Video: TankSpot

Tanking: 1 tank in the away team handling Muradin (tank him near to our ship), 1-2 tanks remain on board to tank the adds that spawn.

Healing: Two healers is enough to keep the Away Team tank up. One healer should travel over with him to provide constant coverage and one or two others should remain on the edge of our ship to assist and cover while the main healer is moving or healing the Away Team themselves. A paladin is an excellent choice as a second healer since Beacon of Light can be used on the Away Team tank, allowing the Paladin to heal both sets of tanks at the same time.
Other healers should watch the raid for random Rifleman damage and Mortar strikes, and keep an eye on the defending tanks, especially during Bladestorm.

Buffs: –

Key Debuffs: –

General Notes

This fight takes place on our gunship, floating next to the Alliance gunship. The raid will be roughly divided into two groups: an Away Team which will alternate between our ship and the enemy gunship, and the rest of the raid which will remain on our ship to deal with the invading Alliance Sergeants and Marines.
The aim of the fight is to damage the enemy gunship enough that it will give up and allow us to progress to Deathbringer’s Rise. We deal this damage with the four cannons on the side of our gunship, which should be manned by four of the Away Team.

Generally the Away Team will consist of a tank and the mêlée (and maybe a healer for safety if the tank moves out of range or out of LoS), while the remainder of the raid will remain wih the ship.

Anyone in the Away Team, and possibly everyone in the raid (for backup if necessary) should collect a Rocket Pack from Zafod Boombox and equip it before combat starts. It goes in your shirt slot. If you have any shapeshift scripts in addons like Outfitter you need to doublecheck that it is still equipped when combat starts. This keeps catching our Druids out, and it sucks if that’s your Away Team tank!

Anyone on our gunship should avoid the big glowing marks on the floor which mark the locations the Mortars will hit. The damage from these is mild but can add up.

Gunners

Those DPS acting as gunners should use the primary attack of the guns to build up energy (“heat”) in their gun, and when this is around 90 the secondary attack should be used to convert all the heat into damage. It is important not to hit 100 heat, or you will overheat your gun, rendering it useless for several seconds.

Gunners should aim at the Mortar Soldiers on the far side of the enemy ship, beginning at one end and working through them killing the oldest mobs first. This is to prevent them from stacking the Experienced, Veteran and Elite buffs over time which makes them attack faster (20%, 40% and 80% respectively) and do more damage (30%, 60% and 120% respectively).

Away Team

Approximately every minute a Skybreaker Sorcerer will spawn on the enemy ship and channel Below Zero to freeze our guns. When this happens the Away Team need to jump over to the other ship and kill the Sorcerer, before jumping back. Gunners will find themselves ejected from their guns and free to jump as well.

The tank over there should pick up Muradin Bronzebeard and tank him near the side of the ship nearest to ours, to allow other healers to reach. Muradin will gain a stacking buff (Battle Fury) as long as we’re on their ship which increases his damage done by 12% per stack. He will gain a stack every 2-3 seconds on average, and this gets tricky to heal through past 10-15 stacks.

Once the Sorcerer is dead, the DPS should Rocket Pack back to our ship immediately, the gunners should get back into their guns, and then the tank and healer should leave as well.

Defenders

Every minute a portal will appear near the middle of our ship and spawn several Skybreaker Marines and Skybreaker Sergeants. Skybreaker Sergeants do a wounding strike which reduces healing taken by 25% and also have a Bladestorm, so melee should beware of these.

If left alive for a while these adds will gain a permanent stacking buff called Experienced which increases their damage by 30% and attack and casting speed by 20% per stack (and they can theoretically gain Veteran and Elite like the Riflemen, but this should never happen). They can also periodically gain an undispellable buff called Desperate Resolve, which increases armor by 60% and attack speed by 60% for 30 seconds.
If they are not tanked at any time they will use an ability called burning pitch which this deals siege damage to our ship and this is a Bad Thing.

The DPS on the ship, which will be mostly ranged, should simply AOE these down while avoiding the Bladestorm.

If ranged DPS have no adds to kill on our ship, they should assist the Gunners in taking down the oldest spawns of Riflemen on the enemy Gunship, to help prevent them stacking their buffs.

Achievement – I’m On A Boat

This one takes some coordination, but is pretty doable. What you have to do is have no person jump onto the enemy ship more than once, so once you’re back, that’s it. You should expect to have to kill 4 sorcerers though, so you’ll need to be creative with tanks.
The key to success is to have one tank stay on the enemy ship and deal with 2 Sorcerers. By the time the second is spawned Muradin will be at about 20 stacks, so the tank and healers will be chaining cooldowns by this time to survive.

First Sorcerer: 3 DPS including a plate melee jump over. A melee DPS (with a shield on or a cooldown) can handle Muradin at low stacks. Jump back when the Sorcerer is dead.

Second Sorcerer: 1 ranged DPS, one tank and a healer who can help DPS (a Shaman works really nicely) jump over. Jump back when the Sorcerer is dead.

Third Sorcerer: 2 melee DPS and a tank jump across. Both healers stand on our ship and spam-heal the tank and chain cooldowns when needed. This last group will remain on the ship while the second Sorcerer spawns, kill it fast and leave even faster.

The reason for using melee DPS for this last phase is that there’s a high chance of a tank death, but it can be survived by melee with cooldowns for a few seconds while finishing off the Sorcerer.

Other notes:
– It has been reported that jumping around on the enemy ship using your jetpack counts as “leaving” it, so stay grounded while over there.
– Be sure people are assigned to the cannons. In our case the two melee going on the third jump manned the guns until their turn, at which time the two ranged from the first jump took over.
– Army of the Dead will not taunt Muradin (although he is tauntable), but does function nicely as a tank CD.

Heroic

– Mortars now hit harder and do a small knockback. Be careful if you are near the edge of the ship and avoid double hits.
– Mortars and Riflemen now do increased damage, especially if they have advanced to higher “rank” by being alive longer, so Gunners must take care to kill the Mortar guys.

Generally though the fight is little different from normal mode. Enjoy your free lewtz.