The Lurker Below
From Twilight Wiki
| The Lurker Below - Facts |
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(Boss)
The Lurker Below is the second boss of Serpentshrine Cavern in Coilfang Reservoir though many guilds end up killing this boss first. In order to access the boss, he must be fished out of the "Strange Pool" where he is located. The success rate of this varies between 1-2 attempts up to fishing for 8 minutes straight.
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Abilities
- Water Bolt - Only used if no targets are in melee range. 2 sec cast, 9-11k damage, random target
- Whirl - Physical aoe to all in melee range. 3-4k damage, 5 yard knock back, 30 sec cool down.
- Geyser - Random attack on random ranged target. 3.5k frost damage AOE (2-3 yards), 10 yard knock back to all affected.
- Spout - Every 45 seconds, a water ray starts at the tank, slowly rotating in a random direction for about 370° (~90° per 5 sec). Over 6k damage with a huge knock back (over 30 yards).
- Submerge - After 120 seconds the Lurker submerges and removes debuffs, adds are summoned (this is Phase 2), after 60 seconds he re-emerges.
Suggested Strategy
Positioning:
Each group should be positioned either on their island, or on the middle island close to their assigned island. It is extremely important for everyone to spread out as much as possible from each other to minimize the number of people who will get knocked back by Geysers. The Main Tank should take his position on the center island between islands 1 and 3 and be ready to pick up Lurker (see the diagram on the side for a more detailed view).
No one but the Main Tank should be close to the inside of the middle island before Lurker is picked up. When Lurker spawns it will take a second before the Main Tank can grab his attention and it's possible for Lurker to turn and one shot another raid member if they are standing too close. So stay back, let the Main Tank get aggro, and then move in to begin DPS.
The Pull This is one of the more unique pulls in the game. To get the Lurker to appear you need to have a fishing skill of at least 350 buffed and simply begin fishing in the middle island pool. It may take a while, so the more people who can fish, the better. Again, your fisher should try and stay as far back as possible on the center island to avoid getting eaten the moment Lurker spawns.
This pull can be very random and can take one attempt or up to 10 minutes of trying. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to why it can take so long, so don't get worried that you are doing something wrong, it's just a really stupid system for starting a boss fight.
Dealing with Lurker's Aggro System As mentioned above, Lurker has a unique aggro system from most mobs in the game. Much like Ragnaros or Murmur, Lurker is a stationary mob (besides for when he Submerges and disappears for 1 minute during Phase 2) that simply spins around inside the middle island pool.
Lurker will always attack the person with the highest threat who is in melee range. If no one is in melee range (because they all got knocked back by a Whirl for instance) then Lurker will start throwing Water Bolts out at the highest threat member of the raid regardless of whether they are a ranged or melee class. This makes it imperative that you keep a tank on Lurker at all times to avoid deaths due to lost aggro.
The only real issue here is the knock back caused by Whirl. There are three potential ways to deal with it:
1- Secondary Tanks in, Melee out
If the Main Tank gets knocked out of melee range from Lurker, he/she simply calls it out and the Secondary Tanks move into melee range and taunt/build threat to give Lurker someone to beat on until the Main Tank gets back into position. It doesn't matter whether they have more threat then the other melee DPSers or not, so long as the other melee DPSers stay back away from Lurker until the Main Tank has regained aggro.
2- Keep a Secondary Tank second on threat
If one or more of the Secondary Tanks stays above the melee DPS on the aggro list they can provide a buffer for those situations where the Main Tank gets knocked away. Clever Secondary Tanks can also back out to avoid Whirls and then dash in to make sure they are there before anyone else. This is a nearly impossible task for most Secondary Tanks if the melee DPS are doing appropriate damage. It also presumes that a Secondary Tank will do a better job at avoiding Whirl then the Main Tank; if this is the case, consider swapping your tanks.
3- The Main Tank uses the water
By far the easiest strategy is to just have the Main Tank move into the water by Lurker prior to each Whirl. The Whirl will knock him back onto the platform, but not out of melee range. An even more foolproof strategy is to have the Main Tank simply stay in the water next to Lurker the entire time, thus avoiding the Whirl knock back and Spout. However, be warned that this means the tank will take persistent scalding water damage throughout the fight.
Be forewarned that there are some weird LOS issues with targeting people in the water in the pool inside the middle island. Healers should be very aware of where they can and can't heal those locations from to avoid any accidents.
