So, you've got your raid together, and are head into the Firelands, but now what? Well, likely your first intended target will be Shannox, the simplest of the boss fights in the Firelands. You'll notice some trash as you enter, so go ahead and clear to the bottom of the path. You'll also notice that there are several routes you can take through the instance, but Shannox will be to your right.
A standard raid setup of 2 tanks, and 6-7 healers (2-3 if 10m) should suffice.
The first thing you'll need to do is spawn Shannox, as he is not immediately available. Start clearing some trash in the open area to your right, this is where you will fight Shannox. Be sure to clear enough trash to give your raid plenty of room to do the encounter without pulling other groups. Once you have cleared enough trash, Shannox will spawn and begin pathing around the area. If you are not ready to pull just yet, just make sure you're out of aggro range when he comes by. It takes a bit for him to path all the way back around again, which is pretty annoying, but whatever.
Once your group is ready to pull, go ahead and have your main tank aggro Shannox, while your off tank picks up Riplimb. Rageface will be untanked. The first thing to note about this encounter is that both Shannox and the dogs are untauntable. So, dps must ensure not to pull aggro if they don't care for a swift demise. It is probably best to have your dps start off on Rageface for a few seconds while your tanks establish solid aggro on their targets. Once this is done, dps should be split evenly between the two dogs. Melee should be on Riplimb, and ranged should be on Rageface. Dps the dogs down a bit, and switch dps to Shannox. Get Riplimb to around 10-15%, and Rageface in the 20-30% range. Make sure to leave some dps on Rageface however to break the Face Rage. Essentially, Rageface will focus on a target, and deal increasing damage to them until they are dead, or they are dealt a blow of at least 30k. Arcane mages are excellent for this, and hunters are good second choices.
Shannox and Riplimb should be tanked on opposite sides of the area you've cleared, but never more than 100 yds apart, as the dogs and Shannox will gain Separation Anxiety, which will likely wipe the raid. Once the dogs are in position, begin dps. There are a few key things you need to look out for during the course of the fight. The first one we already went over. Facerage, make sure to break it as soon as possible. Shannox will also throw out traps on the position of random raid members. These look exactly like regular hunter traps, so always be watching your feet. There are two separate traps, one is a fire trap, the other an ice trap. The fire trap will deal initial damage, a dot, and increases your damage taken for a while. The ice trap, will freeze a player, and they will have to be dps'd out, else they will die. Make sure to avoid both of these. Shannox will also occasionally throw his spear to riplimb, who will then retrieve it for him. When the spear hits the ground, there will appear a large circular spiral of fire that deals high damage after a few seconds. And finally, Riplimb and Shannox will be applying stacks of Jagged Tear to their respective tanks.
So, how are you going to deal with all this? Pretty simply actually. Raid members will not stand in the traps. Whoever is the target of Rageface will need to do their best to kite him over the frost traps to freeze him for a bit. Rageface will always aggro to whoever broke his Face Rage ability, so dps who are assigned to Rageface should be prepared to do this. If you get too many traps, they can be disarmed by a rogue. The off tank, will be focusing his efforts on kiting Riplimb over the ice traps. Ideally, getting him over the trap as, or just after Shannox casts hurl spear. If he is kited into the frost traps, Riplimb will be frozen for a time, allowing the off tanks stacks of jagged tear to fall off. Now, you just need to reset the main tanks debuff stacks. This is accomplished by getting Riplimb over an ice trap while Shannox's spear is thrown. This however, can be pretty tricky, but it's definitely doable. The offtank will just need to find an ice trap, and make sure the trap is between Riplimb and the boss. When Shannox throws his spear, Riplimb will retrieve it, and run over the trap on his way to the boss. Shannox is unable to apply the debuff on the tank while he does not have his spear, so you want to create as much time as possible for your tanks stacks to fall off. It the tanks position the dogs properly, the spear will hit the ground behind the raid, meaning only the offtank and sometimes his healer will have to deal with the fire mechanic, simplifying the fight a bit.
Alternatively, instead of trying to get Riplimb into the frost traps, you can use a kiting method. This is a strategy that we use on Heroic, and it works just as well on regular. This method requires at 2 warrior tanks, or 1 warrior tank, and 1 other tank and a priest. If you only have 1 warrior tank, he should be on Riplimb. Everything about the strategy will remain the same, however the off tank will not concern himself with kiting Riplimb over traps. When Shannox casts Hurl Spear, the offtank will either heroic leap or intervene away from Riplimb, towards the general raid group. Riplimb will follow the tank until the spear hits the ground. (Note, Riplimb is slowable on his way to the spear and to the boss.) He will then have to run back to the spear, and then back to the boss, creating a few seconds of extra time for the tanks stacks to fall off. Once Riplimb retrieves the spear, the main tank will begin kiting the boss away from riplimb. (Note, at this point all raid members will need to ensure they are within 100 yards of Shannox, to prevent separation anxiety from going off from Rageface.) Depending on how quick your tanks are, the MT may require a life grip from the priest to ensure his stacks fall off before Shannox gets his spear back.
The way we handled this was to set up 4 raid markers. Two sets of two raid markers, each approximately 100 yards apart. Just line them up in a straight line. The first raid marker is where the main tank will be kiting Shannox to. The second raid marker (about 60 yards from the first) will be where the boss will be tanked (roughly, may need to move a bit because of traps.) The third raid marker (40 yards away from the second) will be where the off tank will be leaping/intervening to when Shannox throws his spear. This is also the point all raid members must be in front of during the kiting, as it is 100 yards from the MT's kite target. Anyone behind this line runs the risk of Rageface causing separation anxiety to go out. And the fourth mark (about 60 yards from the 3rd, 100 from the second) will be where Riplimb will be primarily tanked, except during the kiting. If executed properly at least every spear or 3, healing will stay manageable.
Anyhow, dps the dogs down as stated earlier, then switch dps to the boss, leaving enough people on Shannox to ensure the Face Rage is broken quickly every time. Dps the boss down to 32-35%, then switch to the dogs and burn them down. Once the dogs are dead, Shannox will enrage and all healers should immediately focus their attention on the main tank. Pop hero and burn the boss. Cooldowns will need to be used to ensure the tank survives. Also, during this phase, since the dogs are dead, Shannox will throw his spear on the ground right next to him, so ensure that nobody stands in the fire. And, once the boss reaches 0 health, he dies.
I know this is a very long explanation, but in reality, each individual only has a few things to concern themselves with, and ultimately it's a simple fight that should go down easily.
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