Gunship Battle Strategy Page

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Gunship Battle Strategy Page

saedo — Thu, 10/15/2009 - 11:22

Abilities:

Muradin Bronzebeard / High Overlord Saurfang:

Battle Fury - Increases all damage done by 5% (7% in 25). Instant (self buff, stacks with each attack)
Cleave - Inflicts 110% of normal melee damage to an enemy and its nearest allies, affecting up to 3 targets.
Rending Throw - Throws your weapon at the enemy causing 8% weapon damage and an additional 2750 Physical damage every 3.0 sec for 15 sec. Unlimited range. Instant

Gunship Cannon:

Cannon Blast - Launches a cannonball at the target. Inflicts 1000 Siege damage and generates 6 to 10 Heat.
Incinerating Blast -Consumes all of the cannon's Heat to launch a massive ball of fire at the target. Inflicts 1000 Siege damage plus additional damage per point of Heat.

Sergeants:

Bladestorm - Instantly Whirlwind up to 4 nearby targets and for the next 6 sec you will perform a whirlwind attack every 1.0 sec. While under the effects of Bladestorm, you can move but cannot perform any other abilities but you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed. Instant
Experienced - Damage done increased by 30%. Attack and casting speeds increased by 20%. Instant (stacks over time)
Desperate Resolve - Increases armor and attack speed by 60% (120% armor in 25). Instant (occurs near death)
Wounding Strike - Inflicts 200% weapon damage and leaves the target wounded, reducing the effectiveness of any healing by 25% (40% in 25) for 10 sec. Melee range. Instant

Reavers:

Experienced - Damage done increased by 30%. Attack and casting speeds increased by 20%. Instant (stacks over time)
Desperate Resolve - Increases armor and attack speed by 60% (120% armor in 25). Instant (occurs near death)

Battle Mage:

Below Zero - Freezes the target in a block of ice by concentrating and freezing moisture in the air. The caster must channel to maintain the ice block. Unlimited range. Instant

Rocketeers:

Explosion - The rocket explodes, inflicting 6300 to 7700 Fire damage to nearby enemies and Siege damage to the enemy gunship. Unlimited range. Instant
Rocket Artilery - Launches a rocket that explodes on impact, inflicting Fire damage to nearby enemies and Siege damage to the enemy gunship. Unlimited range. 5 sec cast
Experienced - Damage done increased by 30%. Attack and casting speeds increased by 20%. Instant (stacks over time)
Desperate Resolve - Increases armor and attack speed by 60% (120% armor in 25). Instant (occurs near death)

Axethrowers:

Hurl Axe - Hurl an axe at the target, inflicting 5700-6300 Physical damage. Unlimited range. 2 sec cast
Experienced - Damage done increased by 30%. Attack and casting speeds increased by 20%. Instant (stacks over time)
Desperate Resolve - Increases armor and attack speed by 60% (120% armor in 25). Instant (occurs near death)

The Fight:

This is the whole Horde vs Alliance Gunship battle. The goal is it use the ship's Cannons to destroy the other ship before they destroy your ship.

Before you start, everyone should talk to the goblin npc to get yourself a Jetpack, hotkey it, put it on your action bars or something. This is the means to jump from one ship to the other.

Cannons

There'll be 4 (2 in 10 man) of these. They work on an Overheat mechanic. Using "1", the Cannon Blast, will do the attack and fill your bar with "Heat" (your combo point mechanic). When the bar fills up, you overheat and will be immobalized for 5 seconds. Using "2", the Incinerating Blast, will remove all your heat and do extra damage. So the goal is, to get as much Heat as possible without Overheating, and use the Incinerating Blast. Watch the guages and don't mindlessly spam.

Use these to damage the boat and kill adds over there when you can.

Anyone can do this, healers if you normally heavy in them if you want. Preferably your melee dps (lowest) cause they're not as useful on the defending boat, and can always jump to the attacking one when needed.

Meanwhile the rest of the raid will have to deal with adds. Both on the defending ship and the attacking ship, so assign people to jump over (pref melee) when it's time.

Also, every single one of these adds has 2 common "abilities". Experienced, which is a stacking buff that grows over time, try to make sure to kill any long standing add up or they'll start hitting real hard/fast. Desperate Resolve, which makes them hit faster at low health so a bit of spike damage just before they die.

Defenders

Occasionally, a portal will spawn and a group of adds start spawning. You'll need 1 tank, a few healers, and a bunch of dps. Preferably the ranged, as it'll be easier if they can aoe the adds while at range.

Reavers / Marines

These are more like the fodder adds. They're "smaller", greater numbers, no real special abilities, but just hits hard. So the tank has to gather them up, aoe them down.

Sergeants

These are the big guys in the group. They hit harder, have a Mortal Strike (Wounding Strike), and they can Bladestorm. This is why it's preferable to have ranged. Easier to dodge it while keeping up with the aoe than melee would be.

One last note, your ship captain (Muradin/Saurfang) can join the fight and help with these adds. You just need to draw their attention so the tank drags adds over to him if he didn't aggro on to them yet.

Another last note, on this boat you'll also be the target of Rocket Strikes, it'll be a big red/orange targeting reticule under you. Try not to stand under them, it's extra damage to avoid.

