Here’s a summary of some mechanics and their counters in the current m+ pool (TWW s2) that I believe most people do not know about, as they aren’t utterly obvious. This is from the perspective of someone who’s pugging 15s as a tank, where I repeatedly see people taking unecessary damage, fail to use the proper utilities, and make things harder than they need to be. This will not cover any skips, as I believe you should decide for yourself wether those are to your taste or not.
If you believe I’ve missed something important, let me know and I’ll add it to the list if I deem it worthy. Please point out if there’s anything that’s been fixed too, as I haven’t attempted all of these things just recently as of writing this list.
Cinderbrew Meadery
Summary
- Flavor Scientist are the mobs that casts Failed Batch (explosive that needs to be killed). If you feel like those are annoying, prioritize the scientist in big pulls. Failed batch can also be line of sighted to negate its damage entirely, but it requires smart positioning by the tank as it will always spawn under the tank.
- Yes Man (4 mobs before last boss) heals for 100% hp when one of them dies, this can be countered in several different ways:
- Kill them at the same time. If you manage to synchronize their deaths they will all die simultaenously. Hard, but possible.
- Have a priest use Dominate Mind on one of them as it is about to die. When another Yes Man dies, the controlled Yes Man won’t heal. Let the priest drop control (through a macro) and kill the previously controlled Yes Man.
- Arms warriors Mortal Strike reduces healing done by 50%. That means that if you’re cleaving adds properly, they won’t heal to full (as long as their hp is below 50% when one of them dies).
- The heal has a maximum range. One of the party members can taunt the dying Yes Man and move it far away from the group to avoid it healing the others. This is hard to pull off, as other Yes Man may use their jump onto the player that pulls away, or the Yes Man that’s being pulled away may jump into the team again.
Darkflame Cleft
Summary
- Rank Overseer casts Wild Wallop which knocks players and mobs away. To prevent the knockback of mobs, you can use roots such as Ursol’s Vortex, Earthgrab Totem, Mass Entanglement and Champion’s spear. Additionally, a well timed Sigil of Chains pulls them back into position just as they get knocked away, but the timing is hard to pull off. Knock-ups like Thunderstorm (talented), Shockwave (talented) and Implosive trap cancels the knock-back, but requires precise timing and can be hard to pull off.
- Rank Overseer also casts Overpowering Roar which deals aoe damage. This can be avoided through line of sight.
- Lowly Moleherd casts Throw Rock at players that are between 10 and 30 yards away from it. To avoid it casting on you, simply stand in melee range of the mob. If everyone is in melee, it doesn’t cast at all.
- Wandering Candle casts Quenching blast which deals aoe damage. This can be avoided entirely by line of sight. In the first room where there’s multiple of them the DPS and healers can LoS in the hallway, and in the bossroom (Blazikon) you can LoS behind one of the candles that surrounds the arena.
- After the second boss (Blazikon) there’s a bunch of small casters, Cobold Flametender. To gather these, the tank can pull one of them and step back a bit into the hallway, whilst DPS and healer also wait a few seconds. They’ll gather up in the bottleneck that is the hallway and start casting, and you may now cc and aoe freely without them being spread. (You don’t need to make them move all the way through the hallway, just let them stack up in the entrance of the hallway through LoS).
- The third boss (The Candle King) summons statues in near proximity of the players. To avoid spreading statues, stack up on tank at pull and after every clear with Throw Darkflame.
- In the minecart event, the minecart stops moving if there’s no players within its circle, or if there’s mobs in combat within its circle. The tank can move ahead, grab a candle and hold it while he picks up more mobs in front of the minecart. This way he won’t be punished with reduced damage/healing done, and can keep the minecart moving. Simply keep the mobs somewhat in front of the minecart so that DPS can kill them whilst the minecart is moving forward, saving time.
- In the room before the last boss (The Darkness), there’s Corridoor Creepers and Corridoor Sleepers (the ones that are asleep). They both contribute equally much to %, but the Corridoor Sleepers don’t inflict the tank with the DoT Creeping Shadow, making them safer to pull than their counterparts.
- The last boss (The Darkness) casts Shadowblast on a target, dealing damage in a circle around its target and reduces the heat of the candle if it hits the candle. This spell can be negated entirely through abilities like night elfs Shadowmeld (I believe mage can invis too, but not sure).
Priory of the Sacred Flame
Summary
- Fervent Sharpshooter (archers) will jump behind a player every now and then. To avoid spreading mobs, stack on tank when these are pulled.
- Arathi Footman will start casting Defend, reducing damage taken in a small area as long as it’s channeled, when they reach 50% hp. To avoid wasting cc, aim to make them hit 50% at the same time so you can interrupt all of their Defend channels with one aoe ability.
- First boss (Captain Dailcry) inflicts the tank with a bleed multiple times through the fight. This can be dispelled by evokers Cauterizing Flame, making the fight substantially easier for tanks.
- Ardent Paladin casts Sacred Toll which deals aoe damage. These are force desynced, meaning that no matter how many paladins you pull, you’ll never have 2 casts going off at the same time. When you pull groups with these mobs, they’ll never be the dangerous ones, instead focus on interrupting casters.
- Second boss (Baron Braunpyke) summons a Sacrificial Pyre that needs to be soaked, either 3 or 5 times, alternating between when he’s empowered and when he’s not. The pyre lasts for 30 seconds, giving you plenty of time to soak. When soaking, the dot lasts for 12 seconds, meaning that you can soak once, let the dot drop, and still have 18 seconds to soak another time before letting the dot drop. Don’t rush. DK’s and paladins can also solo soak through Anti-magic shield, Divine Shield, and Blessing of Spell-warden. DK’s should save their AMS for when there’s 5 pyres to soak, and use it along with Death’s Advance to safely and effectively solo soak all 5 pyres. They can do this every time there’s 5 pyres. To avoid giving your healer a heart attack, soak after boss has cast Castigator’s Shield and healer have topped everyone.
