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Mimiron is a tough fight to tank. Sadly, about half of the difficulty as a tank, is dealing with a overly-large model on an overly small hitbox; but overcomming this, and other movement/positioning issues is key to a successful kill. This guide includes some methods I / LOKI either developed on our own, or have not seen widely published, such as Five-Point Positioning in P2, and Bomb Soaking in P3.
I will recommend -two- tanks. LOKI used a Protection Warrior and a Protection Paladin. Warriors are nice for tanking the Leviathan, because of their movement abilities (charge, intercept). Any player comfortable with AoE tanking works for the P3 adds, but we thought paladin would be best, for their high block vs multiple, fast hitting creatures. Whoever ends up tanking the Leviathan / Soaking Bombs should aim for maximum stamina/health, and whoever tanks the adds should prepare for rapid, small hits.
Phase One
This phase is about the tank not dying to plasma blast, and melee not dying to shock blast. If melee fail to consistently avoid shock blast, they stand no chance in P4 when things are even more chaotic.
Go right ahead and charge Mimiron himself. He won't take damage, but you'll get the rage. Then get ready to target the Leviathan.
Immediately after going active, the Leviathan will throw Mines around him, in a circle. He will periodically lay new mines in a ring around his current position.
Proximity Mines: These Explode upon contact, and are a major pain for melee/tanks. Casters need only avoid standing right at the edge of the initial ring of mines, in the event that Mirmiron spreads them when not properly centered - as they may land under the caster.
Keeping him in one spot throughout P1 and P4 (or as close to it as possible) is important, so that you have a single circle of mines, as opposed to a minefield.
The other ability you'll experience soon after the pull, is Plasma Blast.
Plasma Blast: 30,000 unresistable spell damage per second, for 6 sec.
Plasma Blast requires a cooldown to live through reliably and has a 3 second warning. You can expect 4-5 of them before Mirmiron is pushed into P2.
Aertimus and I recommend you prioritize/order your cooldown rotation as follows:
1. If you have to rotate tanks to use their cooldowns, do that first - less tank swaps is better. Acceptable tank cooldown's are: Shield Wall (Warriors), Divine Protection (Paladins), Barkskin + Survival Instincts (Druids), Vampiric Blood (Blood DKs), & Icebound Fortitude (DKs).
3. Next come Paladin cooldowns. Divine Shield + Hand of Sacrifice + Divine Sacrifice (if they have it) together should do the trick.
Napalm Shell is a concern for ranged only, and happens througout the fight. Know it exists, and that it may divert some healing from you during plasma blast.
Periodically throuout the fight, Leviathan will use Shock Blast.
When he casts it, run away, doing your best to avoid mines. Plan your escape route ahead of time, and have the camera pointed in that direction, so you can just double-mouse-click/run your way to safetey. Curse of Tongues makes this almost impossible to die to, due to the increased cast time. You'll want this up at all times in P1 & P4.
While he is casting shock blast, he is immobile. Right after casting it, he'll become mobile and head towards the tank if he is out of range. A warrior can run away, then charge at him when his cast appears to be about 90%, to prevent him from budging at all (making mines easier).
Transition from Phase One to Phase Two
Don't die to mines. It is the most pointless, stupid, idiotic way to die. Even if you think there is just one, there could be multiple stacked. Just wait until they all blow themselves up.
Phase Two
This phase is a healing check, and a raid-wide "can you avoid rocket strike" check. If anyone fails to consistently avoid rocket strike, they stand no chance in P4 when things are even more chaotic.
Divide the raid into five groups based on parties, and spread out around the center circle of lights in a five point pattern. Mark one person in each group and have the group stick with their mark to assist AOE healing for Heat Wave and reduce the amount of people being hit by Rapid Burst. Groups remain in place when they are being Rapid Bursted.
Every so often, he will cast "Spinning Up", as a precursor to P3Wx2 Laser Barrage. This is a slowly rotating stream of lasers, that will kill you if it connects. Move yourself to a position where he will not hit you during his near 180 clockwise degree turn from his current location. The model may seem to jerk counter-clockwise as it spins up, but will always rotate clockwise while casting laser barrage.
The most obnoxious ability for melee introduced in this phase, is Rocket Strike. There is no cast bar or raid warning for this, but those watching the boss can see and announce on vent when a missile launches off his body. When the missile launches, a red targeting circle appears underneath someone. The missile lands in the spot three seconds later, dealing five million (yes, million) damage to those in three yards.
