- Author: lettara
- Date: June 1, 2023
- Updated: June 16, 2023
- Expansion: WotLK Classic
XT-002 is one of the easier Hardmodes in Ulduar. This strategy turns an otherwise relaxing encounter into a healing nightmare.
Sparks. Sparks Everywhere.
To maximize DPS on XT, the key is to kill Life Sparks slowly. Killing Life Sparks slowly allows for various individual class advantages, expanded on below. The goal is to obtain maximum uptime on cleave AoE such as Seal of Command, Explosive Trap, Living Bomb, etc.
This in turn makes the fight significantly more healing intensive. Taking this strategy to an extreme, XT-002 becomes the most heal intensive fight in the game.
You’ll want to pop Bloodlust right at the start of the encounter, to ensure that all trinket/cloak procs are used during this window. This will also allow Bloodlust to be active during the Heart Phase. This timing will result in a longer overall fight, but will be superior for parsing.
Glyphs:
Heroic Strike
Whirlwind
Rend
While it may be detrimental to the kill time of the boss, the best way to parse is to go all out on XT’s heart.
If your raid group exposes XT’s heart before the first Tantrum, flipping your trinkets roughly 15 seconds before pulling the boss will ensure that your trinkets proc while you are DPSing the Heart. Save Death Wish, Gloves, and Potion of Speed for when the Heart is vulnerable.
If a Life Spark is ever within Cleave range, switch to Cleave instead of Heroic Strike.
Use Nitro Boosts if you are targeted by Gravity Bomb.
Opener: Normal Pre-cast Opener
Pre-Pot: Potion of Speed
Glove Usage: On pull, Off CD, and Execute (4 uses)
2min Trinket Usage: *On Heart Activation and Execute
*Using Trinket on Heart is for parsing and can have a negative effect for the raid overall since it’s not useful damage that’s required towards killing the boss*
Talents: Default 55/0/16
Glyphs:
Quick Decay
Life Tap
Glyph of Haunt
Potion of Speed is the most efficient pre-pot because we can’t hold our snapped Corruption the entire fight.
Before the fight begins, pre-place a portal where your range DPS will be stacking that we can utilize if we have any forced movement.
After our first Curse of Agony falls off, we are going to want to cast Curse of Doom just before XT transitions and his Heart activates. This is because even though XT is unable to be targeted, all dots persist and allow doom to still tick down.
During our DPS window on the Heart we are going to want to use our 2min trinket and Global Thermal Sapper Charge to maximize our amplified damage. But be warned, min/maxing damage to the heart is all damage for parsing and will negatively impact your raid by resulting in a longer kill time.
Your Heart kill time may be variable, but always try to squeeze at least one tick of Drain Soul in the Heart window which can require channeling immediately at 25%.
Utilize our Demonic Circle: Teleport once Hard Mode activates anytime we are forced to move.
If adds spawn it is a DPS increase to cast Seed of Corruption on them, but do not let dots fall off on our primary target XT. I suggest setting him focus and having macros to cast at focus target to avoid losing Corruption and Shadow’s Embrace uptime.
Once the small adds are dead look to burn boss while actively dotting every Life Spark that spawns with a Corruption and Unstable Affliction.
If the Life Spark is living longer in your raids, then look to rotate Shadow Bolt between XT and the Life Spark to refresh Corruption duration and add Shadow’s Embrace stacks.
Opener: Pre-Cast Shadow Bolt & use your normal rotation if Bloodlust is not used immediately.
If Bloodlust is used on pull, then Shadow Bolt > Metamorphosis/Immolation Aura > Curse of Doom > Immolate > Corruption > Gloves > Normal Rotation.
Pre-Pot/Second Pot: Wild Magic. Potion of Speed execute ideally w/ Molten Core and/or trinkets.
Metamorphosis: If Bloodlust is used early before the phase heart, then use Metamorphosis during the last 30 seconds of Bloodlust to have it going during the heart phase as well.
If Bloodlust is popped as soon as heart spawns, then save until Bloodlust goes out on heart.
If Bloodlust is popped on execute, then use it during heart and on execute Bloodlust.
Glove Usage: On opener and on cooldown from there.
Nitro Boots Usage: If you are targeted by Gravity Bomb
Cooldown usage on this fight is highly important and is discussed above a bit. Metamorphosis ideally always lines up with Bloodlust in any of the strategies listed. This concept will increase your dps more than any other concept I will discuss below on XT.
Make sure to use Curse of Doom before the heart goes out, because it will pop after the heart phase.
As soon as heart spawns you should Immolate and Corruption it and then go into your normal rotation. Do not curse the heart as it does not live long enough to gain value.
After the heart dies you should reapply your dots and then perform a normal rotation until sparks start spawning.