- When fighting Sir Braunpyke use Bloodlust on any key that isn’t a trivial key for you. You need it more there than on the last boss.
- Last boss (Prioress Murrpray) enters an intermission phase at 50% hp, spawning adds that can’t be tanked. These adds take pulsing aoe damage during the boss fight, and will eventually die without you attacking them at all. To make these adds harmless, cc them whilst they’re running up. Spells like Sigil of Misery, Earthgrab Totem, Earthbind Totem, Capacitor totem, Death and Decay (talented with slow effect), Champions spear, Ursol’s vortex, Mass entanglement, Ring of Frost, Frost Nova etc can keep them away from your group long enough for them to die on their own, without them ever reaching you.
The Rookery
Summary
- Void-Cursed Crusher casts Void Crush on a player, leaping onto them and inflicting damage. This can be negated by a well timed death grip by a DK, or any cc just as they jump (they’ll still jump, but deal no damage).
- Coalescing Void Diffuser casts Arcing Void on a player, inflicting damage in an aoe circle around the player. This ability can be negated entirely by line of sight.
- Second boss (Stormguard Gorem) casts Chaotic Corruption on a player, which after a few seconds jumps to the next closest player. A DK can cheese this by using Anti-magic Shield as he pick up the corruption, removing the corruption entirely and preventing it from spreading to more players.
- Last boss (Voidstone Monstrosity) casts a frontal ability called Oblivion Wave on the tank. The frontal damage can be negated entirely by the tank if he’s at maximum melee range and simply sidesteps the wave. DH tanks can leap out of the wave.
Operation: Floodgate
Summary
- Shreddinator 3000 casts Shreddation Sawblade, spawning a sawblade at the players current locations. To avoid spreading these and make tank positioning easier for the incoming Flamethrower stack up on tank and be quick to move out from the sawblades (you get about a second before they start to deal damage).
- Darkfuse Demolitionist will cast R.P.G.G, spawning big circles that inflicts damage if you stand in them when they erupt. After that it will channel Reload for 5.5 seconds, rendering it harmless during that period. Let one cast of R.P.G.G go off, then make sure to cc during the later stages of Reload to make all pulls with this mob much easier.
- Darkfuse Inspector teleports behind a player and start to cast Surprise Inspection for frontal damage. To avoid spreading these far away from the rest of the mobs, try to stack up in melee range.
Theater of Pain
Summary
- Raging Bloodhorn will enrage and start dealing heavy aoe damage. Soothe the mob with abilities like tranquilizing shot and soothe to stop the aoe damage.
- Mini-bosses Nekthara the Mangler and Ardent Nevermore will cast Whirling Blade, summoning spinning swords at 3 players location. To avoid spreading those, stack at the tank and move as one unit around the arena if you’re fighting these mini-bosses.
- Fourth boss (Gorechop) will summon adds that casts Leaping Trash, leaping to a player and dealing damage on impact. In higher keys these may 2-tap your entire health bar, but it can be avoided. You can desync their leaps (if you’re tracking those with a weakaura), by stunning/ccing one of them right as the other is about to leap. You can also avoid taking any damage entirely by moving away from the impact zone, but it’ll be hard to manage distance and speed properly throughout the fight.
Operation: Mechagon
Summary
- Waste Processing Unit will cast Mega Drill, dealing aoe damage to all players. You can pull multiple of these mobs, but you must in that case make sure to desync their Mega Drill casts, as otherwise it’ll likely overwhelm the healer.
- Junkyard D.O.G. will cast Fiery Jaws and leap to a player, inflicting them with a DoT. This can be prevented entirely by stunning/ccing them just as they leap, but is extremely hard to pull off.
- On the way to the last boss (King Mechagon) you’ll face packs with Workshop Defenders and Defense Bot Mk III. The Workshop Defenders will cast Shield Generator, spawning a shield that reduces damage taken by 75% for both players and mobs that are inside the shield. The tank can move mobs to be just outside of the shield, so that he and the rest of the team can cover within the shields whilst Defense Bot Mk III channels Short Out for aoe damage. That way you reduce damage taken substantially, whilst effectively killing the group of mobs.
- Last boss phase 2 (Omega Buster) will channel Magneto-Arm, inflicting aoe damage on the group. This deals more damage the further away you are from the boss (technically it deals less damage ghe further away you are from the magnet, but the magnet is always far away from boss), so make sure to be in melee range when this is cast.
The MOTHERLODE!!
Summary
- The first boss (Coin-Operated Pummeler) will cast Footbomb Launcher, launching bombs that needs to be punted into the boss. To prevent these from spreading too much, tank the boss at a wall. These bombs also increases damage taken by 25% when they hit the boss, stacking up to 6 times. Maximize this bonus damage uptime by punting 5 bombs as fast as possible, and punting the last (6:th) bomb into the boss shortly before it’s about to blow. This way you deal 150% increased damage to the boss for twice as long, making it a much quicker kill.
- The third boss (Rixxa Fluxflame) absolutely chunks the tank with her attacks, often doing 50-75% of the tanks hp with one attack if defensives or active mitigation aren’t up. Healer make sure to focus on healing the tank, as that is the only healing that will be needed that fight.
- Last boss (Mogul Razdunk) has a safe spot to avoid all incoming Micro Missiles. If you’re looking at the arena from the stairscase, the safe spot is located at the down-right corner of the vent to the left. Use the safe spot at your own risk, as most often people trusts it blindly and dies to other mechanics instead, bricking the key. It’s good for coordinated groups, awful for pugs you can’t trust.