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Hydross the Unstable

The Basics

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This section contains a basic outline of the fight, and is a must read for everyone, as it contains information you need to know so as not to wipe the raid. If you are interested in knowing the why of the instructions here, or in improving your individual performance, the details are available below.

Hydross is a two phase fight in which he changes back and forth between doing nature damage and frost damage. Due to a stacking debuff (the Mark) that increases damage to one type of damage or the other, we transition him at about one minute intervals between his two phases. When he transitions he completely drops his threat table, and spawns four adds. He will be tanked by two tanks, each wearing respective resist gear, and his adds by four offtanks, some of which will be wearing mixed resist gear.

Hydross begins in frost phase, and the frost phase tank will use the elementals coming in on the right side to gain some initial rage. Once the adds on the left have pathed out of range, the tank will intercept in and DPS can proceed once Hydross is positioned.

During frost phase, Hydross casts Water Tomb about every seven seconds on a random member of the raid, and it chains to any other raid members within about eight yards. This means that spreading out in frost phase is very important, and no one should stand within range of a healer (they will be raid marked), or either tank.

Hydross is transitioned to nature phase by moving him off the dais where he starts, and transitioned back to frost phase by moving him back up on the dais. Because he completely drops his threat table, it is important that the entire raid move ahead of Hydross so that he can't run back and end up transitioning again. Allow a few seconds for the tanks to get control of Hydross and the adds, then AoE should AoE the adds, and single target DPS should follow the main assist in burning them down one at a time.

When we are transitioning him to frost phase, the dais where the entire raid must move to is rather small, and spreading out to avoid Water Tomb is impossible if everyone stays up there. We have about 7 to 10 seconds after transition before he will cast the first Water Tomb, so ranged DPS should watch Hydross' target, and when the frost phase tank has him in hand, move off the dais to allow room for the melee and healers before the first Water Tomb is cast.

Healing assignments

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The Details

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Hydross:

Health: 3.5 million
Enrage timer: 10 minutes
Base damage: ~5.5K to 7.5K frost or nature damage, 1.5 second attack speed before resists, tank damage reductions, debuffs and Mark
Immunities: Taunt, bleeds, all crowd control, frost damage in frost phase, nature damage in nature phase
Special abilities:

Adds:

Health: 50,000
Base damage: 4k to 6k frost or nature damage, 1.5 second attack speed
Immunities: Bleeds, frost damage (frost elementals), nature damage (poison elementals)
Special abilities: None

"The Line"
Since the transitions are the key to this fight and especially to not wiping the raid, where you need to stand in order to be safe (from causing him to transition back anyway) is important to know. While many strat guides talk about "taking him over the line", there is no actual line or specific distance that is guaranteed to cause him to transition. We have dragged him almost all the way to the bridge before he transitions to nature, and slmost off the back of the dais before he transitions to frost. In general, however, the arc that marks the edge of the dais where he starts is a good rule of thumb to use as to whether you are in place or not.

"I'm not doing any damage or healing on the transition, do I really need to move across since I won't have any threat?" When he wipes his threat table, the first target he takes will be completely random. While typically some threat will be caused by someone somewhere very shortly thereafter, it is possible for him to transition right on "the line", and then retransition by moving only a very small distance back over. Not to mention that if you have one of the dots (Water Tomb or Vile Sludge), then something like a Prayer of Mending going off from the dot tick can cause you to pull aggro. Always better to avoid causing the wipe, and just move ahead of Hydross.

Timing the transition, or "can't we just dps through the 100% Mark and transition him on 250%?" 15 extra seconds of DPS time per transition is very appealing, to be sure. 100% Mark damage on a tank is only a little extra riskier, and 100% on the Vile Sludge is nearly unnoticeable. Water Tomb damage, however, becomes very nasty, especially if you have a raid healer tombed. In general, we like to plan to transition at the 100% mark so that we can safely delay in case something goes wrong, such as the nature tank getting tombed just before the transition. It would really only be worth risking going later if we were having problems beating the enrage timer.

"What about dots (or hots), are they going to get me killed on the transition due to the threat drop?" In general, no, unless the tank gets a terrible whiff streak. Very high powered dots such as ignite can be problematic, but since they are short lived, making sure they drop off before the transition is not difficult. Since the transition is always planned for right when the 100% mark hits, you can use your raid timers to plan when you should refresh your dots so that they drop off by then.

"Vile Sludge ruins my damage, can I Ice Block or CoS out of it?" Yes. Do it.

"Is causing him to come back over the line really that bad? We can take eight elementals with CC!" Eight might be doable, but we're going to have twelve, because we have to transition him again because everybody still has the old Mark stacked, and the elementals that do that form of damage will probably quickly kill their tanks as a result. The only thing to do in this situation is bend over and kiss yo' ass goodbye (after finding a good spot to die in so you can be rezzed).

"I'm a warlock and I heard the elementals are banishable. Should I do that?" In general, no. We dispose of them a lot faster and cleaner by AoE'ing them all down. If we have to transition with Hydross very low on health, the raid leader may call for banishes at that point, so you should be ready to do so, but don't banish unless it is called for.

"When should I use cooldowns for more DPS?" There's no specific part of this fight where more damage means more than at any other part of the fight. Be mindful of tank threat, and use them at your own judgment.

"I'm an offtank, how do I know which add is mine?" We designate adds by where they spawn in relation to the bridge where we buff at. Front left, front right, back left, back right. Hydross won't always be perfectly square when he transitions, however, so just try to pick up the add that is closest to where it "should be".

"How much resist do tanks need?" For the main tanks, 365 resistance provides the maximum you can get and thus what they should have. 70 of that will come from a raid buff, so 295 unbuffed is required. Maintaining crit immunity through talents, defense, and resilience is also necessary because Hydross can crit. Once both of these are taken care of, stack as much stamina as you can. Armor value and block are useless in this fight and provide no protection whatsoever. Avoidance is nice, but can't be counted on. For offtanks, aim for around 125-150 unbuffed of each type.

"How do the tanks get the resists they need?" For warriors or paladins, a large portion will come from craftable resist pieces. For druids, PvP gear for stamina and resilience and high level "of <Frost/Nature> Protection" greens or blues are the base of what they will use. Wowwiki has a fairly good writeup of plate and jewelry, as well as enchants at http://www.wowwiki.com/Hydross_the_Unstable/Resistance_Gear∞. I will add that the Stormpike Insignia (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=17904∞) and Gaea's Embrace (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=22660)∞, with the old world enchant (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=25082∞) are also nice to consider. In addition to the paladin and hunter auras mentioned, shaman totems can also provide the resistance buff required.

Copyright 2007 by Agren of NITF. May not be reproduced or used elsewhere used without permission.