When a Life Spark is approaching 35% hp you will attempt to snipe Life Spark with max rank Shadow Bolt and then pump Soul Fire’s back into XT.
If done properly, you have the potential to infinitely cast Soul Fire on XT and Life Spark (to reapply Decimation). You can also Rank 1 Shadow Bolt snipe the Life Spark if you wish or are more comfortable sniping with it, but it is slightly less overall DPS.
Ideally you receive no debuffs all fight (Gravity Bomb or Searing Light), but if you do then feel free to nitro boosts away and set-up a Demonic Circle in melee to minimize movement as much as possible.
Ideal Duration: 180s
Boss positioning doesn’t matter much as there isn’t forced boss movement
The pre-pull:
Drop totems prior to fight right outside of pull range of boss (not fire elemental totem as we want to snapshot this). Pre-pot wild magic potion.
XT-002 opener and rotation:
Perform a standard single-target opener. Snapshot fire elemental totem when spell power is at a max, usually about 8 seconds into the fight. This is a unique fight where weapon swapping at different parts may be beneficial.
Use Potion of Speed when able to line it up with cooldowns and ICDs.
XT-002’s Heart opener and rotation:
Perform a standard single-target rotation prior to heart and during heart and swap to cleave rotation and weapon when first Searing Light goes out.
Encounter specific notes:
- A mix of physical and spellpower equipment sets are best on this fight. Use physical weapons during single target periods, and switch to a spellpower weapon while Life Sparks are alive.
- Don’t attack Scrapbots, Boombots, or Pummelers, but passively cleave the Life Sparks
- If you get Gravity Bomb, use boots to help maximize melee uptime on boss
- Your fire elemental totem should be dropped on the left leg so it’s not killed by Searing Light
Cooldown Usage (assuming 180s fight duration):
- Spirit wolves on pull so they may benefit from Bloodlust, they will be up for heart phase and you can get a second use if used early and fight is longer than 180s
- Bloodlust immediately after using Spirit wolves
- Use gloves on pull
- Use any on-use trinkets, and if they’re attack power buffs use them to snapshot fire elemental totem
- Use gloves on cooldown
- Use shamanistic rage between spell cooldowns and maelstrom procs if mana is needed
Save sprint and rocket boots for when you are targeted with Gravity Bomb.
If you are targeted by Gravity Bomb wait until there are 3-4 seconds left on its duration, then sprint or rocket boots out a few yards. With Cloak of Shadows you can remove the Gravity Bomb debuff without the effect of pulling in nearby players/pets.
Using Cloak of Shadows toward the end of the duration will help reduce the chance of getting selected twice in a row.
Save Hyperspeed Accelerators, Potion of Speed, Cold blood, Goblin Thermal Sapper Charge and Vanish for the heart. Note that this will be be detrimental to the kill time, and is only good for parsing.
Glyphs:
Glyph of Shadow
Glyph of Mind Flay
Glyph of Shadow Word: Death
Pre-pot: Potion of Speed
Potion: Potion of Speed
Opener: Standard
Phase 1: Normal Mode
Prioritize a normal single-target rotation and move as needed for Searing Light and Gravity Bomb debuffs. Take care not to use Shadowfiend or Inner Focus in Phase 1, because we will be saving it for Phase 2.
Phase 2: Heart
XT’s heart takes massively increased damage, so using Shadowfiend here will result in more damage in one use than if Shadowfiend is used twice without the bonus damage. Now is also the best time to use Inner Focus with Mind Flay.
Phase 3: Hard Mode
Reapply DoTs and check if any adds have spawned. Pummelers should be ignored, because they are excluded from the parse.
If any Boombots and Scrapbots spawned, then apply Vampiric Touch to the Boombots and Mind Sear off of it as well to damage the Scrapbots.
Apply Vampiric Touch to any Life Sparks that spawn.
Fill any GCD gaps during movement with:
- Shadow Word: Pain on healthy Life Sparks
- Shadow Word: Death on XT
- Devouring Plague on XT
Seal: Seal of Vengeance | Seal of Command
Glyphs:
Glyph of Judgement
Glyph of Seal of Vengeance
Glyph of Reckoning
Encounter:
- Regardless of Bloodlust timing you should flip your trinkets pre-pull so that they line up once you get 5x Holy Vengeance stacks and you can pop wings.
- Stay in SoV all the way until the first spark spawns. It is important to get as many Hammer of Wraths off in heart phase that you can.
- You need to create a mouseover macro for Hammer of Wrath on this fight, otherwise you will be losing autos on the boss by manually swapping to Life Spark to hit them in execute range.
- Once first Life Spark spawns, you swap to Seal of Command permanently for the rest of the fight. Seal Twisting is not a viable option here, as you will run out of mana.
