Abusing General Vezax as Discipline
May 14, 2009 by Matticus
Filed under All Stories, News and Opinion, Priest Discussion, PvE Healing, Raid Strategy, Ulduar
The Conquest strike team reached General V on Monday evening. In the final hour remaining in our raid night, we spent most of the time identifying the environmental elements of the fight.
What did the Saronite Vapors look like?
What’s Shadow Crash?
How do we deal with Mark of the Faceless?
More importantly for healers, how do we manage our mana while being truly unable to gain it back unless it’s from said Vapors?
One of the aspects of the fight that I noticed early on is Shadow Crash.
"â€ÂFires a shadow missile at a target. Upon impact, it leaves an energy field that lingers for 20 seconds, increases magical damage dealt by 100%, increasing casting speed by 100%, reducing healing done by 75%, and reducing mana costs by 70%.â€Â
The primary strength of Discipline Priests lie in their powers of mitigation. Shadow Crash affects a healer’s mana cost, cast speed, and actual healing done. You can see where I’m going with this.
Power Word: Shield is instant. The casting speed debuff won’t have an effect there. It’s also not technically a heal. It’s a damage absorption. Finally it does reduce the cost of shields by 70%.
The bottom line: ~200 mana costing shields. Very nice.
Heh, I’m not going to jinx the week by predicting whether or not we’ll obtain a kill. I had an internal progression timeline for Ulduar when it came out and we’re right on schedule.
I'm Matticus and I play a Dwarf Priest. My home is in Conquest, a raiding Guild that I have founded. Every week, I log 12 hours raiding on Ner'Zhul.
Wynthea is the Troll Priest with the best Mohawk on Firetree. Currently, I raid 4 nights a week in a hardcore guild. I started playing WoW in May 2005, and raiding end-game in May 2007. My guild is currently working through 25-man WotLK content. I've tried playing other classes, but Priests are my passion. I am extremely fond of Dwarves.... especially with Ketchup. 
My name is Sydera and I like to heal things--think Florence Nightingale with foliage. I play a night elf druid on Ner'Zhul, and I raid 12 hours a week. As a guild officer for Conquest, I coordinate healing and recruit new raiders. I started playing WoW in Fall 2005, and it was love at first click. Before I discovered the joys of Broccoli-stalk healing, I raided as a holy paladin, and I now have alts in all healing classes. I have to say, though, bark beats poofy dresses and heavy plate in my book.
Congratulations we hope to be working on the big ugly sunday as well. I will tell our Disc priest about this night shield haven.
Vezax is easy once you pull 1-2 times and get the “ah-ha” feeling having actually seen the fight. Success hinges on interrupt rotations as one missed flame = wipe.
Interrupts are very easy, however after surge wears off if tank is too far from him Vezax will sprint off and unless you have a warrior available to close the gap with charge/pummel, it can be trouble.
GL
Good luck!! This is definitely something I’ll keep in mind when I see him next.
(have gotten him in 10man so far)
Antimonis last blog post..Only *FIVE* Days left
GB: We’re thinking about sticking a DK tank on General V just so kiting isn’t necessary.
I plan on making the most of this mechanism when we face him next. my guild warlock actually suggested it to me. gotta just get through mimiron tonight. blah.
khaelis last blog post..An (Advanced) Guide to Bad Healing
Nice tip, thanks, Matt! We downed him last week on 10 man, but I haven’t thought of this trick. Will use it once we get to him again for sure =)
We use mages(counterspell) and shamans(Earth Shock) to interrupt during the kiting,we also have a druid(our OT) cat dps for this and when the kiting phase is about to start out MT warrior Intervenes to him,we also bubble out MT(our other priest is specced into Body and Soul for this fight) and it helps.
I Agree with Dysastria. Having all interrupt classes ready to go isn’t a bad idea. I also spec into Body and Soul for this fight, and it makes the kiting phase/strategy less dependent on a Warrior’s Intervene.
We’re planning on trying the “DK-Hold” technique tonight, so I’ll be sure to give this strat a whirl! Nice insight!
Caness last blog post..GG Vezax
Also, Matt, don’t be shy to have your pallies use their bubble/raid damage absorbing ability during the ‘enrages’ to help the tank live through it – you can use PS too, but be careful since the tank’s threat will be lower due to the swing speed debuff and the caster dps threat will be higher from the haste buffs. Also, if you can, try to save Saronite vapors for the last 25% too, never have morethan one green pool down at once since you’ll need the mana restoration towards the end of the fight.
Derevkas last blog post..3.1 Priest Specs – Redux
I did Vezax last week as discipline, but I coudn’t use this trick as much as I wanted.
There are not a lot a predictible damage, and as I was healing the MT, I coudn’t just stand on the energy fields and spam PW:S, I had to cast healing spells.
I tried to go in and out of the energy fields, but a PW:S that lands 2 seconds later isn’t that useful, and I’m not sure it was really effective because of latency (I didn’t have time to watch my debuffs before casting)
How do you use this mecanism ?
I also note that rapture worked during the fight.
Use a DK here and let him use icebound fort(?) on every big hitting phase. We combine it with 3 priest cooldown (glyphed GS and PS) and nothing will happen to him if the itterrupts go as they should. Make 2 healing teams of 3 healers and let them switch every 2 big phases and 1on the raid and you ll kill him within the hour.
I can’t wait to get to Vezax. This fight was made for the shield and I can’t wait to try it out
Kenny Ds last blog post..What Happened, Penance? You Used to be Cool.