The Setting:A lush version of the garden area. The center is dominated by a huge oak-type tree. It's big, in full bloom, and has long branches reaching high up. The floor of the garden is also very grassy, lots of little flower doodads etc. It all gives the appearance of being very beautiful, except for closest to the tree, where a patch of blight forms a ring where the roots dig into the soil. The tree is in bloom, but darkened to autumn colors. Orange and red leaves, where the rest of the garden (away from the tree) is still vibrant and green. Scattered around the area are the stumps of trees that have been cut down.
We run around the outer edge, collecting Death Lotus to begin the event. The Lotus is thrown into the well, and death spreads out from the well in a radial pattern. The grass dies, and the earth left behind becomes some sort of blighted area. Eventually this blight reaches the tree itself, and it shudders as it drops all of its leaves on the ground. Where once the tree was in 'autumn' mode, it's now very 'wintery' and twisted. There's some more rumbling, and a voice calls out, condemning the raid for their foolishness and wanton disregard for the balance of nature:
"I grow tired of your games. Your incessant disregard for the beauty of the forest angers me to the point of breaking. You were foolish to bring me here, and more foolish to sacrifice my young ones in your quest to harness nature's wrath. I have stood by idly, but the time to act has come. Prepare yourselves! I will cut you down, and use your essence to sow the seeds of my forest anew!"
The Encounter:
A face appears on the tree, and it begins to uproot itself. Immediately several things happen. The dropped leaves from the tree sprout forth into lasher mobs, one for every member of the raid (10 or 25). Each of these lashers has a unique raid member aggro; one lasher per raider. Obviously, it's in the raid's best interest to start the event clumped up so that consecrates, thunderclaps, demo shouts, or death and decay can grab aggro. Once each mob has taken at least one point of damage (i.e. has trained on to a tank), the boss activates.
His first ability is to shoot seeds in the air (5 for 25 man, 2 for 10), which twirl around and land in the ground. At first I thought it would be interesting to have them give no indication of where they landed, and you would have to mentally remember their locations, but perhaps that's not a good idea. Instead, their 'landing spot' could be designated by some green, grassy growth or a tiny sprout sticking out of the ground. He then engages the tank, and casts basic 'naturey' spells around on the raid. Insect Swarm, kickable Regrowths, and has buffs applied to himself like Thorns and Nature's Grasp. Tree stuff, right?
After a while, he casts Barkskin, and sinks his roots back into the earth. This is the phase shift. His roots travel through the ground (out of site), and whoever is standing closest to each of the sprouts gets hit with an Entangling Root that isn't dispellable. This is where I thought it would be interesting to be forced to remember the sprout locations manually. Having a grassy area on the floor kind of trivializes this part of the encounter. Anyway, the root ticks with Bramble damage, but the big issue is that the sprouts pop up and begin wailing on whoever is rooted. They are untauntable, and have a good chunk of threat to overcome before they'll pay attention to anyone other than the rooted individual closest to them. So it's in the raid's best interest to have tanks run to the sprouts as soon as the Barkskin goes up on the boss. Also, what sprouts out of the ground is a toss up between a large, heavy hitting single 'ent' type unit, or a swarm of smaller treants. Perhaps there could be some indication which will sprout based on what the sprout itself looks like (1 bud or 3 small sprouts), but I like the idea that you don't know until it happens. Not like it makes a huge difference; it's either a lot of little rapid hits to whoever is there, or a few big hits spread out over time. It would make a difference if the tank wasn't there to pick them up (big mobs one shotting clothies, or little ones interrupting casts), but the way Blizzard has homogenized tanks won't make or break the encounter is the DK gets one or the other, etc.
Once you've killed a certain sprout's ... uhh... sprout... then the roots holding that player in place wither, and the player is free to lend a hand with the rest. After a set amount of time, the boss reactivates regardless of whether or not the raid is ready. Him standing back up removes the roots, but the adds still need to be dealt with. He stands up, shoots more seeds around the area, and the fight progresses.
He has another skill that has branches reaching down and plucking up raid members to be held aloft, out of the fight. The tree branch holding a raid member is attackable, but the member falls back to the ground when freed in this fashion. Slow Fall or well timed Levitates (or paly bubbles) can counter this fall damage. It won't kill you outright, unless you're at low health to begin with.
At 15% health, he does a special emote, and blows his bark outward. This is unavoidable, and hits for a flat percentage of health. After this, he enrages, and hits much faster, but is much more vulnerable to damage with his armor gone.
The raid burns, the Lewts are distributed.
The raid burns, the Lewts are distributed.
(link to original post on my blog)
