- What percentage are you getting Draxus to before the 1st phase? I want to say our best was 84% without offensive cd's.

We got to 84% in our best tries as well, but honestly, one percentage more or less does not matter too much on the boss. Having a few seconds uptime on the boss in phase 5 has a much greater ínfluence on the boss HP.

 

- What is the time you enter phase 5, and how long is this phase lasting in seconds? Our's is ending at the 48 second mark.

I have never timed it, but it should always be the regular 55 seconds, unless you kill all of the adds from wave 5.

 

- How are you handling the adds in phase 5? Obv everything has to die south 1st, but are you splitting DPS left/right/south or sending all south then splitting respective DPS left right to kill Bulwark and then jumping to boss?

Like I wrote, we use 5 DPS; if you use 4 DPS, your offtank definitely needs to help the DPS. Here's how we split up the group:

- Our best Gunslinger dps takes the east adds, and a vanguard dps (=offtank) takes the west adds. They first focus down the Bulwarks, then the Dispatchers, making sure to leave one Dispatcher alive. Once the Gunslinger is done with his group, he rolls over to the west side and helps the Vanguard. When they are done with their adds (except for a Dispatcher), they go to the boss.

- The other three DPS go south, first killing the Corruptors, then the Bulwark, needing only three interrupts. Once all adds are dead, they also attack the boss.

This is just our strategy, and I have so far seen no guild doing it the same way as us. For example, in Dulfy's video, the healers are helping with damage and interrupting, so that could be an alternate strategy for you.

I recommend looking at your group composition and developing a strategy that works best for your group. The key is to maximize uptime on the adds and keep the time to move to another add group as short as possible. Two or three GCDs lost due to movement equal a few percentage lost on the boss.

 

- Are you leaving the Dispatchers up in phase 5 on the left and right until the boss jumps?

Yes, like I wrote we are leaving one Dispatcher alive. This can be either a west or east one, depending on if the AoE's of the Gunslinger critted or not, so the Vanguard will spontaneously kill all his adds or leave one alive.

This Dispatcher will stay alive all the way through the end of wave 6; once all the other adds are killed, we kill that Dispatcher.

 

However, even when you get past wave 5, you are still left with wave 6. That is about as challenging as wave 5, as you need to quickly kill the Corruptor and Bulwark in the back, and then quickly change to the Dismantlers before both tanks have debuffs and can no longer taunt them. Once you get past wave 6, the final waves are relatively easy and you just need to get a nice try where no one makes a mistake.

Good luck with the fight!

Edited April 11, 2014 by Jerba

Speaking of Nightmare Draxus, has anyone wiped due to tank's interrupt failing to do it's job on mass affliction cast yet?

 

We wiped cause a healer missed his interrupt, not a tank yet. Same idea though, missing 100% accuracy they can fail.

 

- What percentage are you getting Draxus to before the 1st phase? I want to say our best was 84% without offensive cd's.

- What is the time you enter phase 5, and how long is this phase lasting in seconds? Our's is ending at the 48 second mark.

- How are you handling the adds in phase 5? Obv everything has to die south 1st, but are you splitting DPS left/right/south or sending all south then splitting respective DPS left right to kill Bulwark and then jumping to boss?

- Are you leaving the Dispatchers up in phase 5 on the left and right until the boss jumps?

 

- 1st Phase seems to be capped at around 85% or 84%, I think the trigger is 85% and you can still get off some damage as his "disappear" isn't an instance vanish from the field.

- My Ops group is getting to this phase in around 2:30 to 3 minute mark, give or take. To be honest I'm not actively paying attention to the timer on Parsec for our pulls, I'm more paying attention to the damage taken and trying to figure out how to handle the waves.

- The way we handle Wave 5 is as follows; We have our Healers get first interrupt on each of the Corruptors in the back while a Sniper goes and DPS's both of them (using Entrench the second they get back there) along with the op Healer (he gets into the bulwark and Orbitals and stays in the bubble, I think DPS'ing but idk to be sure). I also head to the back as the Sin tank in a Sin/PT combo, PT grabs the boss. I act as the backup interrupt and a little extra DPS (Wither and Discharge can hit all 3 if I sit on the Bulwark). The Bulwarks to the right and left are killed by our PT and Op DPS, they then jump on the boss. After the adds in the back all die the Sniper's join them on the boss and then I ether jump onto the boss or start weakening down the dispatchers. As we have an issue with the Grenade from Draxus hitting multiple members of our group and if I'm there DPS'ing Draxus... It screws over the spacing they have. We have not actually successfully passed this phase, we did send him up at the VERY start of Wave 6, but it was a wipe with 3 Dispatchers up from Wave 5.

