Our Ops team has just started venturing into 8 man HM territory. Last night we took our first night of real attempts on Sparky 8 man HM. Just wanted to add my voice to the growing chorus of threads here about a wonderful "bug" we encountered which is apparently not new and has gone unfixed since 3.0 launch.

We had lots of fun with the Instant Brutalize bug last night. Sometimes the first brutalize would go off without a hitch around 45%ish. No problem break out the pinned ops teammate continue on. Second brutalize at 25ish% insta-gib.

Sometimes it was the first brutalize that would be an insta-gib. No channel just bang your dead,

We tried resetting the phase and the bug would not go away. For giggles and we tried disbanding and reforming and going back in. No luck. We literally did not see him channel as intended consistently the entire night.

Cannot be working as intended. I wonder about the priorities over at Bioware central with the pelthora of bugs from Underlurker to Sparky to SS and Bulo. Guess the slot machines were more important than providing playable ops for the playerbase.

Not my first rodeo all mmo's have bugs have patience I keep telling myself.......

If your tank is out of melee range at the end of Rampage, the Brutal Pounce ability will hit for several million in damage. It's not a bug, just a somewhat poorly telegraphed mechanic. You can also cheese this with Resilience/Shroud if applicable. Since Brutal Pounce happens before Brutalize, it would look like a quick instadeath unless you were really watching the boss's cast bar very carefully.

Brutal Pounce generally starts happening on the second Rampage. If your DPS is slow, it can start on the third, but you'll be hitting the hard enrage if you're that far behind. It continues happening on every Rampage after that until the soft enrage.

tl;dr: It's a mechanic that your tanks can handle through proper positioning (or cheese).

If your tank is out of melee range at the end of Rampage, the Brutal Pounce ability will hit for several million in damage. It's not a bug, just a somewhat poorly telegraphed mechanic. You can also cheese this with Resilience/Shroud if applicable. Since Brutal Pounce happens before Brutalize, it would look like a quick instadeath unless you were really watching the boss's cast bar very carefully.

 

Brutal Pounce generally starts happening on the second Rampage. If your DPS is slow, it can start on the third, but you'll be hitting the hard enrage if you're that far behind. It continues happening on every Rampage after that until the soft enrage.

 

tl;dr: It's a mechanic that your tanks can handle through proper positioning (or cheese).

I always thought that brutal pounce was a cast that leads into brutalize? And I think I generally taunt from out of melee range

If your tank is out of melee range at the end of Rampage, the Brutal Pounce ability will hit for several million in damage. It's not a bug, just a somewhat poorly telegraphed mechanic. You can also cheese this with Resilience/Shroud if applicable. Since Brutal Pounce happens before Brutalize, it would look like a quick instadeath unless you were really watching the boss's cast bar very carefully.

 

Brutal Pounce generally starts happening on the second Rampage. If your DPS is slow, it can start on the third, but you'll be hitting the hard enrage if you're that far behind. It continues happening on every Rampage after that until the soft enrage.

 

tl;dr: It's a mechanic that your tanks can handle through proper positioning (or cheese).

@Keyboardninja- thank you for the heads up on this. We will look into this next ops night. Appreciate the input. As always your a positive force on these forums. /salute

If your tank is out of melee range at the end of Rampage, the Brutal Pounce ability will hit for several million in damage. It's not a bug, just a somewhat poorly telegraphed mechanic. You can also cheese this with Resilience/Shroud if applicable. Since Brutal Pounce happens before Brutalize, it would look like a quick instadeath unless you were really watching the boss's cast bar very carefully.

 

Brutal Pounce generally starts happening on the second Rampage. If your DPS is slow, it can start on the third, but you'll be hitting the hard enrage if you're that far behind. It continues happening on every Rampage after that until the soft enrage.

 

tl;dr: It's a mechanic that your tanks can handle through proper positioning (or cheese).

If this is true, then why do I see a 1sec Brutalize cast instead of Brutal Pounce and get killed with brutalize, not brutal pounce?

Well, I went on to popping Saber Reflect before taunting after Rampage, works like a charm, and nobody is ever going to pull aggro off of you

If this is true, then why do I see a 1sec Brutalize cast instead of Brutal Pounce and get killed with brutalize, not brutal pounce?

