Heroic Valiona and Theralion Tips

This encounter. Wow. This is honestly one of the easiest encounters thus far. I’m sure that there is a certain gear level you’ll want to be at, but I think that you should probably attempt this Heroic 4th or 5th. I’d say it’s on par with Maloriak. The only stipulation is that you need a Subtlety Rogue. This allows the rest of the raid to completely ignore the adds that spawn in the Twilight Realm. I’ll go over the basic strategy in a second, but first our composition.

Tanks – Protection Paladin

Healers – Restoration Druid , Holy Paladin, Discipline Priest

DPS – Moonkin, Fire Mage, Subtlety Rogue, Destruction Warlock, Marksmanship Hunter, Fury Warrior (myself)

We started by pulling Valiona as usual. We had no set positioning, just to stay 8 yards apart so we didn’t overlap each other with the blasts that Theralion shoots. We stacked up for Blackout on Valiona’s ass (just like we do in normal). I know some people stack on the tank. Either way works. On Heroic you need to heal a certain amount to dispel Blackout. Our Paladin would toss one Divine Light and that was enough, so it doesn’t take a large amount of healing. Once Blackout out goes off, spread out as usual.

Our Subtlety Rogue would wait for the tank to get 5 stacks before he could go down to the Twilight Realm. This happened at the same time as Dazzling Destruction, so if you miss the tank, just take a Dazzling down. Our Rogue used this specific Sub spec to maximize the time he could spend killing adds by himself. Try to kill 4-5 adds (or more) every time you’re down there, but dying due to over extending is worse for the raid. Go for adds that are closest but, again, the biggest thing to remember is to bail earlier rather than later if things are getting hairy.

When Theralion had landed we used the following positioning.

The blue flames are ranged DPS, the green shield was our Paladin Tank, the red plus sign was one healer (the Disc Priest), and the yellow crossed swords was myself and the other two healers. If anyone not stacked with me was targeted with a Twilight Meteor, they would stack with myself and the two healer. Should one of the healers stacked with me get targeted with Engulfing Magic, they ran out of the stack. If both were targeted, they both ran out and a ranged DPS came and stacked with me.

We waited for the first Engulfing Magic to use Bloodlust. In the best case scenario two DPS are targeted. I think we had 1 healer and 1 DPS with it when we lusted, so we could have put out more DPS if RNG was in our favour. When a ranged was targeted by the large void zone mechanic, they simply moved left or right out of it with nearby ranged adjusting if needed.

The fight just comes down to repeating those two phases as usual. The adds will probably spawn faster than the Rogue can kill them, so it becomes a soft enrage for the fight. That soft enrage isn’t too strict though as long as everyone stays alive.

Make sure to call out Deep Breaths for your Rogue as he won’t see them but can still be damaged by them. We found that just calling “side” or “middle” worked well. If we called “side” he would go to the middle and be safe. If we called “middle”, he would choose a side and be safe.

Tank tips,

1. Make sure you’re topped off, hotted, and use a cool down (either yours or a raid cool down) every time you enter the Twilight Realm. Make sure your healers are ready to top you off when you get out, and get out as quickly as possible.

2. If you’re a Paladin, you can use a bubble/cancelaura macro to remove your stacks at 4 and avoid being sent to the Twilight Realm. I’d suggest doing this when Valiona is in the air so you don’t need to worry about dodging Deep Breaths when you’re in the Twilight Realm.

Non tank tips,

1. If you are a Paladin or Mage and you get Blackout, run far away from the raid and use bubble or Ice Block. This will reduce some of the healing you raid needs, but be sure to call it so everyone knows not to stack.

2. When Valiona is on the ground set Theralion to your focus. It’s possible to see who he’s targeting with Twilight Blasts and simply dodge them.