Heroic Mode: These Rocket Strikes will have a 7 yard knockback to them when you're hit. So more of an annoyance than before.

Attackers

Using the Jetpacks, send over a tank, and the melee dps (preferably) to attack the other ship. The healers can stay on the Defending boat to heal so long as people stay in range.

You can send over the team right away to start culling the adds. Or you can just wait around til a Battle Mage (Sorcerer) appears. More on those later

Saurfang / Muradin

On the Attacking boat, their ship captain will have to be picked up and tanked. Hits hard and cleaves, so tank should go over first and make sure to tank in range of healers.

The only "trick" he does is Battle Fury which is a self stacking buff that increases his damage done per stack. It stacks with every attack he attempts, with a small internal CD, so eventually it'll start hitting real hard.

The tank is to merely keep his attention for as long as possible, say 10-15, maybe 20 stacks if you got the CDs, and call for an evacuation of the boat. Everyone leaves, wait for the stacks to fall off before returning, then repeat.

There is one more thing he does, Rending Throw, which is a stacking bleed thrown from ranged whenever he's not being tanked. This means people just need to out range him on the boat to force a reset.

Last note, don't kill him, or even bother trying. It's a waste of time, and there's a few reports it either bugs the whole encounter out, or he insta wipes your raid.

The rest of the adds do not really hit back so can be attacked recklessly. They merely target randomly to our boat with their attacks. The cannons can also be used to burn them down.

Rocketeers / Morter

At the back of the ship, these guys are the ones firing rockets at the ship. Killing these would slow them down. They have low hp and can be burned fairly fast.

Axethrowers / Riflemen

At the front of the ship are these guys shooting at the people on your ship. They can be easily reached by the ranged dps from our ship as well as Cannon fire. These have slightly more hp and in greater numbers. Killing these would reduce some raid damage.

Battle Mage / Sorcerer

These will spawn then do nothing but channel a spell that freezes all your cannons. i.e. make them completely inoperable. This is when your dps on the attacking boat must all focus it down. The mage won't be attacking back, so kill fast then the fight with the cannons can resume.

If need be, the ones on the cannon or any other spare dps can jump over to kill the mage to make it all the more faster.

And that's all to the fight, just repeat, jumping back and forth when need be. Collect free loot.

Hard Mode Summary

Besides hitting harder and having more HP... The Rocket Strikes will do a 7 yard knockback. Fun times!

Achievements:

I'm on a Boat - Claim victory in the Gunship Battle in which every raid member visits the enemy gunship only once in 10/25-player mode.

In the 10 man, we first waited until the first Mage appears before sending the Attackers over. They stay on for a couple of Mages before jumping back. Then the 2nd team waits for a battle mage, and they jump over, kill ship before they all die. One thing of note, brez's or use of rocket pack on the attacking ship will negate the achievement. It appears to try to figure it out by how many times your feet lands on the ship, so don't do any jet pack kiting.

Updated this. One note,

saedo — Thu, 12/31/2009 - 12:56

Updated this.

One note, reports are that the Battle Fury buff works on an Internal CD with each attack he does. Not each attack he lands. That means the whole concept of avoidance and kiting is kinda useless.

Also some notes for I'm on a Boat, reports are...

Battle Rezing counts as a 2nd visit.
Jetpack'ing around the Boat each counts as a visit (no kiting!)
Raids in 25 mans seem to use 3 tanks in the fight, 2 of the tanks are range taunting Saurfang and the healers just heal through the Rending Throw.

Updated this page. There are

saedo — Fri, 11/27/2009 - 12:58

Updated this page.

There are jetpacks to pick up from an npc. Get em, action bar em, use em to jump from ship to ship.
3-4 cannons, up to them to win the encounter
Defenders should have 1 tank, 3ish healers, ranged, watch for whirlwinds and rocket strikes
Attackers should have 1 tank, 2ish healers, 5ish melee, 3ish plate on the Axethrowers (8 total), 2ish on the Rocketeers (4 total), they will always respawn
Bronzebeard/Saurfang should be kept occupied by the tank but not killed, so ignore deal with adds
Rest of adds have Experienced buff which stacks over time, important to not leave anything alive too long
Also have Desperate Resolve buff near death, so healers watch for spike damage
Battle Mage is to be dps'd down asap
Repeat

Here's a kill vid for

saedo — Fri, 10/30/2009 - 11:21

Here's a kill vid for this:

So clarity on a few things. Appears to be 3 cannons. The raid seems to be somewhat evenly split on both gunships.

On your boat side, seems like 1 tank for all the adds, aoe single target whatever. The Sergeant appears to be the big "boss" type threat of the bunch.

On the enemy boat side, you appear to have a single tank for Saurfang/Muradin. While the rest of the raid kills off Rocketeers as they're the ones hitting your gunship. Also kill the axethrowers. Not sure if they need tanks, or maybe psuedo tank, appears people were hitting them no problems. Anyways, when the mage appears, switch to that.

To switch boats, it appears that you merely have to walk off the edge and you'd be launched there. So you can freely move from one side to the other if help is needed.

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