers are able to move, continue healing the tank, not get hit by (or hit someone with) Mark of the Faceless, and not die to 8th vapor tick, it shouldn't matter when you go into the vapors. It's one of those things where if you, personally, can guarantee that nothing will go wrong that you have any control over, you have much more freedom in the fight.

There are only 8 vapors total, and the person killing them should be marked and calling out when one is about to go down. A healer should have no problem seeking the mark when the vapor drop is called, and be able to get 7 stacks, let the debuff drop, and get 6 more before the vapor despawns. This allows you to continue healing and still end up coming out of the vapor with full mana.

The vapors (more explicitly, the person standing in the vapors) must be at least 20 yards away from the boss, or no mana return will happen.

It's not necessary for a healer returning from the vapors to sacrifice healing to get back into melee immediately. It's just about being able to dodge a shadow crash if one is thrown at you while you are outside of melee range, and not bringing a Mark of the Faceless back into melee.

Regarding preparation:

get libQuickHealth and the QuickHealth compatibility mod for your favorite healing frames.

Get your "Saronite Vapors" debuffs onto grid or healbot so you can see your stacks. Take the 7th tick, it won't kill you if you have any type of heal on yourself. Again, you can step out, take 2 seconds for the debuff to drop, and step back in for even more mana.

Spec for maximum single target mana efficiency, use your most mana efficient spells. Sacrifice any MP5 gear/gem/enchant for int, spell power, haste, crit, run speed. Cast Power Word: Shield from within a shadow crash. Use your damage reducing abilities like Pain Suppression on the tank during transitions where it's harder to heal, or on yourself so you can take an 8th tick from Vapors.

Lastly, understand that (except for our 3% wipe) we did not once die to attrition while progressing on Vezax. It's always been things that happen that shouldn't happen. Dying to 8th vapor tick, damage from shadow crash, letting the flames slip through, blowing someone up with Mark of the Faceless, not healing while moving, or not minimizing the duration of transitions. We pay 100% attention to these points and not kill ourselves, and we kill the boss.