Hydross the Unstable Strategy Guide (part 2)

Phase 1 - Detail
(From pull until 10 seconds before 250% Frost Vulnerability. This is approximately 1 minute. The boss's HP should be near about 80% at the end of this phase)

Start off with druids running up to engage "assembly line" elementals, far from Hydross. After the initial adds have been downed (they will keep respawning until Hydross is engaged in combat), the tank will run to engage. The tank should begin directly west of Hydross, and run in a straight line facing him. Use a Swiftness Potion and intercept him. When you are at the end of your intercept path, continue to run through the boss (east) so as to drag him a safe distance from phase 2's trigger. Once he is repositioned, run back through him (west) so that your back is facing the raid. When you're done positioning, he should be in the exact spot he started at before the pull; only now there's a tank in front of him.

Alternate pull method: drink an Invisbility Potion, walk right up to Hydross and use Bloodrage.

At the same time the tank is pulling/positioning, the adds should be finished and the raid may start DPS-ing Hydross. You need to do a considerable amount of damage in this time. Ranged DPS should be spread out, and melee DPS should be in 2 small groups positioned equally from the tanks. You will typically get the boss to about 80% before needing to switch phases.

As each phase increases in duration, the mark will stack higher and healing will become more intensive. When the mark is stacked to 100% and is about 5 seconds from 250%, the tank simply needs to walk backwards until Hydross is pulled across the threshold. When this is ready to happen, all casters need to move away from where the warrior will be back-peddling to. DPS must cease fire. The warrior can then move backwards, triggering the next phase. The warrior with nature resistance needs to Shield Slam and Heroic Strike immediately after Hydross changes colors (indicating the switch in his resistances and abilities). If any DPS is dedicated to Hydross, they may begin 5 seconds after the tank switch. This is the end of phase 1.

Detailed Breakdown by Class

Tank
Potions Usage: Warrior wearing frost resistance needs Switftness Potions.
Aggro Sensitivity: Sensitive for first 10 seconds
Stance Management: Fury for the pull, Defensive for the rest.
Movement: Run through the boss to begin, this will position him where he normally stands at no-aggro. After hes stationary, run through him again so that your back is facing west (toward the casters).
Note: You must run through after the intercept or he'll reposition himself a bit. The small repositioning will trip his poison phase, result in 4 adds, and probably wipe the raid due to Enrage.
Do not shield block. You cannot block an elemental.

Melee DPS
Potions Usage: Thistle tea, rage pot.
Aggro Sensitivity: Sensitive for first 10 seconds
Target Priority: Hydross
Cooldowns: (Non-add rogues) Everything available.
(Add rogues) Bladeflurry, damage trinkets with a cooldown of less than 2 minutes (they will be up for every phase3, to be used on adds).
Utility: Battle Shout.
Movement: Spread out around Hydross in 4 groups. Each tank is 1 "group", there should be 2 groups of melee DPS.

Ranged DPS
Aggro Sensitivity: Sensitive for first 10 seconds.
Target Priority: Hydross
Utility: Usual class DPS debuffs
Pet Usage: Whichever increases single-target DPS the most against Hydross
Movement: Spread out. You need to be further than 8 yards from each other person.

Healing
Tank sensitivity: Sensitive. If the tank doesn't partially resist a hit, his life will drop to 30-40% in one.
Healing assignments: Two shamans healing Water Tomb damage; Chain Heal is ideal. Other healers on the current main tank.
Aggro Sensitivity: Insensitive
Potions Usage: Mana
Movement: Spread out. Be more than 8 yards from each other person.
Note: Do not cancel heals nearly as much as in typical fights. The warrior's hp will can be brought to 40% in a single hit. Hydross' melee speed is consistent, but resists are not. Overhealing should be around 40% for tank healers. Use a meter such as SWstats to record and view overhealing.

Misc. Notes
The pull can be a sticking point without Swiftness Potions. Use them and save yourself a headache.

If Water Tombs are giving you problems when the debuff is stacked to 100% and your DPS seems fast enough, you can switch out of the frost/water stage earlier each cycle. If you are DPS heavy, leave at 100%. If you're a bit heal heavy, leave a few sec before 250% and assign an extra healer to Water Tombs. Always leave poison/nature at the same time (a few seconds before 250%).

