The Grand Druid Council's Guide to Molten Core

[Malachor]

Druid Guide to Molten Core

Intro
Welcome to the Molten Core!

Please read Neonangel's excellent Molten Core Strategy Guide here.
This guide will not attempt to rehash the detail provided there but will instead attempt to give druid specific details for each encounter. This guide will assume you've read the information covered in Neonangel's guide.

This guide will also focus heavily on the primary role of a druid in 40 man raiding which is healing and decursing.
While a druid can serve tanking, melee dps, or caster dps roles, druids will primarily be relied upon for healing and decursing purposes.
Feel free to bring feral gear to the core but don't leave your healing gear in the bank.


Required/Recommended UI AddOns
CT_RaidAssist is a requirement of 40-man raids in OoC. Learn it and love it. While you can set CT_RaidAssist up to fit your needs it is highly recommended that you keep the health bars of all 8 groups on your screen at once. This will assist you in removing curses from the raid as well as assisting with heals on another group if necessary. It will also help you find downed raid members for well timed combat rezzes. You will also want to set up CT_RaidAssist to show the Main Tank Target's Target (MTTT). This will show you who the primary mobs being tanked are currently targeting and thus most likely in need of healing.

Decursive is a highly recommended AddOn. You can use the debuff removal feature that comes with CT_RA but I've found decursive to be much more intelligent in filtering debuff targets and range checking. Efficient debuff removal is an important job in any raid and Decursive does a tremendous job in facilitating this task.

Raid Chat Channels
All Druids should be in the /Treehuggers and /OoCHealers chat channels while in a 40 man raid. These are both excellent places to ask questions and often strategy and healing assignments are given in these channels.

Trash Mobs
Outside of healing your assigned group and spot healing when necessary there is little to add for Druids on the trash mobs.

Faerie Fire should be kept on the Main Assist's target at all times to help speed the trash mob clearing.

Pay attention to the types of core hounds that are encountered as Ancient Hysteria Core Hounds will require curse removal. Ancient Hysteria reduces spirit and intellect by 50% and should be removed from all casters ASAP.

For Imp packs pay special attention to the AoE casters in your group as they may need extra healing during their AoE.

When assigned a tank for Core Hound packs pay attention to the number of times the Bleed DOT is stacked on your tank. They will require more healing as the DOT stacks higher. It can do significant damage very quickly when stacked high enough.


All Trash mobs have a chance to drop the Tier 1 BoE set pieces.
Cenarion Bracers
Cenarion Belt


Lucifron
The primary focus for druids during this fight will be curse removal. Lucifron's Curse doubles the mana/rage/energy cost of all abilities and can pose significant issues for everyone if not removed quickly. Typically each group is assigned a decurser so clear your group first and then decurse other members of the raid if necessary.

Heal your group as necessary while continuing to focus on removing the curse. Keep a rejuv and if possible a regrowth up on the MT whenever possible to help even out the damage spikes.


Lucifron drops the Cenarion Boots.


Magmadar
The main tank is the primary focus during this fight. This is a minor endurance fight so pace your mana usage. With this fight begin practicing interrupting your heals manually if the tank is at full health when your spell is about to finish casting. Avoid those wasted heals is a key skill to have for longer endurance fights and this is a good place to begin practicing it.

When healing the MT you will want to stand at max healing range to avoid the AoE fear. If you get hit with a fear while healing the MT then you are to close and need to move farther away. Again, keep rejuv and regrowth up on the MT to help smooth spike damage and watch for when Magmadar enrages as his damage will spike until the hunters can Tranquilize him.

A handful of healers will be assigned to heal the melee DPS. Be sure you have these targets handy on your screen if you are healing melee DPS. You will also need to stand inside fear range to reach the melee DPS.


Magmadar drops Cenarion Leggings


Gehennas
This fight is very similar to the Lucifron fight. Curse removal is again the top priority of the fight. The MT should be the top priority for curse removal as Gehennas' curse reduces healing effects on those afflicted by 75%. Getting this off the MT first then off everyone else is the top priority for druids.

