We did a trial run on 8M SM Colossal with a few not even close wipes. We tried to get the color mechanics right. Some folks were geared lighter than maybe prudent. So, the idea is to bring your best dressed next time.

 

However, one thing I did not like is Sorc+Sorc healing, as I found that energy management and AoE need was just not met. I did not want to gear my Operative seriously before the 4.0, but I feel Op+Sorc might have coped better, as the amount of damage was considerable and multi-target consistently throughout the fight.

 

I am curious what is considered the best healer combo for this fight?

For sm any is viavle for HM better off with 3 healz sorcx2 1op or commando its more about coordination anyhoe

Is it worth trying SM with 3 healers and 1 tank, if we cannot pass with 2 healers, 2 tanks? Why is this tactics recommended for HM, but not for SM? Edited October 7, 2015 by DomiSotto

Is it worth trying SM with 3 healers and 1 tank, if we cannot pass with 2 healers, 2 tanks? Why is this tactics recommended for HM, but not for SM?

 

No reason why you couldn't. However, 8m SM has such a low dps and healing requirement that you can easily do it with what ever build you wish. 2 healers, 1 tank, 5 dps is your usual set-up for an 8-man group. Make sure the boss doesn't stand in the rifts (he gets a purple buff if this happens), as that boosts his damage done and lowers his damage taken.

 

For colours, you only need to pick up three. The colours always pop up in the same places (yellow always south, red always east etc.) and there is no punishment from getting different colours / the same colour multiple times in a row. Just have your colour runners hang around in the middle of the area (where the boss should be kept, as well) and when the white circles spawn, they can already run to get them before the colours appear.

 

No offense, but this is really the first time I hear anyone having problems with 8m SM. The only time I haven't succeeded in killing it was 4 manning it with a subpar group, player, character and class-wise.

 

//And yeah, any healer combo works. HM is easier with one Sorcerer in the mix, to bubble DPS just before Curse of the Monolith hits, but easily doable without.

 

//One more point: groups that can kill HM usually underman 16m SM with 8 ppl. Even that is easy with 2 healers + 1 tank.

Edited October 7, 2015 by Memo-

I don't think regular folks do it much, tbh, focusing on the ops. We are certainly not HM material, lol, just wanted to try something new.

 

The way it looked for me, was that both tanks (both were Warrior class) were taking high damages.

 

One of our DPS by some reason was dropping health like crazy, keep getting the orange circle, and he said he was not standing on the white, so I am not sure why we were losing him so fast. Overall, I felt the group was taking a lot of damage.

 

We all started running for the color circles once they appeared (save for a person with orange), and I found that I could not make it from the yellow circle back to the boss before the color puzzle disappeared, unless I had Force Speed off CD, it was too far out (I was not slowed by a rift).

 

I am guessing out mistake was not designating just 4 people to run, and letting the rest stay on the job, and not marking the color locations and starting to run before spawns. I will ask if we'd want to try that.

 

I am going to search for a video of the 8M SM run, to see how it is executed properly, but to just try it out on a lark it was a no go.

Edited October 7, 2015 by DomiSotto

I don't think regular folks do it much, tbh, focusing on the ops. We are certainly not HM material, lol, just wanted to try something new.

 

The way it looked for me, was that both tanks (both were Warrior class) were taking high damages.

 

One of our DPS by some reason was dropping health like crazy, keep getting the orange circle, and he said he was not standing on the white, so I am not sure why we were losing him so fast. Overall, I felt the group was taking a lot of damage.

 

We all started running for the color circles once they appeared (save for a person with orange), and I found that I could not make it from the yellow circle back to the boss before the color puzzle disappeared, unless I had Force Speed off CD, it was too far out (I was not slowed by a rift).

 

I am guessing out mistake was not designating just 4 people to run, and letting the rest stay on the job, and not marking the color locations and starting to run before spawns. I will ask if we'd want to try that.

 

I am going to search for a video of the 8M SM run, to see how it is executed properly, but to just try it out on a lark it was a no go.

 

 

Tanks get a stacking DoT

 

Dps get screamed which also places a dot

 

Only need two people to do colors on sm

Was the guy just unlucky to get Shout and Orange circles all on him, or does he have to mitigate his threat? The guide doesn't mention that the DoT is cleansable, so I take it, it is not.

 

Is it better to forget about the bonuses the color buffs grant, and have only 2 (or 3, for backup) people running around then?

Was the guy just unlucky to get Shout and Orange circles all on him, or does he have to mitigate his threat? The guide doesn't mention that the DoT is cleansable, so I take it, it is not.

 

Is it better to forget about the bonuses the color buffs grant, and have only 2 (or 3, for backup) people running around then?

 

Question 1. I guess you could call it luck. Shout and orange both go out on random players. Usually DPS. I can't think of too many instances where a healer got shout/orange circles/curse. But it's certainly not a 1-2 punch that should kill anyone. The circles if handled properly don't do any damage, so if they were taking a beating from them, they need to improve on how to handle dropping them correctly..

