Magmaw 10 Man Kill

Magmaw death image courtesy of Carebear.

Features: Serial Peacekeepers - Aerie Peak

From Left to Right: Chame, Detroitt, Jellybean, Elunairis, Carebear, Ocin, Fragilegoods, Wisdomteeth, Lilchris, and Epictetus.

So, my guild and I experienced our first success in Cataclysm raiding with the death of Magmaw.  With this kill there are a number of truths.  Cataclysm is going to be a new experience of raiding.  Gone are the days of nuking bosses down with no thought of mechanics.  Also gone are the days of killing bosses without every single raid member putting in a solid effort.

Our kill involved a strategy of keeping a single ranged on the outside, a tank holding aggro to one side, and the rest of the group (3 healers and 5 DPS) up against Magmaw on his backside.  This allowed the majority of the group to focus on Magmaw without a lot of movement.

A fundamental point of this strategy is that the ranged on the outside must be the strongest range for burst threat for the worm spawn.  This strategy collapses quickly if the ranged inside the DPS group pull the worms in amongst the healers and melee. 

Unfortunately, our outside DPS (Hunter) was fighting for threat against the other ranged DPS and our dedicated Frost DK.  To solve this issue, when the worms spawned and were slowed by the hunter's trap, the Fire Mage and Frost DK would unload on the worms as they moved from the DPS group to the position of the hunter.

Another major point of this strategy is the Crash.  Magmaw drops to the floor, doing AoE damage and stunning anyone in the area.  The area itself is huge vertically, ranging from Magmaw to the back of the room.  The way to avoid this is to move horizontally, essentially a glorified sidestep.

Once we figured out how to figure out our threat on the worms and how to avoid crash, Magmaw was an easy kill. 

Our first attempts on Defense System left a lot to be desired, but progress was certainly made in a positive direction.  Hoping for another kill and another step down the Blackwing Descent.

Note of most importance: We tend to have significantly more difficulty on trash and their mechanics than bosses.  We wiped more on the guardians previous to the Defense System than the Defense System itself.