If you are assigned to the MTs group you will position yourself near the MT for quick curse removal and keep Rejuv and Regrowth on them.
If you are not with the MT then position yourself near the pillar with the rest of the raid that will be dispatching Gehennas' guards. On the pull it is best to be behind the pillar to avoid getting immediately stunned by the guards when they approach. Remove the curse from anyone caught with it on the pull then spot heal as necessary while the guards are dispatched. Again add Faerie Fire to the MAs target to speed the kills. After the guards are dispatched the raid will move on to Gehennes himself. Decurse as quickly as possible making sure the curse does not stay on the MT. Spot heal those caught in the Rain of Fire. If you are getting hit with the Rain of Fire move quickly out of the way.

Garr
For the Garr fight you will likely have an off-tank to heal or be asked to tank one of the Firesworn yourself. Keeping your OT alive is your highest priority. A loose Fireswornwill likely immediately go after healers and can quickly wipe a raid.

As your tanks Firesworn is killed move to healing the MT as Garr's damage increases with each Add that is killed. Garr will wipe buffs periodically which will also remove HoTs so be prepared to readd them earlier than expected.

Tanking a Firesworn is pretty straightforward. You will want to move him to an open location away from other Firesworn to avoid being hit by the explosion as other Firesworn die. Typically if a druid is tanking their Firesworn is killed first so this is not usually a problem. If you do not have feral charge as a talent you may want to start the pull in caster form to use moonfire to tag the Firesworn and bring it to you. If you try to simply run to the Firesworn Garr's Magma Shackles may prevent you from reaching it before it starts running loose on healers.

If a Firesworn gets loose from an OT dying attempt to tank it in bear form. It is better to remove yourself as a healer temporarily to tank the loose adds than to have the loose add remove 3-4 healers while it is on a rampage.


Garr drops Cenarion Helm


Baron Geddon
This is a very straightforward fight for Druids. Heals will focus on the MT for the duration of the fight. Spot heal others caught in the AoE or if they were the vicitim of being the bomb.

If you are afflicted with ignite mana it should be removed immediately. If you don't have a Priest or Paladin in your group to remove it find one that is close and ask for it to be removed or it will burn through your mana very quickly. You can shift into feral forms until it is cleansed to avoid the mana burn and the associated damage.

If you are the bomb, run away from the raid and to the walls of the cave. You have a few options for surviving the bomb. You can go bear form for more stamina to absorb the damage or cat form to greatly reduce or eliminate the falling damage after the initial explosion. For either option it will be helpful to put a HoT on yourself if you have enough time once you've reached the wall and are away from the Raid.


Baron Geddon drops Cenarion Spaulders


Shazzrah
This is yet another heavy curse removal fight. Like the Gehennas fight it is imperative that the Curse be removed from the MT. Shazzrah's curse doubles the arcane damage on the target and the MT cannot live long with the curse on him. Once the curse is off the MT remove it from your group and any others near your corner as quickly as possible as a Shazzrah blink in range of anyone with the curse on them can kill them quickly.

Focus heals and decursing on the MT and spot heal/decurse your group as necessary.

If you draw aggro run to the MT in the middle so they can taunt it off you.


Shazzrah drops Cenarion Gloves


Sulfuron Harbinger
Like the Garr fight you will likely be assigned to heal an off tank. Keep your OT alive as a loose healer can quickly wipe the raid if it is not separated from the Priest being killed by the main raid. As the priest your tank is on is killed move into position to help heal the MT on Sulfuron or assist healing another OT if it looks like they could use it.

Golemagg the Incinerator
Golemagg is a flat out endurance healing fight. If you are new to the Core you will likely not have the mana pool to spot heal the DPS classes during this fight. Focus heals on the MT making sure they always have both rejuv and regrowth on them. As with Magmadar interrupt your heals if the tank is at or near full health just before it lands. Be prepared for the damage spike on the MT at 10%.


