The Stonecore is known to be one of the least forgiving heroics in Cataclysm, partially because of the little room for error involved on the bosses and also because of the difficulties of the first few pulls.
But first, the loot!
Tanking
DPS
Miscellaneous
Upon spawning into the entrance you will see a pack of Stonecore mobs with a gnome, Millhouse Manastorm.
Millhouse Manastorm
You will pull Millhouse 3 times. Crowd control (CC) is nearly absolutely necessary for each of the pulls.
Millhouse himself has a few abilities that usually mark him the primary target. His Fear will need to be interrupted. Groups that like to move fast tend to leave a bunch of mobs on the corners - an uninterrupted fear can cause the unsuspecting party member to aggro those groups. His Frostbolt Volley will slow the group, allowing a Stonecore Earthshaper with , if transformed, to nearly whipe the party with it's aoe. Once Millhouse is beaten roughly halfway, he will run away from you to setup the next pull. Millhouse is immune to most forms of CC.
Millhouse is grouped with a few of the following:
The Stonecore Berserker is a warrior class mob with a Bladestorm . Can be rooted, but usually tanked and spanked.
The Stonecore Warbringer is a warrior class mob with a Cleave and an enrage effect. When the mob grows red and large, stun the mob or have a class that can remove the enrage effect do so.
The Stonecore Magmalord is a caster type with some fire based abilities. It has an area of effect (AOE) spell called Magma Eruption that can be stunned/interrupted.
Stonecore Earthshaper is a shaman class mob with a Lava Burst single target spell. The Ground Shock is a conal ability that hits everyone in front of it. Make sure you face the Earthshaper away from your party. The ability to really look out for is the Force of Earth. If this is not interrupted it will transform into a large Earth elemental that whipes the party with buffed up versions of it's normal abilities. It is for this ability that the Earthshaper is usually CCed or assigned secondary target after Millhouse. Make sure to interrupt the Force of Earth cast!
The 4th pull with Millhouse is an event where Corborus whipes out Millhouse's party.
Corborus
At the launch of Cataclysm heroic Corborus was the cause of a lot of grief. The fight was very unforgiving to movement and damage taken. Nerfs have since been applied and have made it a bit easier.
From a tank perspective this is a tank and spank with a movement phase. Your aoe add pick up skill will be challenged during the movement phase. Other then that it's really straightforward.
Dampening Wave is a debuff Corborus will use on the entire party. The party should dispell this from you or you will take larger and larger amount of damage from Corborus. If you face Corborus away from the party you will know when he begins casting Crystal Barrage. He will turn towards the targeted party member and spray a bunch of small crystals at the targets location. The target should move out of the barrage. If the barrage targets a melee, you should move Corborus away from the crystals. The crystals will spawn floating crystals that must be destroyed. Upon destruction, they leave a stacking debuff on anyone near them that increases damage taken. For this reason, try to stay away from the crystals and let your DPS take care of them.
Corborus will eventually burrow underground. Non-elite adds will then spawn targeting random party members. Do your best to pick them up and AOE tank them down. When you see a long dust/earth type graphic on the ground, run away! This is where Corborus will jump up and attempt to drive by kill anyone in it's path. After a few attempts at this he will re-emerge and the fight cycle begins again.
Once completed, take the path through the cave/mining area. Hug the right wall to avoid some pulls on the left side. There are 3 required pulls through the cave. All the while your party maybe attacked by a group of non-elites that keep spawning and can be aoed down with little trouble.
Two of the pulls will consist of a pair and trinity of Stonecore Flayers. The flayers can be tank and spanked as a whole group. Try to keep them grouped together as possible. When you hear a very annoying, high pitched sound and the swipes of blades, you are about to get Flayed. The flayers will stop and swipe their claws in a furious fashion. Unfortunately for them, and good for you, you can simply run through them and behind them to avoid it. They won't rotate around to hit you till the Flay has been completed.
One additional pull, and maybe a second if you are not careful with patrols, will involve a Crystalspawn Giant. The giant is a tank and spank fight with the one tweak being it's Quake spell. It has a fairly lengthy cast time. Make sure you jump at the conclusion of the cast to avoid much of the damage.
