Ignis the Furnace Master’s Brittle Adds

Shatter the Brittles – A job for the Marksman Hunter

I wrote about busting the brittles in ten man Ulduar, and after doing this fight several times in 25 man I thought I would revisit the subject.  Who knows, some other Marksman hunter might find this useful and interesting.

Busting the brittles in a timely manner is a big part of successfully downing Ignis.  A ‘brittle’ starts as one of the Iron Construct adds that Ignis calls thru out the fight.  The OT, or in the case of 25 man OT’s, drag the adds into the scorched zones and hold them until they become molten.  When they are molten, they can be brought over to one of the water pools and contact with the water stuns them and they become brittle.  To remove the buff on Ignis, the brittle must be shattered within 15 seconds with an attack of 5,000 or more.

The brittle buffs an attackers Crit Chance by 50%.  My paper doll armory shows me 37.81% Crit Chance.  Fully raid buffed, I’m approaching 48%.  I use the same strategy in 25 mans as I described in my first 10 man post:  Hunters Mark + Serpent Sting + Chimera = Shatter

Beware the Shatter

Make sure the OT and anybody else in the raid knows to stay 10 yards away from the Brittle, they deal 20,000 damage when shattered.  Big Ouch.

Construct Squad

A squad is a team of an  OT and a ranged DPS that can deal 5000 damage in one attack in less than 15 seconds.  (note:  I’ve read a few sources that say 20 seconds); one squad for 10 man, two for 25 man.  Healers need to keep these folks alive.  OT’s can take some hurting standing around in the scorched zones with a couple of adds banging on them; or dragging one molten and one not yet molten add into the water with a quick trigger DPS partner.  Which brings me to; OT’s get thyself away from the brittle promptly.  Ranged DPS, give your OT a tick to get out of the way.  I don’t much worry about anybody else being in the range of the water; if they are they won’t live long and it will (hopefully) be a lesson to them.

Keeping up the Pew Pew

A bit more detail on how I (attempt) to keep up the DPS during this fight.  Before the fight; I’ve determined my OT squad member and which side we will favor.  I’ve marked my OT as my focus; made sure I’m all buffed and my wolf is; and lastly zoomed my camera view out a bit so I can see the MT pathing square by just moving my camera around a bit.

I’ve checked out the healers and replaced by Mirror of Truth trinket with the Mighty Alchemist’s Stone if it looks as if healing might be tight.  I’ve got Fel Blossom keybound to X; BandAid bound to B and either Fel Healthstone or Health Potion bound to Shift + Spacebar.  Oh, and I’m an Herbalist; so have LifeBlood bound to Shift + B.  A Dead Chablis does no PewPew and fails her job of shattering brittles.  As we are learning this fight; and dragging new people in every week it seems; it is as much my job as our healers to keep myself alive.  And that means not being a stupid fool and running into the, or the soon to be; scorched zone. /FailChablis

Let the Best Man Win

Once the fight starts and the main tank has aggro; I put my pet on Ignis, dot up Ignis and let loose with a Rapid Fire and hope to build up some bleeds; all the while keeping an eye over my shoulder on my OT and his adds.  When I see an add go molten; I switch to the add, mark him with Hunter’s Mark and Serpent Sting; wait for the OT to get him in the water, brittle and (OT) get away; then I land a Chimera Shot.  Watch the explosion, switch back to Ignis; rinse and repeat.

As the fight goes on; I put as much damage on Ignis as I can while keeping my Readiness and Misdirect cool down’s available.  I can generally get several Chimera shots on Ignis while waiting for moltens on my side.  If adds start piling up; or if the brittle buster on the other side needs some help; then I’ve got a Misdirect available to help the OT get an add; or pull a molten into the water.  I’ve also got Readiness available in case I can’t bust two brittles in a row without immediately needing another Chimera.  I leave the wolf on Ignis; unless I need him to round up a loose add for me.

If the other OT or brittle buster gets pulled into the slag pot and/or die; add action can get quite hectic.  One of my OMG, I did what? moments occurred when I looked over to the other side to watch a molten turn towards the raid.  I dashed over, landed a concussive shot; dotted him up and kept going towards the water.  Once I  reached the water fall, he was just in the water so I hit him with a Chimera and held my breath.  The molten hit the water, went brittle and busted all in a heartbeat.  And Chablis actually lived.  I could not believe I pulled that one off.

I’ll never top the damage charts in our raids; but I like to think I pull my weight in the utility hunter department; and my DPS is getting better as I keep a closer watch on my cool downs.