Exercises in Creative Design: The Storm

Today, I have 30 minutes to write about any topic that comes to mind at the moment. This "exercise" actually comes from Matticus' post over at the twisted nether blogcast (I apologize for the lack of link love, but to actually click my way over there would simply eat into my thirty minutes, which by now actually twenty-seven)

Anna over at Too Many Annas (I actually remember this address, so I linked it. So sue me for being inconsistent!) had a nifty little challenge while she was gone running away from one of the many hurricanes that ravaged the southern area of the US. Make a T6-equivalent raid encounter involving the use of a Hurricane.

Beautiful. For some reason I'm good to go on this one. I should have done this sooner, but oh well. Better late than never. Speaking of which, how much time do I have left? twenty-five minutes. Ok. Sounds alright. Let's get this started!

Raid Instance: The Hurricane

A hurricane is fast approaching the western shores of Kalimdor! A council of elders from the Cenarion Circle felt disturbances coming from the Hurricane, suggesting that the cause of the storm is not natural. It is up to you and 9 friends to investigate!

Upon accepting the initial quest from a Druid NPC in moonglade, he will give you a trinket that has special powers. The first time you use it, you to turn into a Druid's flight form. Using it will allow you to fly directly up into the air, where the isntance portal lies.

After passing through the instance portal, your party appears in flight form in the middle of the great sea. A bird spirit appears in front of you, asking the party to follow him. After a short flight, you arrive at a giant rock sticking out of the water, with enough standing space for a raid group to run around in.

"Stay here. The storm approaches!" The spirit says, then disappears.

The storm approaches, you brace for impact. The fight begins!

Raid Boss: Storm King Nolorkam

Well, what'ya know. It's another darn troll that's gone nuts-o. He rides a Dragonhawk, wielding voodoo powers that are the cause of the storm. Debris flies around everywhere, so watch your step!

For the first thirty seconds of the fight, flying Debris randomly hits 2 of your party members for 4k damage each second.

PHASE 1

Storm Lord Nolorkam appears. He's pretty pissed, so he lands on your rock and starts wailing at the party.

His melee swings hit for an arbitrarily large amount of damage. Main tank needs to be healed by a dedicated healer, while the second and/or third healers look after the raid.

Debris continues to hit party members, but only for 2k damage each second.

Continue tank and spank until he switches phases. If DPS isn't fast enough, he switches to...

AERIAL PHASE

SLN lifts up and flies into the air, summoning violent winds. The party has to use their flight form trinket to fly around and dodge debris that soars around during this phase. Members that get hit by debris get blasted for 6k damage. Lasts for forty-five seconds, then returns to his regular phase on the ground.

PHASE 2

At 66%, storm Lord gains a buff that grants him immunity from ranged damage, and will start casting thunderbolts at random people for 3k damage. He also summons dragonhawks that appear in small numbers. Ranged DPS needs to damage these dragonhawks. When they are sufficiently damaged, they will fall to the ground, and become mountable. Right-click the birds to be able to fly into the air. Those who are in flight can use their trinkets to cast thunderbolts at the boss for considerable damage.

DPS him quickly, or else he'll go into aerial phase.

PHASE 3

At 33%, Storm Lord Nolorkam performs a voodoo self-sacrifice, and transfers his essence to the storm. His form is now immune to all damage, but his health diminishes over time and no longer attacks raid members. At this point, random debris hits for even more, and dragonhawks are summoned by the swarmful. Most are non-elites, but the larger ones are elite, and need to be picked up by the tank and offtank. They hit for considerable damage. In this phase, he stops switching to Aerial Phase

PHASE 4

At 5%, SLN is desperate and has his last stand against your raid party. The storm dies down, but he enrages and hits for a BUTTLOAD of damage. All healers need to overheal the tank to keep him alive. DPS him down for the last 5% to kill him.

Conclusion

That exercise ended up taking 40 minutes because of a very delicious office lunch potluck. Oh well.