To determine whether your DPS is fast enough, you must transition PAST phase 3 at least once. Record the percentage amount of damage dealt to Hydross during your phase 2 and phase 3.

% damage dealt in (phase2) + (phase3) = (% of dmg dealt to Hydross every 2 minutes)

You will deal 20% of his hp in the first 1 minute (phase 1) and Enrage happens at 10 minutes. Thus, you have 9 minutes to do 80% of additional damage. Divide 80% of Hydross' HP by the sum of your damage delt from phase 2 and phase 3. If this number is greater than 9, you will probably need more damage on Hydross. This could mean you're killing adds inefficiently, or it may mean your gear isn't good enough. Also bear in mind that this is an estimate. Due to loss of mana, abilities, and players, your DPS will decrease as the fight progresses.

Hydross in poison form
Phase 2 - Detail
(Begin poison/nature stage. Four nature-hitting adds spawn. Tank switches from frost tank to nature tank. This phase lasts until 10 seconds before 250% Nature Vulnerability. This phase lasts aproximately 1 minute.)

View the diagram above for this phase.

Hydross will have changed colors from blue to green and spawned 4 green adds. These adds can 1-hit kill anything other than tanks. One mage should begin the phase in the middle of the adds, Frost Nova before they're fully phased in, and then Blink to safety. Druids will pick up these adds and group them together under Hydross. All DPS should wait about 5 seconds, assist one predetermined person and then DPS the adds down quickly. You will have about 20 seconds to DPS Hydross after the adds are down before needing to shift to the next phase. When this time comes (5 seconds before the 250% mark), DPS and the MT's primary healers must move east of the poison phase trigger (to the sides), as shown in the diagram. This is also the time when druids move into the position in the diagram and DPS ceases fire until the switch occurs. Tank switch is the same as the last, except the two warriors' roles are reversed. The nature tank needs to move backwards across the trigger until Hydross changes colors. This is the end of phase2.

Detailed Breakdown by Class

Warrior Tank
Hydross is Taunt immune. However, each phase switch of Hydross will result in a partial aggro loss to the current tank. This allows the tanks to switch at each phase. Positioning is really the only thing for you to perfect. Be sure no one is near you (avoid Water Tomb). The tank that just got relieved may Concussion Blow an add, but shouldn't try to tank it due to having the wrong resistance gear.
Potions Usage: Health potions, Last Stand, any other emergency item or ability.
Aggro Sensitivity: Sensitive. The DPS must cease damaging Hydross for about 3-5 seconds after the phase switch.
Stance Management: Defensive Stance.
Movement: Move Hydross across the threshold in the poison diagram to trigger the phase.
Note: Be ready to use consumable/trinkets/Last Stand/etc. Sometimes the aggro dump happens before the phase switch, resulting in a huge non-resisted hit to the tank wearing the wrong resistance gear type.

Druid Tank
Two adds each, systematically decide who tanks which 2, repeat the same plan each phase. Once tanked, try your best to stack them all on top of Hydross. Be prepared to bash an add, be vocal on voice comms and let your add-damaging rogues know if you need a stun. This occurs if your healers are debuffed, if you take several non-resisted hits, etc. At the end of the fight, the druid tanks will have taken as much damage as the main tanks. Note also that their health will dip up and down much more than the MTs due to wearing split resistance gear.

Melee DPS
Potions Usage: Thistle Tea, Rage Potions.
Aggro Sensitivity: Adds and Hydross sensitive for first 5 seconds.
Target Priority: Split 2 rogues on Hydross with the rest on adds. Assist a single person on adds.
Cooldowns: (Non-add rogues) Anything.
(Add rogues) None.
Utility: Battle Shout. Rogues listen on voice comms for Water Tombed/debuffed healers. Watch the druid tanks' HP. The add fighting rogue(s) should be on 1 druid's set of adds and be ready to stun with at least a 2-point Kidney Shot or a Vanish and Cheap Shot if the druid's HP dips under 40%.
Movement: Move to Stage 1's spread-out positions AFTER adds are down.
Note: Be very careful to avoid Frost Nova "traps" (having the adds immobilized on top of you), you can be 1 shot at any time by any single add.

