Yes, queue the "months behind" comments..

my very casual guild has finally made it to kephess after a long summer vacation drought. after a few nights, we are progressing very steadily, and can very reliably make it into the final phase (after Gift of the Masters), we're even managing it with our combat rez up too.

anyways, i'm obviously missing something, because there's a mechanic that's straight up killing me.

during GOTM, marauder pops predation, the raid runs toward the entrance door, and the 2 tanks run 90-degrees, toward where the walker usually stands.

as the MT, i'm usually tanking him for the encounter up to GOTM, I'll pop my energy shield the second he pulls everyone in, and run out, as soon as it finishes, i charge back in (shield still up), and get punted back.

at this point, my OT is waiting for BOTM to cast to taunt, but i get hit by Savage Arcing Slash for ~25-26k (with the energy shield up)

what are we doing wrong?

Simple, you MUST have your OT taunt him as soon as you get the knockback and he starts casting Breath of the Masters. You die because your OT is too late in taunts.

I was under the assumption that he should NOT taunt until kephess is casting BOTM? there's about a 1 second lag between the punt, and the cast, so he had been waiting for that (i asked him to).

so, taunt as soon as punt?

If you are on voice comm when he knockbacks you immediately shout "taunt" "take him" etc to your OT. Don't worry, by the time he comes to taunt and take him you'll be black and dropping purple circles. I as a tank had the same problem as you and by taunting immediately after the knockback I solved my problem

awesome. we'll try that this week.

Here's a video from a Tank's Pov

you can see here I(the PT Tank) get killed cause of the slow Taunt of the Juggy as soon as the phase starts. You see both good and bad taunts in this video(very old video). As a PT tank I've noticed i have to anticipate the BOTM b/c our taunt doesn't happen as soon as we press it. It take a second or two to travel to the target.(i also have an Assassin Tank and this si not the case with the assassin i can wait untill i see the cast bar and taunt i cant remember how the juggy works.. on a different server havnt played him since Dec.)

The taunting portion over the video starts about 6:45 seconds into the video.

A few tips on that last phase while tanking Kephess make sure no one is behind you no matter the distance esp. healers and OT cause that KB he does is like a cone and i've been 15 meters away and been KB'd.

2. Don't do what we did with the circle's the tank with the debuff is dropping..and never tank with your back to those circles if your KB'd into one it is instant death.

Last you might want to try the LoS trick we use before the final phase of kephess

Good Luck

Here's a video from a Tank's Pov

thanks for the link..

As a PT tank I've noticed i have to anticipate the BOTM b/c our taunt doesn't happen as soon as we press it. It take a second or two to travel to the target.(i also have an Assassin Tank and this si not the case with the assassin i can wait untill i see the cast bar and taunt i cant remember how the juggy works.. on a different server havnt played him since Dec.)

A few tips on that last phase while tanking Kephess make sure no one is behind you no matter the distance esp. healers and OT cause that KB he does is like a cone and i've been 15 meters away and been KB'd.

Last you might want to try the LoS trick we use before the final phase of kephess

Didn't realize you could do that. That would definitely help out, so that the healers at least can stay put and be able to heal while we're running out.

what are we doing wrong?

To explain more adequately, the KB that Kephess does places a debuff on the tank. This debuff causes Kephess to instantly kill you if you take any damage from him (even if it's just a basic melee attack). I don't believe it's in SM at all so most players are surprised at the change when they get into HM. It's best if you start trying to run away from Kephess as soon as he knocks you back; his attack speed is *really* fast so that, if you kept a wall to your back for the KB or run back to him, you're gonna die pretty much instantly.

To explain more adequately, the KB that Kephess does places a debuff on the tank. This debuff causes Kephess to instantly kill you if you take any damage from him (even if it's just a basic melee attack). I don't believe it's in SM at all so most players are surprised at the change when they get into HM. It's best if you start trying to run away from Kephess as soon as he knocks you back; his attack speed is *really* fast so that, if you kept a wall to your back for the KB or run back to him, you're gonna die pretty much instantly.

I suspect this is what's actually happening.

Don't leap back in after the KB

I suspect this is what's actually happening.

 

Don't leap back in after the KB

haha.. i'm not. i'm leaping in after the GOTM, at which point, he punts me back. I haven't been running away after the punt, but i'll do that now.

haha.. i'm not. i'm leaping in after the GOTM, at which point, he punts me back. I haven't been running away after the punt, but i'll do that now.

