Replying to Tortos

The heroic guide should mention paladin tanks and how they make this fight a joke. With their insane amount of damage absorb/block (thanks to the high amount of vengeance) they can tank alone Tortos and the bats without loosing the crystal buff, meanwhile they do insane amount raid/self heal.

We ended up killing it with 4 attempts today by killing bats until like 15%~

Need some advice on Heroic Tortos.

Currently we have a warrior tank kiting bats for the entirety of the encounter. We also have 3 hunters who are suppose to keep serpent sting on the bats to whittle down their health so there's not as many bats. I also think a destruction warlock is assisting with bats and stunning when our warrior needs a stun.

We currently die around 30-15% because our warrior dies to bats and then the bats melt our face. There is also a small agro issue... I won't go into details because I know what we should do for that and it would be pointless to discuss.. Does someone have any opinions on what we should do?

They told me that they tried a stray where they killed the bats, but they didn't have enough time for turtles and a new set spawned when they killed the first. I wasn't there for that attempt but I'm not entirely sure how much trouble we would have with that.

Other than our warrior tank not dieing, does any one have a suggestion for us to try? Is there an easier way for us to kill bats through out the encounter?

Logs on longest attempt: http://worldoflogs.c...s=11998&e=12547

I play Demonology and destroy the bats.  The group I joined used a kiting method for their first kill then found the method of killing the bats FAR easier, especially with a Blood DK, UH DK, and a Demo Warlock melting the bats in about 15 seconds freeing up some time to DPS Tortos.  As for the slowing aspect, we use a Moonkin and Frost/Fire Mage to keep the Turtles slowed.  We also use a Shaman totem and some other slow stuff.

One of the things I enjoy about this tier is the ability to kill things with different strategies!

Zagam, there is also a kiting strategy floating around where you get a tank to run around and kite the adds the whole fight (I.e. Heroic spine of deathwing) do you know anything about this?

Also because of this strategy our warlocks are playing affliction for the movement speed reduction on the bats. What spec do you play?

Tortos

Differences from normal mode
-higher HP and damage
-Quake Stomp deals 100% of a players maximum HP minus any absorption effects

Pretty similar to normal mode except Quake Stomp deals MUCH more damage and must be paid attention to in order to survive. All players must pay attention to this buff called the Crystal Shell buff. You'll receive it by hitting one of the six crystals laid around the room. Any ability will give yourself a 'debuff' that will start absorbing all incoming heals exactly like Spirit Shell. Because Quake Stomp is followed by a lot of falling stalagmites, you'll want to survive the first Quake Stomp by immediately getting a crystal. The Crystal Shell debuff will provide you a shield for 15% of your maximum HP, but healers can push this to 75% of your maximum HP through heals. Using other absorption effects like Illuminated Healing, Power Word:Shield and Spirit Shell, you can prevent all damage rather easily. Simply repeat this cycle:

Grab Crystal Shell debuff to survive first Quake Stomp
Dodge falling rocks
When falling rocks ends, grab Crystal Shell debuff to survive next Quake Stomp

All other facets of the fight are exactly like normal mode. Bats must be killed by heavy AoE abilities. These are spawned at around a 45 second timer. You'll need two DPS (preferably ranged) dedicated to killing Whirl Turtles. At 25%, pop Bloodlust and burn the boss while surviving.

Difficulty: as a Warlock, this fight seemed no different other than hitting some crystal. Everything else was the same. Just put out of your head that it's Heroic and you won't even really notice the difference.

The soft enrage mechanic is that after 5 minutes (or possibly at low health?) the Call of Tortos boss ability that spawns whirl turtles is cast with increasing frequency.

Here is the relevant combat log entries from our 10N kill tonight

[01:45:43.203] (fight begins)
[01:46:04.343] Tortos casts Call of Tortos
[01:47:04.828] Tortos casts Call of Tortos
[01:48:05.375] Tortos casts Call of Tortos
[01:49:05.750] Tortos casts Call of Tortos
[01:50:06.187] Tortos casts Call of Tortos
[01:50:35.062] Tortos casts Call of Tortos
[01:50:54.546] Tortos casts Call of Tortos
[01:51:06.500] Tortos casts Call of Tortos

As you can see, the first 5 calls are 60 seconds apart. The 6th is 30 seconds later, the 7th is 20 seconds later, the 8th is 10 seconds later, and they continue to accelerate until there are so many whirl turtles alive that your raid is quickly overwhelmed.

Some corrections based on scanning the logs of our fight last night:
Vampiric bats first spawn every 45 seconds, not every 30 seconds
Tortos soft enrage begins at ~20% health, it is not time based
When tortos soft enrages, he summons 3 new whirl turtles every 15 seconds (up from 60 seconds)

A few suggestions on strategies:
1) DPS cannot keep up with killing whirl turtles once he soft enrages.  This means 20% is essentially a boss burn phase - all DPS should be on boss (and bats if they happen to be up) and this is also the best time to use heroism.
2) Since the soft enrage is percentage based, you can control when it happens by holding back DPS as you approach it.  Ideally he would push over right before the next normal 60 second whirl turtle summon occurs
3) If you have a spare turtle, kick it at the bats to put the Shell Concussion debuff on them so they take increased damage.  If you tank the bats in the middle in front of the boss you can hit the bats and Tortos with the same turtle shell.
4) A healing or personal defensive cooldown should be used on the bat tank for each group of bats to reduce the chance of them dropping below 350k health.  Bat tanks may also want to equip stamina trinkets for extra health.

Kaltenberg, on 20 March 2013 - 10:44 AM, said:

Thanks, adding it to the guide now!

"The Tortos tank must be prepared for the Snapping Bites that Tortos regularly casts. There is no cast time for these, but given their predictable behaviour, boss mods should be able to alert you of them."

There is a 1-1.5sec castbar for this ability, making it easy to save up rage and use Shield Barrier right as he casts it.