Monday, November 26, 2007

Supremus

Difficulty: 2/5 Shields
Extra Gear Requirements: None
Protection Paladin Loot: Band of the Abyssal Lord, Pauldrons of Abyssal Fury, The Brutalizer

Supremus is a large demon Infernal with two phases. Phase 1 he's Patchwerk 2.0, hitting the player with the most hitpoints in melee-range with a Hurtful Strike. Warriors and Feral Druids are ideal tanks for these because they often have superior armor and stamina to paladin tanks at this point in Black Temple.

Even if you are the better geared tank, you should not volunteer for the Hurtful-Tank position. Every 1 minute phase Supremus switches and drops all threat. An Avenger's Shield + Exorcism will get him interested in you again. Paladins excel at MT'ing this boss due to the ranged threat acquisition necessary for phase switches. Now for phase 2!

Phase 2 Supremus does his best Thaladred impression and wanders around the area gazing players and chasing after them. He has essentially no threat during this phase, but it is possibly to pull aggro off of his Gaze with exceptional TPS. This is very rare and has no consequence. After 1 minute of Thaladred, he'll revert back to Patchwerk and start heading for the nearest healer/searing totem/warlock who was unfortunate enough to still be doing something when he shifted. This is where your exorcism comes in. Grab him back and position him somewhat in the middle so DPS can begin again.

Things to watch for: The fires that snake around often cross under him. Don't stand in them as the extra damage often overwhelms healers. Be sure to shift out of them while not leaving his hitbox, as doing so will squish your non-tank melee. Also, depending on how reliable your healers are, you may recommend that non-tank melee stand in the fires some to get their health pools low. Healers should ignore healing them to guarantee they don't receive an unexpected Hurtful Strike.

I often switch back and forth between Righteousness and Vengeance for this fight. During the Thaladred phase, it's easy to chase Supremus around stacking vengeance while keeping your crusader judgement up. If you're feeling confident about his general pathing, casters will love you to switch to wisdom until the very end of the phase in which you can switch back to Crusader. Finally, the volcanoes he spawns during Thaladred Phase hurt everyone pretty badly, you'll do well to not get too close to them. Don't hestitate to Divine Shield and run through them if you're trying to get back to Supremus before a shift, the temporary immunity will have no bearing on Supremus' aggro table.

High Warlord Naj'entus


Difficulty: 3/5 Shields
Extra Gear Requirements: None
Protection Paladin Loot: Tide-Stompers Greaves, Eternium Shell Bracers

This fight is very straightforward to tank. He hits moderately hard, but nothing out of the ordinary from what you've seen already. I would rate his melee damage as somewhere between Void Reaver and Morogrim Tidewalker.

Position him in the middle of the room after your misdirect and allow your melee to move around behind him to his left and right flanks. Stand here and TPS your heart out. Very straightforward.

Be careful using SoV for tanking on this fight. You will be unable to apply any debuffs during his Tidal Shield, and dropping your vengeance stack during the middle of the fight is unacceptable. SoR shines here as the tanking seal of choice. Judging crusader is an option, and as long as your spine-throwers are not too slow you should be able to refresh it yourself without judging after the shield bursts.