We'll probably be adjusting our plan on our next raid night, and keep adjusting till we get through this phase.

 

 

 

I think the only way you can successfully clear the wave is to consistently make it to the wave. The more you see it, and the more your exposed to it, the better. It seems like though that Wave 5 is quite possibly the biggest DPS check in the fight aside from Wave 8 (4 corruptors, 1 Despoiler).

Edited April 11, 2014 by ZentheSecond

Well, I think it's a balancing act as to how fast your group pushes through the first four phases. You have two conflicting motivations:

1. Slow down and use more of each phase's 55 seconds by keeping a weak add up so that healers can catch up
   
2. Burn through Phases 1 though 4 as fast as possible to give yourself more time at the end before the boss enrages
   

 

I think that by giving your healers more time to catch up in Phases 1 through 4 you will be running the significant risk of having Draxus enrage at the end. With all the nightmare-level adds in Phase 9 needing to be killed before Draxus' immunity shield is removed, Phase 9 is significantly longer in nightmare mode than in hard mode.

 

I think I would permit the healers on my team to have an extra six seconds (i.e. four globals) in a phase if they really needed it, but I would rather have those six seconds at the end of the fight.

 

As a question about your original post, was "47%" a typo? Did you mean "37%?" If 47% is accurate, then I have to agree with other posters here and say that your team's DPS is really slow. My team currently has the boss at 37% when Phase 6 starts and we consider that to be far too slow. Our goal is to chop that down to 32%.

As a question about your original post, was "47%" a typo? Did you mean "37%?" If 47% is accurate, then I have to agree with other posters here and say that your team's DPS is really slow. My team currently has the boss at 37% when Phase 6 starts and we consider that to be far too slow. Our goal is to chop that down to 32%.

 

On our best pull we've probably gotten him to about 36% but with that said we've definitely been mismanaging this phase. We have a bunch of things to work out in this phase in which I feel we will be able to overcome now with all the great info from this thread. Our biggest downfall was not knowing that the phases are independent of each other. Now we know exactly how much time we have for this phase and will work with that accordingly to progress consistently through this to work on the next phases.

running with 5 dps isnt needed, but it will help if dps is low

 

atm, we run with 4 dps and push the boss to 83%/82% at the start

 

wave 5, i have timed and it seems to spawn about 48 seconds +- a few seconds and we have boss on our best tryes down to 32% as wave 6 comes, which still leaves enough time for the boss to be pushed push wave 6 adds start casting.

 

we have 4 dps all between 3.4k-3.0k at that stage in the fight, numbers are some what boosted by the aoe on wave 5

 

while we havn't killed it yet(RNG c*** on l8er waves) we have waves 1-8 sorted and will have kill once we go back(having a breake for a day or so)

 

as the boss is at 47% i would suggest that all dps/tank/healers save there attacking cd's for that wave, yes tanks and healers as well) both our tanks are within 1.3-1.5k dps themselfes

 

as long as overal dps is high enough, and you leave atleast 1 add up from wave 5, there should be enough time to push boss much lower b4 wave 6 comes

Edited April 12, 2014 by jono_shadow

food for thought. get your tank and heals a cybertech grenade (the ones that do 5k dps over their duration i believe) and use them on wave 5 where possible. IF you are struggling might i suggest bloodthirst on that wave, if you aren't already. then perhaps you might need to review your team's single target dps capabilities.

 

p.s. wave 5, get the 2 or however many dps on south that just cleared it out to IMMEDIATELY go to boss straight after (bloodthirst being activated at that time too) and leave the dps on each side to kill their bulwark, (hopefully first) and their dispatcher's and only join on boss when 1 is still alive on which ever side.

