Today we’ll be going over the Mimiron fight: how to DPS it, and how to keep your pet alive through it. This guy is one of the easier bosses. He has a long enrage timer, and the only way you’ll hit it (or wipe) is if people “stand in fires”. Here’s the hard part- this encounter has no less than 4 phases, each with a unique combination of abilities that will kill you unless you avoid them. To add to the difficulty, this encounter is stuffed to the brim with double entendres, and it’s hard to do your rotation when you’re laughing beer out your nose all over your keyboard and spamming the “revive pet” button.
So an overview- you’ll never actually fight Mimiron, you only get to fight his gear. Phase one is the “Leviathan MK II” tank (later serving as the treads in his “V0-L7R-0N”; yes, Voltron getup). Phase two is the “VX-001″ weapon tower (later serving as his torso). Phase three (my future mount) is a flying golem head called the “Aerial Command Unit” (later serving as, you guessed it, his head). Phase 4 is all three together as “V0-L7R-0N”.
Phase 1
Fighting the Leviathan MK II is complex for others. All we need to do is DPS and stand in range of a healer. The poor melee have to watch for a one shot short range AOE ability called shock blast. And they can’t just run out of range either, because Mimrion drops proximity mines all around him. Melee have to make an exit strategy based on mine placement, and then execute it when the shock blast cast starts.
[edited July 14th 2009 for factual errors, thanks Zeherah!] Pets don’t trigger proximity mines, but other people who accidentally set them off can kill your pet if it’s close. You will need to pull your pet out when the shock blast starts casting- macro dash or charge or something or else he won’t clear the area fast enough. Personally, I keep him out of melee so I can continue to benefit from furious howl and reduce the risk that I screw up my shock blast timing.
The problem with keeping him out of melee range is that you (or someone near you) will be targeted with a napalm shell, which seems to splash to your pet. My solution has been to park the wolf away from popular places, and hope he doesn’t get splash damage. These won’t be cast on the melee though, so he would be safe there.
At the end of every phase, you have 30 seconds or so to regen mana. Save pots, but go into viper (and maybe res your pet).
Phase 2
The next phase is VX-001, and this component has no agro table. It just randomly hits people with rapid burst. Send the pet in on this phase, because the main thing we watch out for here is a laser attack that kills anyone in front of the boss called “P3Wx2 Laser Barrage“. That’s right, “pew pew lasers”. Anyways, it’s got a 4 second cast time. Position yourself about half way from max range, and you’ll find it easier to avoid. Since your pet is attacking, it will always attempt to stay behind the boss. Keep mend pet up to deal with the heat wave aoe.
If you see a targeting rune (and beam of orange light) on you, move. That’s the rocket strike. [Edited July 14 2009] If you see a rocket in melee distance, pull your pet out. They’re rare though. My guild always pops heroism during this phase, so save your rapid fire if that’s the case for you.
Phase 3
The Aerial Command Unit is a flying robot head. Normally, it’s in the air and can only be reached by ranged DPS. My guild groups the raid up by the door so we can better control the adds. You need to assign a ranged tank to soak the plasma ball damage. We use a lock, but I think a hunter might be a better choice because we apparently do more threat per second, and I’m fairly sure have more health. [Edited July 14 2009] We don’t have as many self heals or damage reduction as the locks do, however. The boss will drop bomb bots which need to be switched to immediately (even by ranged DPS). The glowing spots on the floor spawn:
- Assault bots which need to be tanked and DPSed by melee. Assuming your looting is set appropriately (we use free for all), you can designate one person to loot a magentic core from them. This, when used, brings the aerial command unit down to the ground where melee can get at him and he takes extra damage.
- Junk bots which need to be AOEd down.
My rotation on the boss was normal, but when I switched to a bomb bot, I never used a sting or chimera shot. They never last long enough. Our DK would snare them as soon as they spawned. While the head was on the ground, I would switch my rotation to chimera shot, multi-shot, volley in order to help out with the ground adds. I lose very little single target DPS this way.
I was struggling with my pet for this phase. Leaving him on passive continues to give me the howl buff, however we are still not getting the benefit of his melee attacks. There are two possible solutions I will try- the first is putting him on aggressive. Throughout the whole fight, there was always a bot within melee range, so there’s little chance the pet would run out of the group and delay one of the bots from reaching us. The second option is to create a macro that either allows me to attack my mouseover target, or attack a bot by name. I’ll probably go with the mouseover.
Phase 4
Mimiron will combine all the phases to now into one big “V0-L7R-0N”, which has 3 separate targetable parts. The head, the torso, and the treads. I created a macro for target switching, but they’re easy to click target, and if you have deadly boss mods, you’ll be able to watch their health. The reason that’s important is because, like the Freya adds, all portions need to go down at the same time.
Only ranged can reach the head, but the torso and treads can be reached by melee. Attack your target, use multi-shot instead of aimed shot, and be aware that all three components have the same abilities. This means that your pet will probably die. You can either keep mend pet up, park him somewhere, and manually move him when he’s going to be in the field of a laser barrage, or you can keep him on the boss and manually pull him out. This second option will require the cooperation of a healer though, as you can’t heal both the mine damage and the heat wave ambient AOE.
No matter what, don’t stop DPS on this phase. If your assignment is getting dangerously low, switch targets to the component that’s dying the slowest.