Phase 1 The Main Tank builds threat on Lurker while DPS begins to burn him down. Melee DPS and the Main Tank must be mindful of the Whirls and the raid must move back into position quickly if they are knocked back from a Geyser. When you see the Lurker pause for a moment he is preparing to Spout (again, mods like Deadly Boss Mods will announce these events as well). Have the entire raid move into and under the water while they wait for the Spout to pass overhead and then get back up into position. The Main Tank should simply move towards Lurker and go under the water and then pull back once the Spout has passed. The key to Phase 1 is to avoid the Spouts, take as little damage from Whirl as possible and keep a tank on Lurker at all times. After 1.5 minutes have passed, Phase one ends and the Lurker will jump up and dive into the water.
Phase 2 Once Lurker Submerges, the 9 adds will make their way to their positions on the small and middle platforms. You will be able to target the adds as they make their way to the islands but they are not active until they are all in their places.
Phase 2 is the reason the raid is divided into 3 Groups. Each group will be responsible for tanking the Guardian associated with its small island and killing the 2 Ambushers on their small island.
Your Secondary Tanks will need to be in position to grab their respective Guardians the moment they become active. This is the most important part of the fight because the Guardians will begin porting around the islands attacking anyone that does anything to generate any threat. If a tank does not get a hold of their Guardian and it does port and attack a healer, the raid should be quick to CC the Guardian until it can be picked up.
All raid DPS must begin by focusing on the Ambushers on their respective islands. One Ambusher on each island must be CCed, while the DPSers burn down the other Ambusher. Once the first Ambusher is dead, the DPSers will turn to the CCed Ambusher and burn him down. Again, useful things like a Paladin’s Hammer of Justice, the Tauren racial stomp stun and Rogue stuns will keep Ambushers from dealing damage while you burn them down. It is very possible to prevent the Ambushers from doing almost any damage during this phase if your CC is coordinated well. Regardless, each Group should have at least 2 healers; one to heal the Tank on the Guardian and one to heal the DPSers as they burn down the Ambushers.
Once a Group clears their 2 Ambushers and single Guardian, they should quickly check to see if either of the other two Groups need help finishing off their add kills. It is very important to try and kill all of the Guardians before Lurker returns. This will not only allow for smooth transitions, but address a well known bug that can occur if adds are left alive when Lurker returns.
After 1 minute Lurker will reappear and begin Phase 1 again.
It is still believed that killing an add during a Spout will cause the fight to break and reset. This means that if you do have adds left alive when Lurker returns, avoid killing them if Lurker is doing a Spout.
Trying to kill adds while dealing with Lurker is anything but enjoyable, so do your best to maximize your DPS during Phase 2 to avoid having any adds up when Lurker is around, it's the key to making this an easy fight.
The Lurker's Adds
Each small island will receive 2 Ambushers for a total of 6, and the middle island will receive 3 Guardians. This means that every 1.5 minutes (Phase 1) the raid will have 1 minute (Phase 2) to deal with 9 adds.
The ideal scenario and the objective every raid should shoot for is to have every add dead before the 1 minute has run up to avoid having any adds present when the Lurker returns. Given the health points of the Ambushers and Guardians this means you will have to do roughly 360K damage in under 1 minute.
Some details on the two types of adds:
Coilfang Ambushers 30K Health Points Essentially a hunter with steady shots, multi-shot and a melee attack
These ranged mobs are effected by every type of CC we have tried on them and tend to die very quickly. Stuns are a great way of keeping them locked down while you blow them up. The most dangerous ability they employ is their multi-shot since it targets random ranged members of the raid. It is very possible for all of the Ambushers to randomly target a member of the raid and kill them in a single volley. Because of this, it is recommended to CC one of the Ambushers on each island to reduce the total amount of multi-shot damage being thrown around at any time.
Coilfang Guardians 60K Health Points Essentially a DPS Warrior with a frontal cleave and hamstring
These guys hit hard and they love to port from place to place and go after healers. It is EXTREMELY important that these mobs are either tanked or immediately CCed. If they get loose, use stuns, Cyclone, whatever it takes to keep them locked down until a tank or long term CC can be applied. Remember, Guardians kill, so stay away. Be very mindful of their frontal cleave as it can one shot non-tanks and instantly wipe a raid if people aren't paying attention and keeping their distance.