Ranged DPS
Aggro Sensitivity: Adds and Hydross sensitive for first 5 seconds.
Target Priority: Assist 1 person on the adds.
Utility: Frost Trap, Frost Nova, Scattershot. Don't use Banish or Fear because this reduces DPS too much.
Movement: Stay spread out and away fromthe tank during the frost stage.
Note: If you pull aggro, you will die, and your raid will lose this fight. Use Seed of Corruption if spec'd properly.

Healing
Tank Sensitivity: Both Druids and Hydross' tanks' hp will be diping up and down drastically.
Healing Assignments: 2 healers per druid with the Water Tomb healers assisting with healing anything.
Aggro Sensitivity: None.
Potions Usage: Mana.
Movement: Stay spread out.

Phase 3 - Detail


(Begin frost/water stage. Four frost-hitting adds spawn. Tank switches from nature tank to frost tank. This phase lasts for 45 seconds to 1 minute (dependant upon the raid leader's choice, which reflects whether your raid is DPS heavy or healer heavy) View the diagram above for phase 3.)

Your frost tank will have established agro. Once the frost tank has aggro, all casters need to spread out. DPS the adds down (this is when you use Blade Flurry and Sweeping Strikes). Once the adds are down, you may arrange yourselves into DPS groups and attack Hydross. You have about 10 seconds if you're a DPS heavy raid, and about 20 seconds if you're a healer heavy raid (the reasoning is listed as a "misc note" under phase 1). After this time is up, the tank should move Hydross across the poison trigger. Begin phase 2. (Phase 2 and 3 are repeated until the phase switch after the boss hits 15% HP)

Detailed Breakdown by Class

Warrior Tank
Same as phase 2 except: move Hydross across the threshold in water diagram to trigger the phase.

Druid Tank
Same as phase 2. However, slightly more difficult to round up the adds due to lack of Frost Nova/trap control.

Melee DPS
Potions Usage: Thistle Tea, Rage Potions.
Aggro Sensitivity: Adds sensitive for first 10 seconds, Hydross sensitive for 5 seconds.
Target Priority: Split, 2 rogues on Hydross; the rest on adds. Assist 1 person on adds.
Cooldowns: (Non-add rogues) Anything; Blade Flurry adds when they're clumped/controlled.
(Add rogues) Bladeflurry, Adrenaline Rush, Evasion combo. Blade Flurry will be used on every water stage. However, you must wait for druids to maintain solid agro if you do not have Evasion up. Having Vanish available is not an acceptable reason to Blade Flurry early, as the adds will 1 shot you.
Utility: Battle Shout, stuns.
Movement: Move to Stage 1's spread out positions after the adds are down.

Ranged DPS
Same as Stage 2 except no Frost Nova or Frost Traps. The water adds are immune to these.
Add aggro sensitivity is slightly higher, so you must give the druids an extra 5 seconds to build aggro.

Healing
Tank Sensitivity: Both Druids and Hydross tanks' hp will be diping up and down drastically.
Healing Assignments: 2 healers per druid and 2 healers healing Water Tomb. All other healers dedicated to the MT.
Aggro Sensitivity: None.
Potions Usage: Mana.
Movement: Stay spread out. The druid's healers need to move east (toward Hydro's platform) quite a bit to heal during the water stage. Position yourselves near the two west flags.
Note: This is the most healing intense stage in the fight and you can not afford to have any deaths.

Phase 4
(The raid will alternate repeating Stage 2 and Stage 3 (9-10 phase changes) Until the phase switch after Hydross's HP reaches 15%. At that time, use the directions below.)

The phase switch after Hydross reaches 15%, do anything to control the adds. Banish, fear, frost nova, etc. This lets you move extra DPS to Hydross. Use everything you possibly can to kill him. Use Recklessness, Heroism/Bloodlust, and any other big-use/cool-down ability that you can. The current tank may need to Shield Wall the first few seconds of the boss's enrage while the raid attempts to finish the last few percent of health. With current gear this ending strategy is a must. You will hit the enrage timer if you don't use it.