Sapphiron Ability Breakdown

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Nyeriah

Sapphiron Ability Breakdown

#1 » Post by Nyeriah » 27 Feb 2017 06:53

[float="left"]Image[/float] SAPPHIRON ABILITY BREAKDOWN

BRIEFING
  • - Sapphiron is the 14th boss of Naxxramas. Once a noble blue dragon, Sapphiron was slain by Arthas and raised from the dead as his servant. Sapphiron was extremely powerful in life and still holds much of the power he once possessed.
CHARACTERISTICS
- Healing intensive
- Movement intensive
- Heavy resistance dependent (frost resistance)

- Taunt immune
- Frost resistant (200 base frost resistance)

Berserk timer: 15 minutes.



Ground Phase

  • [table][tr][th]Ability[/th][th]Description[/th][th]Timer[/th][th]Target[/th][th]Status[/th][/tr]
    [tr][td]Frost Aura[/td][td]Deals 300 raid wide Frost damage every 2 seconds.[/td][td]On engage - Ticks every 2 seconds[/td][td]Raid wide[/td][td]Working[/td][/tr]
    [tr][td]Tail Sweep[/td][td]Deals 599-1000 damage to all players in a cone behind the caster, knocking them back.[/td][td]Random between 7 and 10 seconds.[/td][td]Rear cone[/td][td]Working[/td][/tr]
    [tr][td]Cleave[/td][td]Deals melee weapon damage + 365 (50 + Level * 5,00) to the main target and nearby allies.[/td][td]Random between 5 and 15 seconds.[/td][td]Frontal cone[/td][td]Working[/td][/tr]
    [tr][td]Blizzard[/td][td]Summons forth a vicious storm of ice at a target location that chases them and dealing 3062-3937 Frost damage and slowing those who stand under its pellets. Lasts 15 seconds.[/td][td]First: random between 5 and 10 seconds. Repeat: 13 seconds.[/td][td]Random target (excluding main target)[/td][td]Working[/td][/tr]
    [tr][td]Life Drain[/td][td]Curse. Drains the life essence from random enemies dealing 1742-2250 Shadow damage and heals Sapphiron for twice the amount drained. Can be dispelled.[/td][td]Random between 22 and 28 seconds (not cast during air phase).[/td][td]Random target[/td][td]Working[/td][/tr][/table]


Air Phase


Air phase timer:
  • - Initial: 48,5 seconds
    - Subsequent: 1 minute
    - NO AIR PHASES BELOW 10% HEALTH
  • [table][tr][th]Ability[/th][th]Description[/th][th]Timer[/th][th]Target[/th][th]Status[/th][/tr]
    [tr][td]Icebolt[/td][td]Encases players in a block of ice, stunning them and dealing 2624-3375 Frost damage.[/td][td]First at 2 seconds, every 3 seconds.[/td][td]5 targets[/td][td]Working[/td][/tr]
    [tr][td]Frost Breath[/td][td]Bombards the raid with a massive breath of frost, dealing 112500-187501 Frost damage to all targets in his line of sight. Players must hide behind frost tombs to prevent this.[/td][td]After every Icebolt has been cast (approx. 10 seconds).[/td][td]Targets in line of sight[/td][td]Working[/td][/tr][/table]

Key points:
  • - Spread out as much as you can to avoid Blizzards.
    - Avoid frontal and rear cone cleaves.
    - Dispel Life Drain as fast as you can.
    - Blizzards are deadly, even with frost resistance gear their damage will be rough to sustain. It's imperative to avoid them.
    - If you are being chased by a Blizzard, try to not move it towards other raid members.
    - Stay spread, but position yourself well so you are not in mid of nowhere when an air phase starts. It is important to keep in mind that you will need to run behind a frozen player to avoid Sapphiron's massive ice blast.
    - Just standing behind a frozen player/frost tomb is not enough. The tomb needs to be directly between you and Sapphiron so you are not hit by the blast.
    - Try to keep your teammate's health points up when air phase starts. Icebolt deals rough damage to the main target and anyone around them, if the Icebolt target dies, that's -1 tomb for you to hide and chances are that you'll be losing entire groups in the process (as everyone who was supposed to hide behind them will likely not have enough time to reposition and will die by the blast). If you have defensive cooldowns that's probably when you wish to use them if you see a bolt coming your way.
    - The air phase starts when Sapphiron reaches the center of the room, having him further away increases the distance he has to travel. Use that delay to your advantage and prepare your positioning for when the Icebolt start dropping in.