Please not there are other pulls in the cave area that may inadvertently get pulled if the party's formation is not tight and folks are not paying attention.
Make your way towards Slabhide, the next boss of the instance. Carefully avoid the falling earth spikes, which are predetermined by a shadow on the ground, while you make your way to Slabhide.
Slabhide
A two phase typical dragon/drake fight. Face Slabhide away from the party so only you take damage from Sand Blast. If you see the ground earth-ing up around you, rotate or move. A magma pool will spawn (aka the bad stuff). Don't stand in it. Eventually Slabhide will move to the center of the area and fly up. Avoid the falling rocks, exactly like what you had to do on the path to Slabhide, by avoiding the shadows on the ground before the spike drops.
While the spikes are in the battlefield, Slabhide may occasional cast Crystal Storm. When this happens break line of sight with Slabhide by finding an earth spike roughly ten yards away and hiding behind it. If you pick one that is close to him you may not break the line of sight, so have an idea where you're going to go after the spikes drop before he casts this ability.
Once defeated you have opened up the transport portal (left of the entrance when you spawn in) to this point.
Hug the right side of the path as you continue on. Taking care of a Stonecore Flayer pull. When you see a group of Stonecore humanoids on your left, you can safely avoid them by hugging right. One of the humanoids, a Stonecore Sentry will walk in the middle of the path. He must be defeated prior to moving onward. If they see you they will run to each of the mobs in the area and aggro them on the party. Make sure he is safely away from the group and kill him before he has a chance to do that. Sentries always have priority over any other mob in this area.
Keep hugging right, there will be a bunch of pulls in this room. It's easier to break it up into each mob that's part of the pull, similar to Millhouse.
The Stonecore Rift Conjurer is a warlock type that will cast Shadow Bolt. The main ability to be concerned with is Demon Portal. This ability will summon a bunch of little imps that that will pelt the party with firebolts. Either CC this mob or silence it and down it quickly. The Demon Portal can be interrupted. If the imps do spawn due to a mishandled pull quickly move over there and AOE tank them down.
The Stonecore Magma Lord is the same mob explained during the Millhouse pulls. AOE fire spell that should be interrupted and/or stunned. You'll also encounter more Stonecore Warbringers who can enrage.
The Stonecore Bruiser is a large ogre type mob. It has a frontal cone attacked dubbed Shockwave, so face him away from the party. He also does a Heroic Leap type move called Body Slam. He will jump up and crash down on someone, punting them up in the air. This makes it difficult to tank if the party is largely spread out. After the jump he will run back to you, so you may not need to chase him. If the healer is geared and okay with the damage you can have the whole party stack behind him so he doesn't jump all over the place. But the AOE damage to the party will increase.
The most popular way to clear this area is to clear all the mobs on the right side of the path. Clear a Bruiser or two and knock out any remaining Sentries. It's best to have the end of the path before Ozruk cleared up.
Ozruk
Ozruk is a pure awareness fight. It does require some raid positioning and good awareness from the tank. He has a frontal cone attacked called Ground Slam that one shots most tanks. As such, keep him facing away from the party and have your party situate themselves behind Ozruk. When he begins casting, run through the boss as he doesn't rotate or move during the cast. Once the Ground Slam is completed, Ozruk will turn around targeting you. Run through him again to turn him around, as you don't want your party getting hit with a second Ground Slam. As such, always keep him facing away from the party, unless your evading a Ground Slam.
He has two defensive abilities, Elementium Bulwark and Elementium Spike Shield. Don't worry too much about these. You actually want to get get hit by the reflective abilities so you get the stacking damage over time spell (DoT). With your hit points the DoT will not do much damage to you. The DoT will help you break Paralyze and run away succesfully when he attempts to cast Shatter. He will always Paralyze first and then cast Shatter. Once you free from the Paralyze, run away! He will then cast Shatter - you can re-engage once he's completed that cast.
When he gets low on health he will Enrage - it can be removed. Pop any cooldowns you have to make it easier on your healer.
If you do perish during this fight don't try to run back in. He can Paralyze you anywhere in the instance and more then likely you won't have the health after respawning to take the damage at the end of Paralyze.
