More Ragnaros Thoughts

[Ashkael]

The Ragnaros encounter is actually less technical and simpler than Majordomo when you got the following three key aspects covered:

• Fire resistance<>
  
• Proper Positioning<>
  
• DPS<>
  [st]As far as fire resistance is concerned, the two main tanks should have at least 300 FR unbuffed. Melee DPS should be at around 150 FR unbuffed, and all ranged DPS and healers should be at 80 FR unbuffed. It also helps to organize a quick trip into UBRS to buff your raid group with the fire resistance buff (+83 FR if I recall correctly) from the Spellbinder mobs in the first room (priests have to mind control them and buff the raid, so it helps to split the main raid group into 3 separate groups). The UBRS buff helps build up confidence among your raid group, makes the encounter a bit easier, and serves as a temporary band aid for those who are not still within their correct FR bracket.
  
  Positioning is also a key part of this fight, and you always have to make sure all the members in your raid group are 100% aware of what happens when they are not correctly spaced. As you might know by now, when Ragnaros yells “By fire be purged!” he targets one random raid member and makes him the center of an AoE fire explosion. The person that gets targeted takes minimal fire damage, but everyone in a ~10 yard radius around him gets knocked high in the air (and probably into the lava). Ranged DPS should be positioned closer to the edge of the lava like a firing squad, with enough space between each member to not screw up the person right next to him. The healers assigned to each ranged DPS group should always be standing BEHIND them, making sure to be at a safe enough distance to not screw up anyone else. Melee DPS should start off the fight spaced out on the opposite side of where the main tank will be tanking Ragnaros. When it’s time to DPS Ragnaros, melee DPS also has to be properly spaced out from each other to minimize collateral damage from these AoE explosions. The healers assigned to the melee DPS group have to use the remaining space left by the ranged DPS at the edge of the lava in the outer ring to get in healing range of the melee DPS, and some of them will have to position themselves at the edge of the lava in the inner circle due to space limitations. The healers that will be taking care of the MT have to position themselves directly behind him, properly spaced out to avoid the random AoE explosions that could potentially spell the death of one of the MT’s. In short, if more than one or two people get knocked into the air during the fight, you have a positioning problem.
  
  It’s also a good idea to give at least each member two Greater Fire Resistance potions. Have them drink their first potion before the fight starts so the potion cooldown is clear by the time the fight starts, and have them drink the second potion just before the sons. The fire potions really help minimize damage taken to your raid group and thus mana spent on healing people.
  
  One important thing to point out here is that if your ranged DPS is properly equipped with FR gear and properly positioned, they should be taking next to NO damage at all and if they do, they should bandage up. Speaking of bandages, melee DPS should do so in between AoE knockbacks to help save up the healer’s mana.
  
  Lastly, there’s the issue of DPS. It’s probably a good idea to maximize your guild’s damage output by asking your members to properly spec for maximum DPS just for this fight. For example, mages should be specced into Arcane Power, Artic Reach, Improved Frostbolt, Ice Shards and Piercing Ice to maximize their damage output during this fight. It’s basically the same deal for all the other classes. Your first ever Ragnaros kill is a guild effort, and as much as I hate to tell people how to play their characters, everyone should be willing to sacrifice some gold in order to be properly specced for maximum performance during this fight. When it comes to melee DPS, it’s just an issue of making sure they back up before the AoE knockback happens and making sure they give the secondary tank some seconds of aggro building in case the main tank gets punted. Make sure every single class that can debuff does so to maximize damage (Shadow Word: Pain, Corruption, Serpent Sting, heck, even Moonfire if you don’t have that many debuffers in your raid group). If you want to push it to the extremes, have your guild farm mats for Flasks of Supreme Power for your ranged spell casters, and give your melee DPS sharpening stones. If everything goes well and people are doing their DPS job correctly and debuffing, Ragnaros should be at less than 40% before the first submersion (our best is 26% so far). By the time he comes back up, he will fall into Execute range and this will make his health go down faster. Basically, you want to kill him before he submerges for a second time.
  
  Regarding the Sons of Ragnaros, have all your ranged DPS collapse 10 to 15 seconds before he submerges. Have your MT’s with their huge FR pick up as many sons as possible, Warlocks banish one son but never rebanish, and give a hunter a MT window so he can mark one for the raid to assist. Dealing with the sons is fairly trivial if your raid group is properly equipped with FR gear since they deal strictly 100% fire damage. If the ranged DPS and healers collapse properly, the warriors manage to keep the sons in the center and away from all mana users and if people are properly assisting on the hunter and focusing fire, the sons should go down real fast. All forms of crowd control work on them, be it Frost Nova, War Stomp, Banish, etc. Use anything in your power to slow them, and if a mana user has aggro he should run to the warriors instead of pulling the son closer to other mana users. Even a single mage spamming Rank 1 Improved Blizzard to keep the sons slowed down and tight can make all the difference.
  
  Just remember, correct positioning and correct FR (don't forget the UBRS buff!) will be a huge asset to your raid group and will give a huge break to your healer's mana pools. Once again, if more than two people get knocked into the air at the same time, you've got a positioning problem in your hands!
  
  Anyway, I hope some of what I wrote in here helps you out with Ragnaros, and I honestly hope you don't get an Essence of the Pure Flame on your first kill. :)