WotLK -Trial of the Champion (ToC5) - Faction Champions

[heyaz]

So I've cleared ToC on normal, and got the jousting thing down. I'm currently at the three champions, dismounted.

I read through the guides and everyone just skips over strategy for them saying its an easy tank and spank....

Doesn't seem like that at all to me. The rogue throws aoe poison on top of my group that eats them alive even with NR totems and heals. I can't kill the rogue quick enough to stop this because the shaman constantly heals.

Tried having my alts on follow, but then the rogue just fan of knives them to death and the warrior bladestorms (reminds me of arena matches) and they're all dead in 5 seconds.

If I could avoid the constant aoe damage on my shaman I could kill them, but if I just try to dps even one of them down with bloodlust + all my cooldowns, they just drop off one by one from the poisons. I have 4 staggered cleansing totems up, but the aoe one is devastating.

Am I missing something? There's nothing "tank and spank" about this encounter, at least the ways I've tried :(

[heyaz]

Tried it at max range, shaman spread out in a line, and seemed to work ok....

Not sure if it was the range, or if I just got lucky and the rogue cast the poison cloud on my tank every time?

I took out the shaman, then the rogue, then the warrior I kited around during bladestorm and such and he was easy.

[mmcookies]

the champions do not have regular threat AI and don't respond to taunts

the event is modeled after arenas

which also means you can CC them

hex and polymorph both work

[Smoooth]

If you get the shaman you need to kill him first. He not only heals but puts a hex on you that will heal your target when you hit them. That could be why you didn't kill the rogue very fast.

My kill priority is shaman-rogue-warrior-hunter-mage.

[Zal]

Too start off
The Kill Order: Hunter -> Shaman -> Rogue -> Mage -> Warrior

Hunter: DOES A TON OF DMG, pretty much only reason she has to be killed first
Shaman: Because he spams the crap outta heals. Tip: Purge his earth sheild
Rogue: Does aoe poison cloud (you can NOT clease this, just move), Fan of Knives, and normal deadly poison. Tip: bind a key so that you can strafe to one side to easily get out, drop 1 cleansing totem.
Mage: Can sheep and attacks either melee every once in awhile (if your close) or fireballs from a distance. Tip: Grounding totem x4
Warrior: Does a whirldwind, jumps back and takes you with him. Doesn't hit as hard since only melee dmg, thus being last in kill order.

[heyaz]

Thanks guys. Hopefully it works out as well as my last try (downed em all at max range without a problem).

Couple hours later, cleared the instance. After about 10 wipes on black knight though... he hits like a truck and when I get to phase 3 I either have only 3 shaman and/or they are oom... except one time

[Smoooth]

I put warrior higher up the list because he mortal strikes and it makes healing a bitch. I don't even bother with the mage til the end. He won't sheep anything if it is at far range and his dps is pathetic.

[heffner]

Didn't know you could sheep them. Have to try this next time.

I have only done this fight twice, but the second time I killed the rogue and then the shaman. I got a bit lucky on my second attempt as there was little AOE poison to deal with. First try it wiped me.

[heyaz]

I also have no idea how to do this fight directly after the joust. Without range I get AOE'd to death, and switching weapons + dropping totems + getting aggro on 3, even on normal it's a giant mess. I absolutely plan on just wiping every time I do heroic, then coming back when we're no longer jousting.

I hate this instance, it's almost as irritating as quad box shaman arena... if it weren't for the loot I wouldn't even bother.

But my god.. the loot :)

[Klesh]

I also have no idea how to do this fight directly after the joust. Without range I get AOE'd to death, and switching weapons + dropping totems + getting aggro on 3, even on normal it's a giant mess. I absolutely plan on just wiping every time I do heroic, then coming back when we're no longer jousting.

I hate this instance, it's almost as irritating as quad box shaman arena... if it weren't for the loot I wouldn't even bother.

But my god.. the loot :)

Right after you dismount and are able to move/cast, use righteous defense and move them away from your DPS/Healer. Drop consecration and use hammer of the righteous for some threat, then drop totems, equip your weapons, split up your team (to reduce poison cloud damage). With some practice you shouldn't die anymore after mounted combat.

[Zal]

Right after you dismount and are able to move/cast, use righteous defense and move them away from your DPS/Healer. Drop consecration and use hammer of the righteous for some threat, then drop totems, equip your weapons, split up your team (to reduce poison cloud damage). With some practice you shouldn't die anymore after mounted combat.
another trick for after all the mobs have dismounted is too run out of the instance, when you reenter you'll be able to start the fight whenever you wish against the three.