 

few suggestions, take it or leave it

I really disagree with the people suggesting running 5 DPS instead of 4 DPS, you can handle the fight with four DPS and running with 5 will only put you at a disadvantage later on in Nightmare Content. I would rather recommend you to practice rotations, seek advise from DPS leaders and work on positioning instead of adding another DPS. Regardless, below are my answers.

 

- What percentage are you getting Draxus to before the 1st phase? I want to say our best was 84% without offensive cd's.

Around 82% depending on lucky crits.

 

- What is the time you enter phase 5, and how long is this phase lasting in seconds? Our's is ending at the 48 second mark.

I am not sure since I don't pay any attention to this and we never had any issues killing off everything before the next wave spawns (including the boss) but when I look at the logs it was 49s from wave 5 spawns until wave 6 spawns.

 

- How are you handling the adds in phase 5? Obv everything has to die south 1st, but are you splitting DPS left/right/south or sending all south then splitting respective DPS left right to kill Bulwark and then jumping to boss?

When I did it we used four DPS, one West and East and the rest of South, side DPS is range and takes the first interrupt in the back then kills their respective Bulwark. Then goes on boss, South DPS comes and kills boss and then finish off sides and get ready for next wave, if you need you can use bloodthirst when your South DPS goes for boss if you are lacking damage on boss.

 

- Are you leaving the Dispatchers up in phase 5 on the left and right until the boss jumps?

We left one up but that one was brought down by a tank to like 3k HP so a execute ability would just one shot it.

Edited April 16, 2014 by RikuvonDrake

I really disagree with the people suggesting running 5 DPS instead of 4 DPS, you can handle the fight with four DPS and running with 5 will only put you at a disadvantage later on in Nightmare Content.

 

If one of the tanks is a skilled and geared DPS and it makes fight easier why not? This is one tank fight.

If one of the tanks is a skilled and geared DPS and it makes fight easier why not? This is one tank fight.

 

It's basically admitting that you don't have enough DPS for Nightmare Content, and I dislike tricking myself, I would rather go work on my rotations/speccs which is the real issue in this case.

If one of the tanks is a skilled and geared DPS and it makes fight easier why not? This is one tank fight.

Even though you can 5 DPS the fight to no disadvantage, it feels dirty. If your reasons for using 5 DPS is lack of DPS, that really doesn't bode well for Grob'thok and Brontes.

Even though you can 5 DPS the fight to no disadvantage, it feels dirty. If your reasons for using 5 DPS is lack of DPS, that really doesn't bode well for Grob'thok and Brontes.

 

Perhaps, but then not everyone uses the cheap-*** mara, 3 sniper composition either. Which to my mind using dot-smash or engi roll-bang, could be considered equally dirty.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=711350

 

Funny how dot-smashers and engi snipers are dominating, and the single dps that isn't on that list for Draxus, the rage jug is 700dps behind the dot-smasher. Even the rage mara is 300 dps behind.

 

That sort of dps delta is why some people can get away with 4 and others 5 dps, and as per usual shows that Bioware don't have a clue about balancing dps output between the classes. I wonder if people would be clearing so easily without roll-bang or dot-smashers..... or advocating that 5dps aren't needed.

Perhaps, but then not everyone uses the cheap-*** mara, 3 sniper composition either. Which to my mind using dot-smash or engi roll-bang, could be considered equally dirty.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=711350

 

Funny how dot-smashers and engi snipers are dominating, and the single dps that isn't on that list for Draxus, the rage jug is 700dps behind the dot-smasher. Even the rage mara is 300 dps behind.

 

That sort of dps delta is why some people can get away with 4 and others 5 dps, and as per usual shows that Bioware don't have a clue about balancing dps output between the classes. I wonder if people would be clearing so easily without roll-bang or dot-smashers..... or advocating that 5dps aren't needed.

Can't really make comments on AoE vs single target DPS in that fight with such a small sample size... my raid team has 1 x watchman sentinel, 1 x gunnery commando, 1 x dirty fighting gunslinger and 1 x sharpshooter gunslinger (me) for this fight. What was your point about dotsmash and eng dominating? We clear it fine.

Funny how dot-smashers and engi snipers are dominating, and the single dps that isn't on that list for Draxus, the rage jug is 700dps behind the dot-smasher. Even the rage mara is 300 dps behind.