Well, I went on to popping Saber Reflect before taunting after Rampage, works like a charm, and nobody is ever going to pull aggro off of you

How much damage did Brutalize kill you for? Particularly if you have a lot of ads stacks and/or some stacks from the boss, Brutalize can hit very hard. It's never unhealable (unless you're *really* up there in terms of stacks), but it can hurt.

Our technique is we have one tank for the boss and one for the trash, as in SM. To avoid the 5kk+ damage, the tank needs to be in melee range of the boss after his 4th pounce.

The problem then is that your boss tank is going to accrue a lot of stacks by the end of the fight. As I recall, Rampage isn't long enough to expire those stacks.

The problem then is that your boss tank is going to accrue a lot of stacks by the end of the fight. As I recall, Rampage isn't long enough to expire those stacks.

the 40% intake extra between Rampages is nothing compared to 40+ stacks from the adds

the 40% intake extra between Rampages is nothing compared to 40+ stacks from the adds

When you tank the adds, you can pawn them off on players with low stacks. I never go into the soft enrage with more than 15ish stacks.

How much damage did Brutalize kill you for? Particularly if you have a lot of ads stacks and/or some stacks from the boss, Brutalize can hit very hard. It's never unhealable (unless you're *really* up there in terms of stacks), but it can hurt.

Pretty much anywhere between 5 and 15 million, depending on stacks that range from ~8-40, with the high side being on our very first kills where we still tanked the adds instead of letting dps and heals take them

But correct me if I'm wrong, normally rampage is where he jumps from one player to another, doing moderate damage and stunning them and everyone around them for a few secs.

Brutal Pounce follows right after, is normally a 1sec cast and should be hitting the tank.

After that, Brutalize is a 20sec channel on a random raid member, stunning him/her for the duration, that has to be dpsed through to break it, otherwise it kills the player who got pinned down with it.

Just to see if I got the mechanics right. So if the above is true, Brutalize shouldn't be a 1 sec cast that insta kills?

On a side note, it's pretty fun when Sparky is dead and you got ~10 adds roaming around from softenrage to stand in the middle of your raid, popping Saber Reflect and Masstaunt and watch your whole raid die when they all jump in there. And then run for your life

The problem then is that your boss tank is going to accrue a lot of stacks by the end of the fight. As I recall, Rampage isn't long enough to expire those stacks.

I've solo tanked sparky HM and rampage was long enough for the stacks to drop. Works pretty well when sparky tank has fairly high defense since any adds that target him will build fewer stacks.

I don't think I've seen a big instagib kill and I can't say I've always been in mele range. Usually 10m range though for my force attacks. Plenty of bosses have had that "don't taunt from ranged" mechanic so it sounds right.

Brutalise insta-casts if the tank it leaps to is far away. Change the way you do the fight and you'll find it works perfectly. Not to mention, each pull has one revive. You will never get more than one insta-cast.

Sorry for digging this up again, but it bothers me to not know why something is happening in a fight^^

So yesterday we killed Sparky, as usual but I as a tank got oneshotted again with a insta brutalize. Thing is, I wasn't too far away from the boss, didn't taunt after rampage. I was standing inside his circle, maybe not completely in melee range, but not too far away I think.

So I was like: what the eff?

~7mio hit. And I had no more than 4-5 stacks from the add and 2-3 from the Boss(I solo tank him while the other tank picks up the adds and parks them on one of our range dps or heals.)

So can somebody please explain this?

Sorry for digging this up again, but it bothers me to not know why something is happening in a fight^^

 

So yesterday we killed Sparky, as usual but I as a tank got oneshotted again with a insta brutalize. Thing is, I wasn't too far away from the boss, didn't taunt after rampage. I was standing inside his circle, maybe not completely in melee range, but not too far away I think.

So I was like: what the eff?

~7mio hit. And I had no more than 4-5 stacks from the add and 2-3 from the Boss(I solo tank him while the other tank picks up the adds and parks them on one of our range dps or heals.)

 

So can somebody please explain this?

Like I mentioned, have at least two players stand in front of him during the short Brutal Pounce cast before Brutalize, then both will receive the Stunned debuff and the main target will then get the damage from the Brutalize channel.

Ever since the tanks in my raid group have been doing this, we no longer had any dead players on Sparky.