HAHAHA! A new guide!! I'm somewhat embarrased that my Ulduar guide is still on the sidebar (er... and it's not even finished. Damn you Vezax!)
There are a bajillion guides out there, but I'm feeling sassy and classy, so here's another one! Also note that I thought Saurfang was a dragon until this little horde orc came running out.
Presenting: SAURFANG, the bringer of DEATH.
I love this fight so so much. It's the first fight in a long time where my heart actually starts racing and adrenaline gets rolling at the end. There's so much healing you have to pour out on the tanks and the Marked ones, it's just.... holy crap nuts.
The set up: You want tanks to swap back and forth, because of Rune of Blood. If this debuff is on the tank, it not only means that he's taking tons of damage, but he's ALSO healing Saurfang. Bad! Hence, swapping tanks.
Positioning: You want people to spread the hell out. Saurfang will throw out a Blood Nova on a random target. This chains to people around the target (12 yards). Use the /range function to make sure you're preferably in range of no one, or if possible, in range of only one other person (it's a small platform for 25s).
The platform is a horseshoe shape, so I would recommend having healers spread out on the outside edge, with ranged slightly further in (still in a horseshoe shape), with melee and tanks on the inside.
VERY IMPORTANT: If the fight lasts longer than it should, or if Saurfang gains Blood Power too quickly, Marks will start to get out on different players, and if there are more than, say, 3, it can be hard to keep track.
Therefore, I highly highly recommend adding these two debuffs onto your Grid, or Healbot, or Power Auras, or whatever you use:
Mark of the Fallen Champion
Boiling Blood
(and keep in mind that at least on Grid, capitalization is necessary).
The mechanics of these debuffs:
1. Boiling Blood: This is just a random debuff that does tick damage. It's not too terrifying. Just put a couple hots on the target and all will be fine. Typically a few people will get it at once, every 30 seconds or so.
2. Mark of the Fallen Champion: Saurfang will only cast this debuff on someone IF he gains a full bar of Blood Power. Once he casts it, the one person will have the debuff until the fight is over. Note that is someone dies with this debuff, and you brez them, they'll STILL have the debuff. Therefore, you don't want to rez them! If you rez them, they'll rez at low health (unless you have the glyph), and immediately die, hence, healing Saurfang by 5%. Bad news bears.
Let me reiterate: keeping people who have the Mark alive is VERY important, because every time someone who has the Mark dies, Saurfang gains 5% of his health.
But now you're asking, "But Averna, you say he only casts the Mark on someone if he has 100% Blood Power! Let's just keep him from gaining Blood Power!"
Indeed, good friends, indeed. Let's look at the various ways Saurfang gains Blood Power:
1. Each tick of Boiling Blood will cause him to gain BP. This can't be dispelled, but priests' PW: Shield can keep him from gaining BP.
2. Remember Blood Nova? The reasons we're staying 12 yards apart? That's because for each person to whom the Blood Nova debuff splashes, he gains BP.
3. Blood beasts!!* Every 45 seconds or so, Saurfang will summon a few blood beasts. Every time these beasts hit someone, Fangboy gains blood power. Therefore, they must be kited! Hunters' Frost Traps (or is it freezing? I forget. The one with the big patch of white), shammies Earthbind Totem, and roots and such will really help to slow these down. We've had hunters and shammies both kite them on different raids, and both times it worked great.
*check out in the comments to see exactly how our guild deals with the blood beasts - our raid leader posted a more in-depth strat!
4. Each melee attack that Saurfang does will increase his BP. Honestly, every time I type BP I think it's his blood pressure that's skyrocketing, not his blood power. Anyway, each melee attack will increase his blood power, and unless your tank has 100% avoidance against raid bosses, you can't prevent it. And get this - for each person that has the Mark on them, he gains n +1 blood power. So the more people have the Mark, the more BP he gains. Soon enough,
SO. As a healer, what do you do?
First of all, keep in mind that the first half of this fight is easy peasy. You heal the appropriate tank, heal people who get Blood Boil (the tick damage) or Blood Nova (straight damage), and stay away from any Blood Beasts that come your way.
Once the marks start being put on people, it gets interesting.
You'll basically need a dedicated healer for each person who get the mark. The last time I did this with my guild, we didn't parse that out as definitively, and instead just had three healers on tanks and three healers on the marked ones. Once 4+ people were marked, it became ridiculous - everyone was taking SO much damage towards the end, and we just didn't have enough heals to go around. We got him to 2% and then we just couldn't hold out anymore - one of the marked ones (sorry, Theine) died. He healed, shit hit the fan, we wiped. Boo.
So what I think might be a good idea is to assign a dedicated to healer to each marked one. Healer 1 takes the first marked one, healer 2 takes the second one who's marked, etc. Still throw a hot or two on the tank, but focus on your marked target (unless you're assigned to tank healing exclusively). Alternatively, your raid may have the first and/or second marked one(s) die, which does heal Saurfang, but also cuts down on the number of marked ones (so long as your dps can burn through the extra 5/10%), making the fight considerably less heal intensive.
Keep in mind that YOUR job becomes considerably easier if the rest of the raid does THEIR job: i.e, switching tanks when needed, kiting the Blood Beasts perfectly, staying 12 yards range from each other, etc. If you all prevent him from gaining blood power, he'll cast less marks, which will make your attempt less fail!
[Sidenote: if any hordies out there wanna know what the alliance version is like, here it is (taken from Wowwiki, because I don't take the time to transcribe dialogue from WoW):
Deathbringer Saurfang yells: For every Horde soldier that you killed, for every Alliance dog that fell, the Lich King's armies grew. Even now the Valkyr work to raise your fallen... As Scourge. Things are about to get much worse. Come, taste the power that the Lich King has bestowed upon me!
Muradin Bronzebeard yells: A lone orc, against the might of the Alliance? Charge!
Deathbringer Saurfang yells: Hahahaha! Dwarves.
LOLFACE, DWARVES.]
Phat lewtz 4 droodz:
10 man:
[Mag'hari Chieftain's Staff]
[Leggings of Unrelenting Blood]
[Soulcleave Pendant]
25 man:
[Greatcloak of the Turned Champion]
Note that this is loot from the regular mode versions, not the heroic mode.
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