The values presented here are the values we are currently using at our core for the PrimalWoW vanilla version of Sapphiron. I thought it would be useful for players to see what the actual values are instead of just having to guess it out the scaling.

They should all be accurate unless I missed a thing or two. I had planned to write breakdowns like this for every boss of Naxxramas but eventually my availability didn't allow me to, sadly.

As always, if you find any issues, report them at the bug tracker.

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Gadoschi
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Re: Sapphiron Ability Breakdown

#2 » Post by Gadoschi » 07 Mar 2017 09:58

I just hope, for PW players' sake, that Sapphiron's Blizzard won't be as messed up as on TW realm.

First of all, they spawn in too many numbers (dropping frame rates even on higher-end desktop computers to single-digit values), and they keep following even after Sapphiron flies up and prepares to drop its bomb (breath, or w/e it's called).

But, since I am a TW realm player, I am hoping that Sapphiron will get fixes as it gets released on PW realm as well, since mechanics are pretty much the same in Vanilla Naxx and in WotLK Naxx.
PC
MB: Asus M5A97 R2.0 (AM3+); CPU: AMD FX 8300 (@4,2GHz); GPU: Gigabyte R9 380 4GB GDDR5 (@1,15GHz); RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury 1866MHz (2x4GB Kit); PSU: Coolermaster V550 (80+ Gold); CPU Cooler: LC-CC-120; Case: Antec GX505; Fans: Antec TrueQuiet 120mm x5; Monitor: AOC G2460PF (24'', 1ms, 144Hz, Freesync); Keyboard: Corsair Strafe RGB (Cherry MX Red); Mouse: Logitech G302; Surface: Roccat Taito Mid 5mm

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Mizzeeh
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Re: Sapphiron Ability Breakdown

#3 » Post by Mizzeeh » 08 Mar 2017 05:18

Gadoschi wrote: they keep following even after Sapphiron flies up and prepares to drop its bomb (breath, or w/e it's called).
Blizzard should keep following players after he flies up into the air until it despawns, which is 15 seconds after it spawns.

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Gadoschi
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Re: Sapphiron Ability Breakdown

#4 » Post by Gadoschi » 08 Mar 2017 11:00

Oh?

And how many can be present simultaneously in normal phase?

I'm asking because I'm always experiencing massive fps drops approaching air phase with my FX 8300 and R9 380 (should be able to handle 2008 game with ease, and normally it does).

I think it happens due to the fact that blizzard visual effects do not disappear immediately after that particular blizzard stops slowing and doing damage. I've personally been "hit" by those visual effects, but did not take any damage. However, it greatly increases my GPU's workload, and it makes it much more difficult to plan your movement in case of being followed due to the fact that, after a while, you aren't really certain which blizzard visual effect is active, and which one is not.
PC
MB: Asus M5A97 R2.0 (AM3+); CPU: AMD FX 8300 (@4,2GHz); GPU: Gigabyte R9 380 4GB GDDR5 (@1,15GHz); RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury 1866MHz (2x4GB Kit); PSU: Coolermaster V550 (80+ Gold); CPU Cooler: LC-CC-120; Case: Antec GX505; Fans: Antec TrueQuiet 120mm x5; Monitor: AOC G2460PF (24'', 1ms, 144Hz, Freesync); Keyboard: Corsair Strafe RGB (Cherry MX Red); Mouse: Logitech G302; Surface: Roccat Taito Mid 5mm

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