 

The current sample size of 1 or 2 is not very significant. Also, dps on this fight is highly dependent on your strat, whether you go all out on phases where it doesn't matter all that much, what the other dps are doing, etc.

That sort of dps delta is why some people can get away with 4 and others 5 dps, and as per usual shows that Bioware don't have a clue about balancing dps output between the classes. I wonder if people would be clearing so easily without roll-bang or dot-smashers..... or advocating that 5dps aren't needed.

 

That is just wrong, you can get away with (and I have) with no dotmash or rollbanging sniper/gunslingers even if you run 4 DPS, it just about knowing when to burst your AoE a bit more and when to burst your single target DPS,. I agree that it wouldn't be as easy but it's Nightmare content, if you change your setup a bit you have to count on a few wipes to get the new adjustments in order.

 

I agree that it's possible that the majority of the SW:ToR players wouldn't be able to tackle content such as Draxus Nightmare without a dotsmash or a rollbanger, however when it comes to the Nightmare/Progression guilds that I know of, all of them have players with skills enough to handle it. Nightmare mode isn't for everyone, but if you feel like your groups DPS isn't enough, running with 5 DPS is an option, just remember that if you reach last boss, you have to work on your DPS anyway. (You in this case is OP, sorry if you think it's you).

Edited April 17, 2014 by RikuvonDrake

That is just wrong, you can get away with (and I have) with no dotmash or rollbanging sniper/gunslingers even if you run 4 DPS, it just about knowing when to burst your AoE a bit more and when to burst your single target DPS,. I agree that it wouldn't be as easy but it's Nightmare content, if you change your setup a bit you have to count on a few wipes to get the new adjustments in order.

 

I agree that it's possible that the majority of the SW:ToR players wouldn't be able to tackle content such as Draxus Nightmare without a dotsmash or a rollbanger, however when it comes to the Nightmare/Progression guilds that I know of, all of them have players with skills enough to handle it. Nightmare mode isn't for everyone, but if you feel like your groups DPS isn't enough, running with 5 DPS is an option, just remember that if you reach last boss, you have to work on your DPS anyway. (You in this case is OP, sorry if you think it's you).

 

 

We killed it with me watchman, one combat, and two non wallbang slingers, as you know. I can't stand dotsmash so I went watchman, what real men play . Fight is a teamplay check with 3 DPS windows nothing more. Of course I killed myself twice with leap as I prepared the next focus intensive periods like a baws!

Edited April 17, 2014 by Leafy_Bug

Running with 4 dps, cleared it. 2 sents, 1 gunslinger and 1 commando.

 

Regarding wave 5, ranged take the sides (but also taking first interrupt on back corruptors from range before they start that). Saving all CD's/adrenals for that phase. If ranged clear their sides (also a little bit depending on what 2nd tank does then), they keep one up at low hp to kill the second the next phase starts.

 

Personally, playing assault commando, I can get all 3 down in time unless I'm unlucky with crits, where I will basically hit it exactly at the next phase transition (at which point I dot up boss and drag my dismantler to a preassigned position for 2nd tank to take both). If I on the other hand get lucky with crits I'll be done ahead of time, during which I will leave a last add up for those few seconds and hit boss until next phase starts (which, wont be that long either way).

 

During out kill, melee had to keep hitting boss for a few more seconds into the next phase for him to go away. So stretching that phase out to its maximum time is very important.

Can't really make comments on AoE vs single target DPS in that fight with such a small sample size... my raid team has 1 x watchman sentinel, 1 x gunnery commando, 1 x dirty fighting gunslinger and 1 x sharpshooter gunslinger (me) for this fight. What was your point about dotsmash and eng dominating? We clear it fine.

 

The point is you are still using 4 of the highest parsing dps classes.

 

If you were using a vanguard instead of a sentinel and a shadow instead of a slinger still think you'd be clearing it so easy?

 

I doubt it.

 

Slingers and sents have trivialized many a fight due to Bioware's insistence on giving them top dps and the best raid utility. Nightmare mode is more about choosing the best dps class than anything else, because Bioware don't have a clue about dps classes. This has been proven time and time again, and commented on them that they knew people stacked these classes for a reason. Yet even knowing this, the refuse to do anything about it.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Chemic_al

Nobody really seems to have mentioned that the key to an easy wave 5 is pushing super hard as the boss jumps out on wave 3.