You can avoid a Stonecore Bruiser and some Flayer pulls in the next area by navigating the party directly down the middle of the area by the bones. The non-elite Twilight cultists can easily be destroyed. You can then navigate the party to the final boss of the instance, High Priestess Azil.
Priestess Azil
Priestess Azil is a two phase fight that will challenge your raid awareness and a little of your AOE tanking abilities.
Throughout both phases she will summon non-elite adds that will swarm the party.
First, clear the non-elites before engaging Azil.
From a tank perspective, many of Azil's abilities are nothing to be concerned with. Force Grip should be interrupted by your dps or you if you are not targeted. Curse of Blood should be removed - the non-elite adds that show up can demolish someone if Curse of Blood is up. The key ability of the fight is Summon Gravity Well which will spawn a void zone on the ground. All targets, friendly and enemy alike, will be tossed around and taking periodical damage if they are inside.
In phase 1 is the tanking phase. You will engage Azil while she casts Force Grip, Curse of Blood, summons adds, and summons Gravity Wells. It is a good idea to also set her as your Focus target so you can easily switch to her between phases. If your party is heavy melee you will want to repeatedly kite her around, since the Gravity Wells will more then likely spawn near her and you and your melee do not want to get caught in the Gravity Well. The adds will spawn from the area you entered at. Try to position Azil so that the adds will have to go through a Gravity Well before they reach anyone in the party.
Prior to starting phase 2, Azil will cast Energy Shield and go back to the altar. Move away to avoid any damage from her. When phase 2 begins, she'll summon 3 giant boulders above her head and summon more adds. Some Gravity Wells should still be up that the party can use to kite the adds into. While you are kiting/tanking the adds, she will throw these rocks on the party dealing a large amount of damage with Seismic Shard. Similar to a lot of the bosses in this instance, move out of the way if you see the earth moving under you! This is the area she will throw one of the boulders. Once she throws three of them the fight returns to phase 1.
You may still have a lot of adds up at this point making it difficult to re-target Azil. If you set her up as your focus target prior to the fight you can easily target her. Repeat the dance until the fight completes.
Good luck!
But first, the loot!
Tanking
- Phosphorescent Ring - Tank Ring / Corborus
- Elementium Fang - Tank Sword / Slabhide
- Leaden Despair - Tank Trinket / High Priestess Azil
DPS
- Hematite Plate Gloves - DPS Gloves / Slabhide
- Sword of the Bottomless Pit - DPS Two-Hand Sword / Ozruk
- Magnetite Mirror - DPS Trinket / High Priestess Azil
Miscellaneous
- Reins of the Vitreous Stone Drake - Mount / Slabhide
Millhouse Manastorm
You will pull Millhouse 3 times. Crowd control (CC) is nearly absolutely necessary for each of the pulls.
Millhouse himself has a few abilities that usually mark him the primary target. His Fear will need to be interrupted. Groups that like to move fast tend to leave a bunch of mobs on the corners - an uninterrupted fear can cause the unsuspecting party member to aggro those groups. His Frostbolt Volley will slow the group, allowing a Stonecore Earthshaper with , if transformed, to nearly whipe the party with it's aoe. Once Millhouse is beaten roughly halfway, he will run away from you to setup the next pull. Millhouse is immune to most forms of CC.
Millhouse is grouped with a few of the following:
The Stonecore Berserker is a warrior class mob with a Bladestorm . Can be rooted, but usually tanked and spanked.
The Stonecore Warbringer is a warrior class mob with a Cleave and an enrage effect. When the mob grows red and large, stun the mob or have a class that can remove the enrage effect do so.
The Stonecore Magmalord is a caster type with some fire based abilities. It has an area of effect (AOE) spell called Magma Eruption that can be stunned/interrupted.
Stonecore Earthshaper is a shaman class mob with a Lava Burst single target spell. The Ground Shock is a conal ability that hits everyone in front of it. Make sure you face the Earthshaper away from your party. The ability to really look out for is the Force of Earth. If this is not interrupted it will transform into a large Earth elemental that whipes the party with buffed up versions of it's normal abilities. It is for this ability that the Earthshaper is usually CCed or assigned secondary target after Millhouse. Make sure to interrupt the Force of Earth cast!
The 4th pull with Millhouse is an event where Corborus whipes out Millhouse's party.