Ah, my mistake.

At any rate, I wouldn't even bother leaping back in. Just let Kephess seek you out, do his KB, then keep away and start dropping circles.

Ah, my mistake.

 

At any rate, I wouldn't even bother leaping back in. Just let Kephess seek you out, do his KB, then keep away and start dropping circles.

the leap back is more for positional purposes. when we do it in storymode, we are able to keep kephess pretty much standing in the same spot, with small deviations everytime we taunt/transition. if i waited for him to walk up, we'd have to continuously adjust the positioning. my casual guild doesn't do too hot with movement..

ok, still not working. kinda frustrating. seems to be very luck based.

anyways. went back in last night, cleared the others and was left with ~35 minutes on kephess. got 3 tries on him, and died 2x the same way as before.

the OT is an assassin, and I'm MT'ing him (so the assassin is taunting after the first knockback).

per the suggestions in this thread, i have made the following changes:

after GOTM, I stand in place and wait for kephess to run up to me (i'm standing in the middle of the room, plenty of room to get knocked back without being stopped). I get knocked back, and am already running away from kephess the second I land. before Kephess even starts casting BOTM, i'm dead from a 26k savage arc slash. My OT swears he taunted as soon as he saw me get punted.

I saw

is this purely a problem with my OT not taunting fast enough? i mean, i'm not standing over his shoulder and watching him play, but he swears he's taunting right when he sees the punt.

is there another queue to watch for?

ok, i think i've figured out the problem.

i'm the one tanking him from ~90%, until ~58%, we don't swap tanks AT ALL during that time, so i'm 100% sure I have the savage wound on me when I'm getting Touch, which results in me dying, but the damage being attributed to arc.

ok, i think i've figured out the problem.

 

i'm the one tanking him from ~90%, until ~58%, we don't swap tanks AT ALL during that time, so i'm 100% sure I have the savage wound on me when I'm getting Touch, which results in me dying, but the damage being attributed to arc.

Savage Wounding should have worn off by the time Gift of the Masters is over. If that is actually still running up through the knockback+Touch application, you might want to have the group stop DPS around 63% until Savage Wounding has worn off, then continue. Alternatively, you can have your co-tank pick up Kephess immediately after Gift, so he takes the first Touch of the Masters, though that could be tough to heal through (Savage Wounding, plus however many ticks of Gift, and then you're actually going to be tanking hypermode Kephess for ~15s)

before Kephess even starts casting BOTM, i'm dead from a 26k savage arc slash. My OT swears he taunted as soon as he saw me get punted.

Well, you've just explained exactly why you're dying. Your OT is taunting too early.

Now you said early that the OT was (correctly) waiting until the cast bar started, so if that's the case then it doesn't explain your earlier deaths. But if he taunts before the cast, you will certainly die.

Keep in mind that the death overview in your chat window will lie on this fight and give you incorrect information. You have to go to raw logs to really understand what triggered Touch. You absolutely can die to Savage Wounding depending on your transition timing, so just make sure the tank that does not have Savage Wounding is the first one to pick up Kephess after the Gift.

Ways to die from Touch that you should watch out for:

(1) Savage Wounding ticks.

(2) Standing in a purple circle.

(3) Being in front of Kephess when he knocks back your co-tank. Savage Arcing Slash is a huge frontal cleave, so if you are in front of Kephess even when he's hitting your co-tank, you'll die. Fix this by just flipping Kephess so that he's not facing the tank dropping circles as that tank is running back in to taunt.

(4) Getting punted into a wall and gibbed by a melee attack during the very brief period between the Savage Arcing Slash knockback and the Breath cast. To fix this, always be running away the minute you get knocked back. Always give yourself a runway. Don't ever let yourself get knocked into a wall.

Normally, Kephess will go through 2 'red circle' phases (when he leaps up into the air) before GoTM, and Savage wounding debuff would have worn off by then. If your DPS is lacking, he will do a third jump right before 60%. That is when you'll have the debuff.

The easiest solution is for the off tank to taunt Kephess when he jumps down, then taunt off him. While it is possible to heal through someone tanking with savage wound, it is far, far easier for the healers if you swap tank during that phase.