Ruby Sanctum, it’s a filler raid, it exists to give a tiny piece of lore for the upcoming expansion and to stop players unsubscribing by giving us a whole new internet dragon to kill. However in some respects it’s better than the content which has gone before.
The trash requires some thought, particularly from the tanks in how they position and manage the knockbacks, there’s nothing like picking up an extra pack or two due to a badly handled knockback to ruin your day, and repair bill. Of the three minibosses, two are in the “loot pinata” category. However one again requires thought, co-ordination and a bit of planning.
However, they’re all there as a starter course for the main event, Halion himself. Big, ugly and let’s be honest, pink.
Normal dragon rules apply, tail does a swipe, the head has some serious bad breath and he cleaves. Healers and DPS, you do know where you’re meant to stand and it’s not at either end.
Much like a baby bad things come from the head and tail.
Phase 1
Nuke, nuke, run away when the debuff lands on your head (hope your cleansers are up to speed) and drop the puddle of bad away from the raid, ideally towards the edge. The tank needs to move the boss when the meteor strikes leave fire in the wrong place. Easy. (Note: Tank here is ‘Fire Tank’ or FT)
Phase 2
There’s a couple of things to watch, the Twilight tank (TT) has to go through the portal first and pick up the boss and turn him a bit so the rest of the raid isn’t nuked as they come through. Popping a cooldown helps the healers a lot here. FT and possibly a healer will remain in the Fire realm as this makes the P2 -> P3 transition easier.
Some description of the twilight realm is in order, as with the fire realm we have the circular arena bounded by the walls of fire, the portal spawn points for P3 are at 11 & 5 o’clock as seen from the instance portal. The boss will remain in the center and around the edge of the arena some shadow orbs circle the raid and boss. (Heroic mode there are four equally spaced).
The cutter is the key to this phase and realm, evey 30 seconds for 10 seconds a beam of shadow energy fires between the two orbs, don’t be in it (14-16k damage on 25-man normal every second you’re in it).
TT will initially get his position stablised and watch for the orbs around the circle, we’ve been going for a positioning where the cutter spawns to the right of the tank with the raid to his left (the dragon’s right). This keeps the raid clear of his tail which can ruin everyone’s day. The TT will start moving the boss, spinning him in position clockwise, keeping the far orb and the tail as the reference point. It’s worth using the targeting circle as a guide, but do not be on top of it as this means there is very little room for error on the cutter, so back off a bit.
Keep the boss turning, announce clearly over vent when you’re going to start moving him and keep going, focusing on positioning and as much threat as is possible while being constantly on the move. DPS will have to watch their threat and back off, with the movement there is a limit to how much threat the tank can throw out.
Phase 3
The raid splits and dps has to be balanced between the two realms, for both tanks this is pretty much a repeat of what they’ve been doing before, slightly easier for the TT as there are less in the raid in the twilight realm giving everyone more space to move.
That’s it. Oh and if you’re anything like me have the cold pack for your shoulders ready.