 

Question 2. The fight's been "fixed" several times I honestly don't remember what the actual color requirement is on Story Mode and what the rules are to handle it properly. If the group has any aspirations of attempting the fight in HM, I'd say have 2 groups of 2 alternate between 2 different colors (e.g R-Y-R-Y and G-P-G-P) so they can get a feel for how to handle this part of the fight, as it will be critical in HM.

 

I don't know what the group comp is, but having too many turret classes can make getting the colors a bit trickier. But if you have a sentinel available, Transcendence can be a life saver. If not, people will just have to get comfortable with getting into positions at the right time and getting colors.

 

I personally think 3-heals, 1-tank (and 1-DPS with a taunt for a Bite Wounds stack) is the easiest way to handle the fight. The healing requirement was the toughest part for us, and by adding a 3rd healer without losing much DPS, the outgoing damage became a lot more forgiving. But it can also be done easily with 2 healers if the group is organized enough.

 

Keep pulling and adjusting and you'll get there.

A few general tips that may help your group out:

• The player that gets the shout should stay still, while the rest of the group moves out of the cone. This minimizes the risk of multiple players getting the shout dot.
  
• The player dropping orange circles should try and place them along the outside of the map. This makes it much harder for another player to accidentally run into one.
  
• Until the player dropping orange circles gets a sense of how fast they drop, they should keep moving for its duration. Mechanics > DPS
  
• Unless mechanics dictate otherwise, all players should stack on the boss. There is a lot of AoE damage going out, and stacking for heals makes things a lot easier.
  
• Save speed boosts for getting to the broken rift (when the boss channels Breaking the Rift). That phase has a lot of AoE damage going out, and the faster you get it done the less damage everyone takes.
  
• Tanks should swap at 1-2 stacks of Bite Wounds. Bite Wounds increases damage taken, which puts more strain on your healers.
  
• Try and keep the boss centered in the room so that there is less distance to go to get colors/get to a rift.
  

 

As has been said already, only 2 colors are needed to break the rift. Until you get more familiar with where they spawn, just assign people to grab any color, rather than worry about what gives what buff. Since the buff goes away when the rift is broken (in SM at least), it really doesn't matter who has what.

 

Having 2 Sorc healers isn't ideal for this (due to bubbles not stacking), but it is manageable because of their high burst and decent AoE. Operative healers are great for SM, but for HM they are the hardest class to heal on due to Curse of the Monolith (basically if the person who gets this gets healed they take damage) going out to a random player, meaning that their probes can kill a DPS. Mercs are great because of their burst heals for tanks, and some of the best AoE (when people are stacked). Personally I would recommend Sorc/Merc for this fight because of how well they synergize.

Thanks, guys, much appreciated!

and I found that I could not make it from the yellow circle back to the boss before the color puzzle disappeared, unless I had Force Speed off CD, it was too far out (I was not slowed by a rift).

 

This is simply not possible (unless the boss fight was out of sync, which can sometimes happen if you keep pulling it in the same instance. Resetting helps.). When the boss casts the coloured circles into existence, there is ~5 seconds before they turn from white to what ever that respective colour is. Since this is SM, you can stand on the white circle even before it becomes coloured. There is a ~10 second gap from when the whites become colours and when the boss starts heading to a rift. He has to walk there, which is always a few seconds extra. The Breaking the Rift channel lasts 20 seconds before it fails and the boss gets the mini-enrage buff. In all you have almost 40 seconds (on SM) from being in position for picking the colour to the last instant where you can still pass the Breaking the Rift mechanic.

 

If you're designated to pick Yellow, then always stand near the spot where it spawns (always south on SM). Evading Siphon Energy (the blue circles) is only a few meters to the side and you can return to the spot after they go off. There is no punishment from touching the wrong colour during Breaking the Rift, so just plot the straightest course you can and go to that yellow spot. After you've arrived, you'll notice that you no longer have the Yellow debuff on you. This means you can leave the immediate area of the Rift.

 

People were saying that 2 colours is enough for SM, and I can testify that it's sometimes enough, but occasionally it won't break and you need to get the third colour in. So to be safe, just have 3 ppl running them. If you want, one person can keep themselves "permabuffed" with the remaining colour. That would be Yellow for a healer, Green for a tank, Red for any DPS and purple for any non-warrior/knight DPS that benefits from better resource genertion (so, anything but Juggernauts, Marauders and Lightning Sorcerers, really).

Well, it is very possible, if you did not stand near the yellow circle, but went to pick it once they spawned, which I thought what the mechanics was from the read through. I also did not know there were white spots that fill up (?) with color? I thought you were talking about the white circles that are tossed on the raid before the color mechanics on the ground happen. Thank you for the tip. I will take a look and see if there is an imprint on the ground that corresponds to the circle that then colors?

Thanks, guys, we got it. Freeing up the healers and doing colors on 3 DPS without worrying which color they grab did it.