[Greythan]

Kill order for me puts hunter last.

I kill the shammie first when he spawns because his healing is a pita. Its a burst race for me and I burn up a ton of mana.

I've found, thought, that once you have one down the fight is pretty easy to control as 2 of them just don't cause enough problem.

For the rogue, a simple strafe away is enough to deal with the poison cloud. Tank a distance away from your healer/dps to avoid melee AE (fan of knives, bladestorm).

[Clone]

As already said u can run out when you have dismounted them all and start the encounter when you are ready after zoning back in. As far as the green cloud from the rogue just watch for the debuff on the party bar to the left and when you see it strafe right or left a couple of yards and chain heal back up :)

[Meshuggenah]

The warrior does a lot more damage than the hunter. He also MS's you.

I generally kill the healer first, then the rogue, then whatever is left. I like killing the rogue second because having to move my alts out of the poison cloud reduces my DPS and makes the fight last longer. As per the other thread, exiting the instance and resetting the champions after you've dismounted them gives you as much time as you need to set up totems, etc, and makes the fight a lot easier.

[heyaz]

another trick for after all the mobs have dismounted is too run out of the instance, when you reenter you'll be able to start the fight whenever you wish against the three.

Great idea, I'm just going to do it this way... no sense in making things difficult.
I usually pick the wall near the entrance anyway.

[heyaz]

zoning out when they are all dismounted just resets the entire encounter

awesome

I love watching this stupid 10 minute intro over and over

wtb instant quest text for this encounter

[Raskaz]

@heyaz
it doesn't. You need to be dismounted, otherwise leaving the instance will reset it.
I had that two times by now (mentioned in the other thread) - downed all three champions, making sure I got them trampled but I am still on my horses. I usually just reset it and do it again. Not sure if that is a bug or I am missing something (works fine after the reset).

[Malekyth]

I had no idea they could be CC'd. Fear works too? Last night I got to the point where I could take the shaman down to maybe 40% before I ran out of interrupts and had to just watch him heal back to full. I thought it must be a gear check, that my DPS wasn't heavy enough to burn him down, or something. I probably should've at least TRIED fearing ... I mean, the fact that any interrupts work at all should've suggested that these guys aren't standard bosses!

Thanks for the advice! Awesome.

[heyaz]

@heyaz
it doesn't. You need to be dismounted, otherwise leaving the instance will reset it.
I had that two times by now (mentioned in the other thread) - downed all three champions, making sure I got them trampled but I am still on my horses. I usually just reset it and do it again. Not sure if that is a bug or I am missing something (works fine after the reset).

It does, just tried it. I was dismounted and so were they. Came back and whole thing was reset.

[Meeo]

With my team i only seem to have issues with these guys, i can kill all there guys before the champions using Jimbo's strat, but when the champions come out, it goes ok until i loose my horse on my main, then they all start charging to my other guys and i can never get them off.

Anyone have any ideas for these guys that may help me out better.....

As for when there off their horses, its really not all that bad at max range, they dont even go for my other guys, they jsut attack my main.

[Smoooth]

They are immune to polymorph. I don't know about fear but my guess is they are immune to it too.

[heyaz]

They're immune to hex as well.

I'm perfectly fine just wiping after these idiots, only once a day and they drop good loot.

Now on normal, I do my best to get things together... weapon switch macro, totems, grab aggro.. but this isn't Gundrak... even on normal it's not just a joke, if I get a bad combination they will aoe spam right off the bat and wipe. That warrior even on normal... my shaman have 22k hp and my tank has 33k with buffs, and he'll wipe the shaman when he spins if I don't spam LHW.

Unfortunately though, with all the heroic farming that's going on since the patch, you can't really justify wipes anymore.... abyss crystals are worth abotu 19g and dream shards worth about 9g... Can't even cover the rapairs when you're still learning the fights. But I expected this... I find it humorous how evey time a new patch greatly increases the supply of some item that was previously hard to obtain, everyone thinks they're going to get rich. Good thing I paid attention in microeconomics 101

[Iceorbz]

It does, just tried it. I was dismounted and so were they. Came back and whole thing was reset.

The encounter bugs sometimes, but this is not the norm. When they come off horses, I run out and come back inside.