Corborus
At the launch of Cataclysm heroic Corborus was the cause of a lot of grief. The fight was very unforgiving to movement and damage taken. Nerfs have since been applied and have made it a bit easier.
From a tank perspective this is a tank and spank with a movement phase. Your aoe add pick up skill will be challenged during the movement phase. Other then that it's really straightforward.
Dampening Wave is a debuff Corborus will use on the entire party. The party should dispell this from you or you will take larger and larger amount of damage from Corborus. If you face Corborus away from the party you will know when he begins casting Crystal Barrage. He will turn towards the targeted party member and spray a bunch of small crystals at the targets location. The target should move out of the barrage. If the barrage targets a melee, you should move Corborus away from the crystals. The crystals will spawn floating crystals that must be destroyed. Upon destruction, they leave a stacking debuff on anyone near them that increases damage taken. For this reason, try to stay away from the crystals and let your DPS take care of them.
Corborus will eventually burrow underground. Non-elite adds will then spawn targeting random party members. Do your best to pick them up and AOE tank them down. When you see a long dust/earth type graphic on the ground, run away! This is where Corborus will jump up and attempt to drive by kill anyone in it's path. After a few attempts at this he will re-emerge and the fight cycle begins again.
Once completed, take the path through the cave/mining area. Hug the right wall to avoid some pulls on the left side. There are 3 required pulls through the cave. All the while your party maybe attacked by a group of non-elites that keep spawning and can be aoed down with little trouble.
Two of the pulls will consist of a pair and trinity of Stonecore Flayers. The flayers can be tank and spanked as a whole group. Try to keep them grouped together as possible. When you hear a very annoying, high pitched sound and the swipes of blades, you are about to get Flayed. The flayers will stop and swipe their claws in a furious fashion. Unfortunately for them, and good for you, you can simply run through them and behind them to avoid it. They won't rotate around to hit you till the Flay has been completed.
One additional pull, and maybe a second if you are not careful with patrols, will involve a Crystalspawn Giant. The giant is a tank and spank fight with the one tweak being it's Quake spell. It has a fairly lengthy cast time. Make sure you jump at the conclusion of the cast to avoid much of the damage.
Please not there are other pulls in the cave area that may inadvertently get pulled if the party's formation is not tight and folks are not paying attention.
Make your way towards Slabhide, the next boss of the instance. Carefully avoid the falling earth spikes, which are predetermined by a shadow on the ground, while you make your way to Slabhide.
Slabhide
A two phase typical dragon/drake fight. Face Slabhide away from the party so only you take damage from Sand Blast. If you see the ground earth-ing up around you, rotate or move. A magma pool will spawn (aka the bad stuff). Don't stand in it. Eventually Slabhide will move to the center of the area and fly up. Avoid the falling rocks, exactly like what you had to do on the path to Slabhide, by avoiding the shadows on the ground before the spike drops.
While the spikes are in the battlefield, Slabhide may occasional cast Crystal Storm. When this happens break line of sight with Slabhide by finding an earth spike roughly ten yards away and hiding behind it. If you pick one that is close to him you may not break the line of sight, so have an idea where you're going to go after the spikes drop before he casts this ability.
Once defeated you have opened up the transport portal (left of the entrance when you spawn in) to this point.
Hug the right side of the path as you continue on. Taking care of a Stonecore Flayer pull. When you see a group of Stonecore humanoids on your left, you can safely avoid them by hugging right. One of the humanoids, a Stonecore Sentry will walk in the middle of the path. He must be defeated prior to moving onward. If they see you they will run to each of the mobs in the area and aggro them on the party. Make sure he is safely away from the group and kill him before he has a chance to do that. Sentries always have priority over any other mob in this area.
Keep hugging right, there will be a bunch of pulls in this room. It's easier to break it up into each mob that's part of the pull, similar to Millhouse.
The Stonecore Rift Conjurer is a warlock type that will cast Shadow Bolt. The main ability to be concerned with is Demon Portal. This ability will summon a bunch of little imps that that will pelt the party with firebolts. Either CC this mob or silence it and down it quickly. The Demon Portal can be interrupted. If the imps do spawn due to a mishandled pull quickly move over there and AOE tank them down.