- Time your gloves and pots around 2nd wings/trinkets. I always like to have at least greatness up for 2nd wings usage.
- If you have to run for gravity bomb, try and use your consecrate at the last possible second before you have to leave to ensure maximum uptime on the boss.
Coming Soon!
XT-002 opener and rotation:
● Perform a standard single-target opener.
● Use haste potion when able to line it up with cooldowns and ICDs.
XT-002’s Heart opener and rotation:
● Perform a standard single-target rotation prior to heart then start Living Bombing all Life Spark with Priority adds.
Encounter specific notes:
● If you get Gravity Bomb, use nitro boosts to help uptime on boss and Ice Block the first one once in position.
Cooldown Usage (assuming 180s fight duration):
● Use gloves on engage.
● Use any on-use trinkets
● Use Combustion and Apply Living Bomb
● Use instant cast Pyroblasts or Living Bombs when moving is required. Boots and blink if for whatever reason you are required to move long distances.
To secure a pre-trap, you have two options:
You can either place a trap on the ground at some point in XT‘s patrol path before the pull, using a rogues Distract to facilitate a pull timer for your team.
Or you can nitro boosts in as the encounter starts, then disengage back. Be sure to use instant cast abilities as you are running in.
- For the purpose of parsing, you are going to want to use every cooldown during the Heart phase.
- Ensure that your pet is standing on the side of the melee DPS, or it will die to Searing Light.
- If your guild uses Bloodlust on pull, pop your cooldowns toward the end of Bloodlust, to ensure that they are active for the Heart phase.
- Always have an Explosive Trap active on the heart.
- Be sure to secure a Kill Shot on the heart.
- Try and snipe Kill Shot‘s on the Life Sparks. You can use a mouseover Kill Shot macro to optimize this.
Glyphs:
Glyph of Insect Swarm
Glyph of Starfall
Glyph of Starfire
Pre-pot: wild magic potion
Potion: Potion of Speed
Opener: Standard
Phase 1: Normal Mode
Prioritize a normal single-target rotation and move as needed for Searing Light and Gravity Bomb debuffs.
Take care not to use Summon Treants in Phase 1, because we will be saving it for Phase 2.
Phase 2: Heart
XT’s heart takes massively increased damage, so using Summon Treants here will result in more damage in one use than if Summon Treants is used twice without the bonus damage.
Phase 3: Hard Mode
Pummelers should be ignored, because they are excluded from logs.
If any Boombots and/or Scrapbots spawned:
Typhoon them, cast Starfall if available, then channel Hurricane.
If you have forced movement, you should:
1) Insect Swarm on healthy sparks
2) Refresh Insect Swarm on XT
3) Typhoon
4) Moonfire
180s Ideal Duration
Overview
XT-002 is a medium length encounter. There are several mechanics that need to be respected, several positional requirements, and one timing.
Mechanics Briefing
- Searing Light – Move to the opposite leg of XT-002 away from others.
- Gravity Bomb – Bail at the last second and Feral Charge – Cat back.
- Tympanic Tantrum – Barkskin, Survival Instincts, or Fel Healthstone if necessary.
Pre-Pull Checklist
- Cast Gift of the Wild for Clearcasting at 6-8s on the pull timer.
- Enter Cat Form immediately and begin pooling to max energy.
- Use a Potion of Speed 1s before or exactly on the pull timer.
- Cast Dash or use nitro boosts to quickly approach the boss.
The Encounter
Begin by performing a single-target non-Berserking opener on the boss. After this, you’ll continue dealing damage with a single-target rotation. Before the Heart arrives, refresh Savage Roar, obtain a Clearcasting, and pool energy. Be under where the Heart will be before it drops. Then perform a single-target Berserking opener with one Rip on the Heart. Go back to attacking XT-002 afterwards with a single-target rotation. If applicable, Berserking again later.
Conclusion
Parsing on XT-002 is a combination of rotational cleanliness, an okay boss kill time, Gravity Bomb luck, and having the privilege if possible of high Heart damage. Prioritize non-Feral Druids if Innervate or Rebirth is needed, but due to the length of the fight you usually will have to. Try your best not to leave Cat Form and don’t deal damage to Life Sparks, Scrapbots, Boombots, or Pummelers. Stay behind and within range of the boss as much as possible.
Glyphs:
Glyph of the Ghoul
Glyph of Death and Decay
Glyph of Dark Death
Encounter notes:
- Start in blood presence
- Equip Darkmoon Card: Greatness 38 seconds before the pull
- Swap to unholy presence and summon Gargoyle around 18-20 seconds in.
- Maximize damage done to XT’s heart
- Pestilence if there are 3 or more Life Sparks, otherwise do not Pestilence diseases onto them.
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