[Malekyth]

Yeah, they can't be feared ... confirmed. I did finally get a shaman-less group to fight though, so was able to get a nice ring upgrade for my tank. Unfortunately I didn't get so lucky with the next fight ... Ms. Paletress wiped the floor with all five of me.

[vikemosabe]

the champions do not have regular threat AI and don't respond to taunts

the event is modeled after arenas

which also means you can CC them

hex and polymorph both work

I just got the rogue for the first time and have a heck of a time with her.
So I tried to CC her.
Nothing works.
Tried Polymorph, Entangling Roots. Neither work

CANNOT get past the champs with her in there.
My guys simply die, die, die!

[Jubber]

One thing that i must warn everybody is do not fight them near their entrance door if the warrior is a part of the group. 3 times now my tank has been tossed thru the door to land either outside the door and wedged so I can't move, fell thru and landed in AN died cuz I hit the floor instead of the water, and down into the stonetalon mountains lake which I had to hearth (K3) then fly all the way back and my guys were dead long before I even realized where I was.

[jimbobobb]

They respond to normal taunts and have the normal aggro AI. MMmcookies was confusing this fight with the 10 man faction champions (something someone else did as well when they claimed they could be CC'd).


If you can get all 3 of them on your tank, the hard part is over. Simply strafe out of the poison puddle that the rogue throws, and have a keybind for your inturrupts to stop the shaman healing.

[Multibocks]

LOL damn thats some ride! The important part with the champs is starting off on the right foot. Make sure whatever you are tanking them with has got aggro before you go balls to the wall. I realize that they aggro dump occasionally, but this seems to work well. With my tankadin I cast Avengers Shield on the right most target and it hits all 3. This is great in that they all are snared AND silenced. I run in and pile them up on me, stun the healer and go to town. The ticks from consecrate usually pull aggro back to my paladin.

With my warrior its a little different, I pull the caster with the heroic throw (for silence so they run to me) and once they are bunched up I hit Shockwave to stun them all. Then I go to town on the healer. As long as I keep them close to each other and hit shockwave every cooldown and bash the heals Im good. Paladins seems to be super easy comparitively.

[bartholomeo]

I have Toc hc down for 3 days now.
Before I send the DK in, i make sure that he is buffed, earthshielded and riptide'd. 2 seconds before I go in I pop bone shield, blood pact and cast Death and Decay. I place the diseased on one and cast pestilence, with right after that a bloodboil. As soon as icebound fortitude is up that gets used too to make it easier on myself ( lesser healing waves + riptide is enough at this point ). The shamans can never pull them off me again after this initial rotation.

First succesfull run : mage, hunter and warrior. Easiest combo to get imo. Nuke warrior down, grounding totems take care of the mage and fight close to the hunter for aoe threat. After the warrior, the mage and then the hunter.

2nd run : Rogue ( ugh ), warrior, hunter. I burned down the rogue very quickly, moving the team a bit forward to get out of the aoe poison, spamhealing the tank while dodging poison and whirlwinds. Hectic to say the least, but I got them the first time.

3d run : Rogue ( again ugh ), shaman ( more ugh ) and the mage. I decided to take down the rogue first, since he can kill the team without much trouble. I burned trough the shaman's heals, with the help of fire elementals stirring things up. After that was the shaman, kept him silenced all the way ( DK can silence alot and often ) and purged him from any buffs. The mage was put down gently after that.

If the 3 champions don't give me a hard time, the black knight on phase 2 does ... I hate those ghouls

[Multibocks]

Rogue, Shaman and Warrior is the worst, wait til you get that one. I burn bloodlust when I get that group because I know if I dont I will have a good chance of wiping anyways.

[Fuzzyboy]

I always kill the healer first and just move out of the poison when the rogues cast it. Alternately, if you can't pull it off, you can make the healer your focus target on all chars and have a /cast [target=focus] wind shear on round robin / toggle (keep an eye on the focus casting bar on your main). That way you don't need to bloodlust/heroism and can save it for stuff like BK phase 3.

[zenga]

My first tries were successful, 1-2 days before patch 3.3. I followed this (http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?t=23186&highlight=jousting) method and it worked out great (only did normal mode). But after 3.3 it seems impossible to me to even come close to clear the champs. Can't maintain aggro, they attack random guys, etc ... it's basically one big chaotic mess and i lose overview.

Any other people noticed the same? Maybe they want to share their strategy?