Golemagg drops Cenarion Vestments


Majordomo Executus
For this fight make sure you have all of the tanks health bars on your screen and know where they are as just about every warrior will be called into action to tank Domo’s adds.
If you are healing the two tanks assigned to Majordomo be prepared to switch between them as Domo’s aggro will ping pong back and forth. It is probably best to position yourself near the fire pit so you can reach the tanks for a heal if they get ported into the fire pit. While Domo does not hit particularly hard an untimely port into the fire pit can spell doom for the tank so keep HoTs on them in case they are ported out of range of your heals. Be prepared for Domo’s damage to increase when he is down to his last guard.

Flamewalker Elites hit much harder than Domo and are much more difficult to heal solo for the duration of the fight. For that reason once your tank’s Elite has been killed use MTTT to find other tanks in need of healing and assist their healers as needed. Keeping all of the tanks alive is the number one priority of this fight. Keep a close eye on the mages health as well until all of the Flamewalker Healers are dead. An unsheeped healer can cause huge headaches for the raid so the mages should be kept up to maintain the sheeps until the Flamewalker Healers are killed.

Ragnaros
There are 3 basic healing roles for druids in this fight. Healing the MTs, Healing Melee DPS, and Healing Ranged DPS. You will be assigned to one of these roles depending on what group you are in.

For all three roles initial positioning is the key to avoid being hit by the knockback or hitting others with the knockback. A good guide to knowing if your distance is good is to use the AoE target for Hurricane as a guide. If you can fit the entire Hurricane target circle between you and everyone around you then you are positioned correctly to avoid the knockback and avoid hitting anyone else with it.

It is important that once you are in position you pay attention to where you are standing and do NOT move. Moving around will only get yourself and others blasted. If you do get hit with a knock back return to your exact position as quickly as possible.

If you are healing melee DPS you will need to position yourself across the lava from them but stay in range for heals to hit them. Do not jump across the lava with them as the ranged knock back will target mana users at random and if it hits you while you are standing with the melee you will send them all flying. Even if they survive, the time it takes them to get back into position will severely impact the DPS on Ragnaros.

MT healing for Ragnaros is fairly straightforward. Use HoTs to even out his damage and interrupt heals if necessary to avoid wasting mana. Make sure your initial position during setup is such that you can reach the MTs position (the OT will rotate to this position when necessary) and are away from other healers to avoid knocking them or yourself away.

At 20 seconds before the Sons of Flame spawn begin collapsing to the rally point and be prepared to heal the tanks regardless of which role you served in phase one. When the sons are dead return quickly to your phase 1 position and resume what you were doing before until Ragnaros is dead.


Ragnaros drops Stormrage Legguards


Good luck and see you in the Core!

[Maijin]

nice work :)

[Brighteyes]

If you are the bomb, run away from the raid and to the walls of the cave. You have a few options for surviving the bomb. You can go bear form for more stamina to absorb the damage or cat form to greatly reduce or eliminate the falling damage after the initial explosion. For either option it will be helpful to put a DOT on yourself if you have enough time once you've reached the wall and are away from the Raid.

HoT, not DoT =] don't moonfire yourself. From the Baron Geddon part



Also, you should (imho) add in which mobs drop Wild Growth Spaulders, Salamander Scale Leggings, and Wristguards of Stability as these are usually considered "druid" items also.

[Malachor]

Brighteyes

HoT, not DoT =] don't moonfire yourself. From the Baron Geddon part



Also, you should (imho) add in which mobs drop Wild Growth Spaulders, Salamander Scale Leggings, and Wristguards of Stability as these are usually considered "druid" items also.


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D'oh! Thanks for finding that typo Brighteyes. Definitely don't DoT yourself. :)

And originally I was going to add in all the druid items that may be of interest but for the sake of time (since I did a lot of this while at work) I decided to hold off on the first draft and only list Cenarion items. When I get some spare time at work I'll add in other "items of interest" for druids.