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Directive 7 normal - Bulwark is a little overtuned.


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Disclaimer: This coming from someone who quit WoW while working on Phase 4 Heroic Ragnaros, so "overtuned" is not a word I throw around lightly. That said, as a leveling and pre-endgame instance (as the mobs are level 48) this boss is rather out of place in comparison to the difficulty of every boss battle before it.

 

My group comp was 50 Juggernaut (Immortal spec, tank), 48 Juggernaut (Vengeance DPS, respecced for this fight), 48 Assassin (Deception spec) and 47 Sorceror (Corruption spec, healer). All of us were in at least Voss-level commendation and quest gear, with the tank in several hardmode and prototype level pieces. That said, we simply could not keep up with the amount of damage being thrown around. A few notes:

 

1. Bulwark Burst caused several wipes on the first pulls simply due to not understanding how it works. For those who don't know, it's a channeled ability which cannot be interrupted, that will one-shot anyone not standing to the left or right of the boss. There is no indicator that it hits everyone in the middle of the hallway, or that you have to stand to his left or right to avoid it. No target reticule, no graphic, you just die. If it weren't for Torhead, we probably wouldn't have figured out how to avoid it. I'm fine with the fact that it's an instagib, but there should be some sort of indicator as to where it will hit you. I can't see a leveling pug ever figuring out why they died without any prior knowledge of the fight.

2. Bulwark Smash, which is his tank stun and deaggro ability, has a similar icon and the same channel time as Bulwark Burst. It is interruptible, but must be interrupted by DPS. The problem is that unless DPS are paying close attention to the exact ability NAME, they will either think it's the uninterruptible Blast and not interrupt it, or mistake the Burst for the Smash and have their interrupt on cooldown for this one. It would probably be prudent to give it a different color icon at least.

3. The boss seems to randomly throw out massive amounts of damage to the party. This doesn't seem to be tied to his targeted AOE missiles (which are easily avoidable) and only happens to melee. If this is a Cleave-type mechanic then his hitbox needs to be larger so that melee do not eat the damage, because it is entirely unsustainable in terms of healing. If the damage is intended, then it needs to be reduced for normal mode. We could not figure out a way to avoid it other than range.

 

His other mechanics (the shield and helper bots) are fine, but please tune this guy's damage output for normal mode a little better, or make his hitbox bigger so melee aren't a complete liability. I'd like to note while we could not kill the boss we did get him below 10% several times, so our strategy was not the problem here.

Edited by Farabee
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I wouldn't mind seeing his overall health slightly reduced, but my group had no issues with him on normal. We wiped once on hard mode (he enraged on that particular pull) before getting him down. Group consited of Sniper, Sorc healer, Jugg tank, and Merc dps. We found the key to the battle was interrupting smash right away (like you noted), removing his shield, and getting rid of the droids that repair him.
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Group consited of Sniper, Sorc healer, Jugg tank, and Merc dps.

 

Did your ranged DPS randomly take massive amounts of damage (ie half their health)? I'm curious if this is a melee-specific issue. Going back now and reading the strats on Torhead, it seems that most groups dea with this by leaving the shield up while everyone gets healed up and the healer regens.

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This fight is a ridiculous joke once you figure out how to avoid the blast.

We three-manned this with a dead companion as a Powertech Tank, Sorc healer and Marauder dps. We had the tank stand by one of the power generator things, and the other two (or 3 if we had 4 people) stand by the other power generator and literally just sat there and dps. The marauder would interrupt the Smash.

There was basically NO damage from Bulwark Burst. Of course you'd occasionally have to kill the repair droids and click the power generator again.

 

 

Oh, yea I forgot to mention, I (the powertech tank) did some testing during our kill. When he's casting Bulwark Blast and you run across the middle of the room (dictated by the yellow line underneath him) you, and I think everyone around you, will get hit by the explosion or whatever it is. Our sorc did this too near the end and everyone took about half their health in damage.

 

The guy is as easy as H Rag pre-nerf. xD

Edited by InfiniteShift
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It's a difficult fight to figure out, but once you do figure it out it's very easy. Interrupt Smash, let your healer regen a bit during shield phase, rinse and repeat. It's very simple.

 

The biggest issue groups will have is breaking his shield before the healer has time to regen, therefore making the damage output simply unsustainable for your healer.

 

The ONLY issues I saw were that Smash would sometimes go off even if interrupted, and the smash icon is pretty much identical to the burst icon. If those 2 things were fixed this boss would be perfect.

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