[Iceorbz]

My first tries were successful, 1-2 days before patch 3.3. I followed this (http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?t=23186&highlight=jousting) method and it worked out great (only did normal mode). But after 3.3 it seems impossible to me to even come close to clear the champs. Can't maintain aggro, they attack random guys, etc ... it's basically one big chaotic mess and i lose overview.

Any other people noticed the same? Maybe they want to share their strategy?


Stack up? And just kill one guy. Ive cleared ToC 3 times since the patch came out, no problems at all here. Sometimes it seemed I took more damage then usual but it was because my shields were getting blasted down faster.

[Fursphere]

My first tries were successful, 1-2 days before patch 3.3. I followed this (http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?t=23186&highlight=jousting) method and it worked out great (only did normal mode). But after 3.3 it seems impossible to me to even come close to clear the champs. Can't maintain aggro, they attack random guys, etc ... it's basically one big chaotic mess and i lose overview.

Any other people noticed the same? Maybe they want to share their strategy?

Hint: Its *always* been this way. There is a HUGE luck factor to this fight when 5 boxing it.

(http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?t=23480)

[Klesh]

No, it *never* been like this. Pre-patch I could do the jousting while asleep, never had any trouble standing stacked up in the middle and killing em one by one.

Now it's next to impossible and really not worth the trouble. They keep charging left and right, destroying my mounts faster than I'm able to get new ones.

A once fast and easy heroic is now a 15 minute dungeon break.

[Fursphere]

Well, I've been doing it since it was released, and its always been this way for me. Sometimes they'll one-shot one of my toons, sometimes they'll all attack different ones. Its a complete crap shoot.

[zenga]

Ah well that's quite a relief that i'm not the only one :)
I wanted to farm some easy drops there in normal mode, but doing the easier heroics seems to be less stressful. Gonna put ToC in the fridge for when i'm really bored.

Note: noticed that my post was moved to this thread. I didn't realize there was already an existing recent one. Apparently i missed it when i searched for 'jousting', sorry for that

[jimbobobb]

I did this fight pretty much every day for the first month it came out, and I never had any problems. Recently I've been doing it again to get a few random items for twinks, and I have not noticed any change with 3.3. However I don't stand in the middle. I stand over by the door directly between two fresh horses, with my main a bit out, and they do indeed focus the main character from proximity to start. They only go kind of random after I have to switch horses on the main. When you are standing right next to fresh mounts to switch to, it doesn't matter if the first incoming drops one of your guys fast. I highly recommend setting up by the door directly next to the fresh horses, as opposed to doing it in the middle, especially if you are having trouble.

[crowdx]

So I have been thinking about doing this dungeon to get the Trinket for my tank and I am wondering about the above comment about fresh horses? Do you have a keybind macro to get a fresh horse or is it a manual thing? I have only done this once before reading this thread and got killed fast lol on the mount section.
I think my toons are geared enough at this point but not 100% sure :)

[Kang]

the champions do not have regular threat AI and don't respond to taunts

the event is modeled after arenas

which also means you can CC them

hex and polymorph both work

I think you have this backwards. Taunting works fine while CC doesn't. I use /cast [target=focus] taunt (insert whatever taunting ability your tank has) where my focus is either the mage or the hunter (which I kill last), though it would work fine for whatever is last in your kill order. I slap the macro every time it is off CD and threat is not an issue. I'll generally kill the shaman or the rogue first.

[pinotnoir]

No, it *never* been like this. Pre-patch I could do the jousting while asleep, never had any trouble standing stacked up in the middle and killing em one by one.

Now it's next to impossible and really not worth the trouble. They keep charging left and right, destroying my mounts faster than I'm able to get new ones.

A once fast and easy heroic is now a 15 minute dungeon break.

They changed the mount npcs in this patch. I farmed the crap out of heroic toc and I could do the joust while sleeping. Now the npc destroy my guys with a few hits so it's not worth running that instance anymore. They did something to those guys and didn't publish it.

[Malekyth]

They changed the mount npcs in this patch. I farmed the crap out of heroic toc and I could do the joust while sleeping. Now the npc destroy my guys with a few hits so it's not worth running that instance anymore. They did something to those guys and didn't publish it.

Did you take some time off from the instance, maybe? I hadn't run HToC since getting my dragonhawks, then got it on a random recently, and had the same impression. I hit it again the next night and eventually got comfortable with it again. I've returned to running it every night as a quick and easy heroic. I'm almost sure my trouble was just because I lost the feel for the jousting and had to re-acclimate.