The Stonecore Magma Lord is the same mob explained during the Millhouse pulls. AOE fire spell that should be interrupted and/or stunned. You'll also encounter more Stonecore Warbringers who can enrage.
The Stonecore Bruiser is a large ogre type mob. It has a frontal cone attacked dubbed Shockwave, so face him away from the party. He also does a Heroic Leap type move called Body Slam. He will jump up and crash down on someone, punting them up in the air. This makes it difficult to tank if the party is largely spread out. After the jump he will run back to you, so you may not need to chase him. If the healer is geared and okay with the damage you can have the whole party stack behind him so he doesn't jump all over the place. But the AOE damage to the party will increase.
The most popular way to clear this area is to clear all the mobs on the right side of the path. Clear a Bruiser or two and knock out any remaining Sentries. It's best to have the end of the path before Ozruk cleared up.
Ozruk
Ozruk is a pure awareness fight. It does require some raid positioning and good awareness from the tank. He has a frontal cone attacked called Ground Slam that one shots most tanks. As such, keep him facing away from the party and have your party situate themselves behind Ozruk. When he begins casting, run through the boss as he doesn't rotate or move during the cast. Once the Ground Slam is completed, Ozruk will turn around targeting you. Run through him again to turn him around, as you don't want your party getting hit with a second Ground Slam. As such, always keep him facing away from the party, unless your evading a Ground Slam.
He has two defensive abilities, Elementium Bulwark and Elementium Spike Shield. Don't worry too much about these. You actually want to get get hit by the reflective abilities so you get the stacking damage over time spell (DoT). With your hit points the DoT will not do much damage to you. The DoT will help you break Paralyze and run away succesfully when he attempts to cast Shatter. He will always Paralyze first and then cast Shatter. Once you free from the Paralyze, run away! He will then cast Shatter - you can re-engage once he's completed that cast.
When he gets low on health he will Enrage - it can be removed. Pop any cooldowns you have to make it easier on your healer.
If you do perish during this fight don't try to run back in. He can Paralyze you anywhere in the instance and more then likely you won't have the health after respawning to take the damage at the end of Paralyze.
You can avoid a Stonecore Bruiser and some Flayer pulls in the next area by navigating the party directly down the middle of the area by the bones. The non-elite Twilight cultists can easily be destroyed. You can then navigate the party to the final boss of the instance, High Priestess Azil.
Priestess Azil
Priestess Azil is a two phase fight that will challenge your raid awareness and a little of your AOE tanking abilities.
Throughout both phases she will summon non-elite adds that will swarm the party.
First, clear the non-elites before engaging Azil.
From a tank perspective, many of Azil's abilities are nothing to be concerned with. Force Grip should be interrupted by your dps or you if you are not targeted. Curse of Blood should be removed - the non-elite adds that show up can demolish someone if Curse of Blood is up. The key ability of the fight is Summon Gravity Well which will spawn a void zone on the ground. All targets, friendly and enemy alike, will be tossed around and taking periodical damage if they are inside.
In phase 1 is the tanking phase. You will engage Azil while she casts Force Grip, Curse of Blood, summons adds, and summons Gravity Wells. It is a good idea to also set her as your Focus target so you can easily switch to her between phases. If your party is heavy melee you will want to repeatedly kite her around, since the Gravity Wells will more then likely spawn near her and you and your melee do not want to get caught in the Gravity Well. The adds will spawn from the area you entered at. Try to position Azil so that the adds will have to go through a Gravity Well before they reach anyone in the party.
Prior to starting phase 2, Azil will cast Energy Shield and go back to the altar. Move away to avoid any damage from her. When phase 2 begins, she'll summon 3 giant boulders above her head and summon more adds. Some Gravity Wells should still be up that the party can use to kite the adds into. While you are kiting/tanking the adds, she will throw these rocks on the party dealing a large amount of damage with Seismic Shard. Similar to a lot of the bosses in this instance, move out of the way if you see the earth moving under you! This is the area she will throw one of the boulders. Once she throws three of them the fight returns to phase 1.
You may still have a lot of adds up at this point making it difficult to re-target Azil. If you set her up as your focus target prior to the fight you can easily target her. Repeat the dance until the fight completes.
Good luck!
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