 

I call for healers to place dots on him etc at around the 65/64 % mark and any dps class to save its heaviest hitters at this point if they can hold off a few seconds.

 

This way its possible for him to jump out on 54-52% saving saving around 4-6% from the usual 58% he can come back in at on wave 5.

Even though you can 5 DPS the fight to no disadvantage, it feels dirty. If your reasons for using 5 DPS is lack of DPS, that really doesn't bode well for Grob'thok and Brontes.

 

Counter question:

If a fight requires only 1 tank why would you want to handicap yourself with only 4 dps? Just like EV HM back in the old days but than for Draxus.

 

Doing it with 4 dps might mean your dps is good enough, running with 5 dps just makes it easier. So unless you want to artificially make a fight more difficult I don't see anything against bringing in an extra dps as long as he deals more dps than his tanktoon.

 

I think every serious progressionraiding tank has a few dps toons who can clear NiM in theory.

Even though you can 5 DPS the fight to no disadvantage, it feels dirty. If your reasons for using 5 DPS is lack of DPS, that really doesn't bode well for Grob'thok and Brontes.

 

We kiled Grob'thok just fine and some of DPS from my group were on top 1-5 on leaderboards for HM version so I don't see any problem there. Having boss away well before anything else spawns helps a lot there and second tank really is a weak DPS there. There is no significant role for him to play.

It's basically admitting that you don't have enough DPS for Nightmare Content, and I dislike tricking myself, I would rather go work on my rotations/speccs which is the real issue in this case.

 

I would rather kill bosses with whatever resources are available. As it happens my co-tank is an ALT of somebody who mains a sentinel and only tanks because our group lost a tank while ago. No reason for him to be on his tank in this fight unless specced to smash.

I would rather kill bosses with whatever resources are available. As it happens my co-tank is an ALT of somebody who mains a sentinel and only tanks because our group lost a tank while ago. No reason for him to be on his tank in this fight unless specced to smash.

 

I don't disagree, if Draxus was the last boss of the instance and there would be no more Nightmare content during the coming months I would swap out a tank for a DPS without blinking an eye. However Draxus isn't the last boss, he is not even the hardest boss in terms of DPS requirements and that why I would rather work on DPS so I can handle both Dracus AND future bosses such as Brontes (+ Dread Palace bosses). But I can understand your point and I would agree that it does apply in certain situations, I just don't think that this is one of them =)

Edited April 20, 2014 by RikuvonDrake

The way I see it we can either smash our heads night after night against phase 5->6 transition and optimise every ability activation until we get it or we can clear the instance every week and get our gear WHILE we all improve. I have DPSed that fight as well (I main shadow tank) on my ALT and I improved something of an order of 300DPS in first 10 tries with lots to be still done - it can be done, but I don't see the point in making fights harder then they need to be.

I am fairly confident we will clear Brontes when we get to it. Currently we have 1 only one night a week devoted to last boss but we do main and ALTs and 2nd ALT's farms of 1st and 4th boss to get gear quicker to the group. I think this is sound strategy to clear the content and don't think it's cheating in any way. At very least it's something that can and will work for our guild. When we are more practised or go for timed run at some point of course we won't be switching anything or anyone.

Edited April 20, 2014 by AAAAzrael

It really just comes down to this. If you cannot kill this boss with 4 DPS you should either, a) work on your DPS to maximize it as best as you can or b) not be doing NiM content. Yes I understand you don't NEED 2 tanks, but in my opinion clearing a boss with a different composition then any of the other fights in the instance seems silly. My personal first clear of this boss on 8m we had 2 SS Slingers, 1 TK Sage, & 1 Infiltration Shadow. No Inspiration or Smashers. IT CAN BE DONE PEOPLE, just work on bettering yourselves.

sorry for necro but i was searching for strategies for this fight.

probably you downed him at this point. just to say.. we had the same issue as you..boss at 45% and wave 6 starting. without changing nothing in our group composition or roles, we manage to squeeze the dps to up the boss at 27% before the 6th wave..