[Malekyth]

Holy crap, they did! Sorry, the level of ass-kicking you must've been describing could not have been caused by simply becoming unused to the instance. I've been hitting it for the last thirty minutes and it's like trying to tank a heroic mob in DPS gear. This sucks ass. Though I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else ..?

[Pallarfo]

I just can't beat the jousting part on HC.
Normal I kick the bosses from their horses within an eye blink. Hc = wipe, wipe wipe.
Its insane :(
I'll treat this instance the same like oculus...bail out when it pops up.

[Fuzzyboy]

I've been running it 3-4 times since the patch and I haven't noticed any difference?

[Klesh]

It's a royal pita now (since 3.3).
What works best for me is to charge the bosses whenever possible (remove their shields first). Ya, you have to pick up your followers, but its the fastest way to deal damage. As soon as you've got one dismounted its a bit easier, even though you still need to switch mounts a lot. Don't worry too much if one of them remounts, they'll do it with very low health, just dismount them again.
And don't forget to get naked before you mount up, no need for a repair bill cause of this crappy encounter.

As long as you got something else to do (and don't need any loot from HToC), it still isn't worth the trouble though, just requeue after 15 minutes. :mad:

[Targ]

I agree it has become a pita. I think they are recharging their sheilds faster, and either have more HP or are hitting harder. I had to make some changes, because the jousting had become a continous fail of epic proportion.

Now just before I pull the last group of adds I spread my followers out just slightly so they are still very close, shoulder to shoulder close, but not stacked on top of each other. I move my leader just behind my group. This way each of the bosses will select a different team member to attack and not gang up on one guy. And the bosses will not attack my leader at all.
My guys are still close enough that I can focus ranged and melee on one boss.

If the target has it shield up I back my leader out to ranged to get the shield down. some times a boss dies away from the pack due to range fire. Then I run the leader over and stand on the guy.

I rotate the pack to face the target boss. With this method I lose one guy most times but I am not wiping anymore.

[Prega]

recently i ve done this instance multiple time in a row for The Black Heart trinket.
i m gearing my dk-tank.

found/discovered interesting tactic in mounted fight.
i would define "strategy of the centre", like a chess strat ;)
not sure others have reported or tested/done in same way. so i write about it.
basically, when it s time to fight 3 champions, mounted phase, i rush them, engaging in middle.
advantage: it permits to avoid the first charge.
the idea is to avoid charges, making the fight fast and easy. fight have place in middle of the arena.
there is a tricky bug there. it happens often.
if you rush them in middle, looks like they are not fully engaged. a couple of them, generally those we are not attacking, dont charge. unique mob do charge manouvers is the main target.
it works good in heroic mode too. but dmg is higher and can happens i need to get new mount during the fight.
in normal mode this approach make the vehicles fight a lot easier and faster.

i dont have reported this trick, strange engaged status for mobs. generally my reports about bugs or little exploits are totally ignored, so i ve negative feelings about continue reporting these things.

[Myc]

Now just before I pull the last group of adds I spread my followers out just slightly so they are still very close, shoulder to shoulder close, but not stacked on top of each other. I move my leader just behind my group. This way each of the bosses will select a different team member to attack and not gang up on one guy. And the bosses will not attack my leader at all.
My guys are still close enough that I can focus ranged and melee on one boss.

Thx for this tip!, I can finally do it in normal with out looking like headless chickens. >.<

[kate]

Wow, the jousting portion of this is just insane. I can't seem to target any of the bosses - like, tab won't target the bosses when mounted, and my team just completely doesn't handle following or anything well at all.

Any ideas what's up?

[Myc]

Wow, the jousting portion of this is just insane. I can't seem to target any of the bosses - like, tab won't target the bosses when mounted, and my team just completely doesn't handle following or anything well at all.

Any ideas what's up?

using isboxer/jamba? think its what helps.. the /target on vehicle thing.
i haven't had troubles with targeting. but the fight sure is crazy

[kate]

using isboxer/jamba? think its what helps.. the /target on vehicle thing.
i haven't had troubles with targeting. but the fight sure is crazy

I am using it - and it just seems to start strobing to various targets for some reason. I don't know if it was lag or what, but it was really quite bizzarre! The worst part is that since I haven't gotten credit for ToC yet, EVERY TIME I WIPED I had to go through that whole RP deal with the guys riding out etc - no option to skip it.

Whee, what fun.