There you have it, Mimiron in a nutshell. Go forth and beat the rogues on the DPS chart!
Pretty complete. Good job. I find putting my wolf on passive works best. There’s a lot going on in P2 & P4. Pet management can become a distraction, so why bother? It’s not DPS race, it’s a survival fight.
Heroism – you might mention that popping at the beginning of P2 is one option, while some guilds wait until the beginning of P4. And, ranged must stay alive in P4, or it’s a wipe – cause melee can’t hit the head.
Last, this might be a fight better for spec’ing marksman because of the frequent movement. Although, as survival, I still out DPS out MM hunters, so meh.
Thanks! Passive is important, but in P1, you need to make sure he’s not standing near anyone.
As for DPS, Survival and marks are neck and neck, generally. And if the MM hunters are gemming armor pen and trying to copy the “best possible DPS” spec that wow.com linked a while ago, they’re not doing as much as they can as that setup is designed for best in slot gear only.
Also, movement hurts marks too- sometimes more than SV; SV hunters can keep sniper training up if they only move for short periods of time.
One thing I couldn’t figure out last night: when VX-001 uses P3Wx2 Laser Barrage, does it always track clockwise? I’m trying to figure out the best strategy for getting away from it, since last night I apparently only survived through sheer luck (the DPS killed that phase just before the pewpew would have gibbed me).
I don’t know if it always does, but it always did last night. My best advice is to stay as close to the boss as you can, so you have as small a distance as possible to get to a safe area. It’s like in tennis- trying to manoeuvre at the back of the court means you need to cross a lot of ground, whereas you can beat the angles by getting right up to the net. Simple physics :)
The laser will always move clockwise.
“You will need to macro dash or charge or something or else he won’t clear the area fast enough.” – Master’s Call works as well.
RE: Threat gen – I can never out-threat the mages/locks, and the locks definitely have more HP than me. Suppose that might be because I’m BM though :P
Just a couple clarifications:
- In phase 1/4, your pet will not trip the mines. He can get hit by them if someone else does, but he won’t trip them himself. I find that my pet usually does fine if I send him in in phase 1 as long as I pull him out for the shock blasts- even if I forget to pull him out for a shock blast he often lives unless someone blows up mines right next to him before he gets some health back. I do station my pet away from me though so when I pull him out for the shock blasts he doesn’t get hit by my napalm. Since you have plenty of time to rez your pet between phase 1 and 2 it’s not that big a deal if he dies in phase 1 but obviously it’s good to try to avoid.
- In phase 2 your pet can get hit by the rockets if they go in melee range, usually they won’t but keep an eye out and if you think there might be a rocket in melee pull him out for a few. Also pull him out anytime you get a lazer barrage till you’re sure you’re in a good spot that it won’t hit then you can send him back in (behind his left shoulder is the spot to go, you can disengage to get there faster depending on your original position)
- In phase 3 the reason a lock is usually used is because they have ways to heal themselves and tend to have more damage reduction. That being said, survival hunters do take 4% less damage and they’re fine for the job. Our group actually has a DK or druid just pull the bomb bots out and explode them, ranged dps does help burn down the assault bots when the head isn’t on the ground.
- Phase 4 is the worst for pet survival because there are twice as many rockets and it’s harder to see your pet’s position, plus you’re more distracted so harder to pull him out on shock blast, lazer barrage, etc. and he’s more likely to get hit by people accidentally tripping mines. Not much you can do except do your best and hope he lives. Make sure to use Call of the Wild early in phase 4 in case your pet dies.
Fixed, thanks!
Euri you must be busy this week now with Thorim, Mim, and Vezax down. Btw I think I’m closing in on you for dps and I believe I was ahead on Vezax, just thought I would razz you a little.
Yeah, I saw that :) Sent you a grats tell but I think it was lost in the loot spam.
hey here’s a hunter tip for Mimi.
I was able to get through all the Mimi trash the other night and engage Mimi to enable the Spark of Imagination portal for the rest of my guild. This allowed the raid to skip the trash altogether. Here’s how:
First, being an engineer helps, but I’m not sure its required. I used the Rocket Boots (5 second sprint, 3 minute cooldown, but I bet you could alternatively use Disengage)
So, first put your pet away and approach the first pack of trash just out of aggro range. Activate rocket boots and Deterrence simultaneousy and aim for a path through the trash with the least amount of bomb bots in your path. Getting full STA buffs and drinking an Indestructible potion may help you, but I didn’t need them.
After you get to the “dead area” between trash packs, Feign Death.
Rinse and repeat for the next two packs.
After you get past the third, you can safely get on the train and head to Mimiron. Once at Mimiron, you are home free no matter what because as soon as you engage him, whether you die or not, the portal is available for the rest of your guild. Ideally though, staying alive is more 1337. Feigning death after you pull Mimi probably won’t help you because he will 100% of the time hit you with Napalm Shell, even though your FDed. I highly suggest you strip off your gear to save you some gold if you do this.
Here’s a better way though. Go to the top of the ramp down to Mimi and call your pet. Use Eyes of the Beast and go down with your pet and pull Mimi. Run your pet away from you until you get out of range and your pet despawns. Don’t forget to FD though ASAP.
Anyway, your guild will love you for this if you can pull it off.
Good Luck!