Turn OFF Projected Textures in your user interface. You will still see targeting circles, but you will no longer see Consecrates, Desecration, or any other beautiful-but-ultimatly-deadly friendly graphic.
Rockets will not be launched while P3Wx2 is being cast. They will often be cast immediately after.
Transition from Phase Two to Phase Three
The raid should clump up on the add tank, and prepare to follow him around. The bomb soaker (see below) should get in position under the Aerial Command Unit, and /focus him.
Phase Three
Turn on Free For All loot!
Mimiron will enter the Aerial Command Unit, and be tanked by a caster. Adds will appear in beams of light, comming from the circles in the rooms.
Assualt Bots
These are the main focus of the Add Tank. They spawn from orange beams. The add tank requires constant/chained Hand of Freedom to avoid being affected by Magnetic Field, which can lead to overwhelming damage
All melee DPS should focus on Assault Bots. When an assault bot dies, a single assigned melee DPS should loot the Magnetic Core and use it under the Aerial Command Unit. If the raid is low on melee, and Assault Bots are constantly overwhelming your raid, consider reassigning a few ranged to focus them as well.
Junk Bots
These spawn from green beams and are picked up by the Add Tank. Their damage is trivial. Ranged/Healers should group on the Add Tank, so that Junk Bots are hit by the Add Tanks AoE abilities.
Aerial Command Unit
This is tanked by a Caster/Hunter. All ranged DPS should focus on the Aerial Command Unit, at all times (If possible, have one warlock casting Curse of Tounges to reduce his outgoing damage). All melee DPS should focus on the Aerial Command Unit when it is grounded.
Bomb Bots
These are soaked by the Bomb Soaker (the same high stamina tank as tanks the leviathan). They should stand under the Aerial Command Unit, and make sure no one is around them. When a bomb bot drops down, they taunt it then attack it. It will explode on them for trivial damage (for a tank), neuralizing the danger to the raid without consuming DPS.
The bomb soaker should avoid gathering junk bots to make targeting the bomb bot easier. Make sure they are showing enemy nameplates. They can focus the Aerial Command Unit to see when he is casting bomb bots.
Transition from Phase Three to Phase Four
Remaining adds need to be AoE'ed down, preferably before he becomes active.
Phase Four
Any Magnetic Cores looted can be used in the beginning of P4, to help burn the head. This is also a good time to burn heroism, to reduce the amount of time needed to finish P4.
Things He Still Does:
- Bottom: Shock Blast
- Bottom: Proximity Mines
- Middle: P3Wx2 Laser Barrage
- Middle: Hand Pulse (A renamed Rapid Burst)
- Middle: Rocket Strike (Two at Once)
- Head: Plasma Ball
Things He Does NOT Do:
- Bottom: Plasma Blast
- Bottom: Napalm Shell
- Middle: Heat Wave
- Head: Summon Adds
The most dangerous/difficult part of this phase for the Main Tank, is when Mimiron does Laser Barrage. The bottom section continues to move and be tanked while the middle section rotates. Due to the small size of the leviathan's hitbox and large size of its model, the bottom section tends to "hump" the tank. This can place the middle section on/over the tank, resulting in the tank being hit by Laser Barrage and dying. Tanks simply must practice small strafing movements within his hitbox, to avoid causing jerky repositioning of the Leviathan. Focusing his middle section helps to see when Spinning Up (the precursor to Laser Barrage) is being cast.
In the event that Laser Barrage and Shock Blast overlap (or nearly overlap), use a Guardian Spirit (if possible) to allow the tank to eat the Shock Blast, rather then risk him moving while Laser Barrage is cast.
Of course, all the potential movement of the Leviathan in this phase means that Mines will likely form clouds of mines. Melee need to take special care to find their escape route, and ranged need to stay clear of areas where mines may land.
Rocket Strikes can also be cast in melee range, and be partially obscured by the leviathan model (which is not present in P2). At least some part of the circle is typically visiable, provided all those in melee range stay at max distance - it just requires hightened awareness.
- Preferably, the head will be the first section to die, because melee cannot help DPS it. When one section of his body is destroyed, there is a ten second window in which the other two must also die. At this point, healers should contribute as much DPS as they safely can.
Long, isn't it?
Mimiron is a great fight. It takes a full team of coordinated, personally accountable players, performing their best from start to finish. Of all the watchers, he is certainly the gatekeeper to the final wing of the instance.
I hope you found this guide helpful (don't forget to pair it with Aertimus's Healing Guide - both guides assume the other is in action), and I'd love to hear from you if your guild used even part of it in achieveing a kill.
