[ToT] Ji-Kun

We will begin by summarising the strategy for the fight before going into further details.

Have your two tanks alternate tanking Ji-Kun in order to manage the Infected Talons and Talon Rake debuffs.

Assign groups of raid members (3 DPS players and 1 healer in 10-man, and 4 DPS players and 1 healer in 25-man) to go to the nests that activate and handle them accordingly (killing Hatchlings or Mature Eggs of Ji-Kun, respectively). Given the limitations imposed by Lesson of Icarus and the fact that sometimes two nests activate at once, you will need to set up a rotation between these groups.

Have everyone on Ji-Kun's platform be spread out to minimize damage from Caw.

Run towards Ji-Kun when she is channeling Down Draft.

Have players with stacks of Flight to spare intercept as many of the balls of slime that Ji-Kun throws on her platform as possible, in order to prevent the Feed Pools from spawning, and in order to gain as many stacks of Primal Nutriments as possible.

Have players on Ji-Kun's platform actively despawn Feed Pools regularly by standing inside them for 3 seconds.

Handling the Nests
You should assign several groups of players to form groups.

You should create two groups of players (1 healer and 3 DPS players in 10-man, and 1 healer and 4 DPS players in 25-man). Have the first group ready to jump down to the first nest at the start of the fight. As soon as they have killed the Hatchlings present there, these players should use their Flight ability to get back up to Ji-Kun's platform, and the second group should prepare to jump down to the second nest.

Either of the two groups can handle the third nest, and then, for the fourth and fifth nests that activate (at the same time, one lower and one upper), each of the groups should take one nest.

Once this set of nests has been handled, players should once again be able to take the Daedalian Wings buff ( Lesson of Icarus should have faded), and the cycle can repeat itself.

Ji-Kun's Platform
Things on Ji-Kun's platform are not complicated.

The two tanks must alternate tanking Ji-Kun in order to manage the debuffs that the boss applies.

Everyone must be spread out in order to minimise the damage dealt by Caw, and everyone should run towards Ji-Kun when she casts Down Draft. Any movement-speed-increasing abilities you can use when Down Draft is being cast will help greatly. Players who have charges of Flight available can essentially bypass Down Draft by flying above it, but this can hardly be done reliably.

Anyone who is close to a Feed Pool void zone and who has enough health to survive its damage should move into it for 3 seconds in order to despawn it.

Healers will need to be prepared for the high raid damage dealt when Ji-Kun casts Quills.

Tip for Maximising DPS
In 25-man, you should assign one group of 4 strong DPS players to jump down to a nest, kill the Hatchlings present there, and fly back up to Ji-Kun's platform. These players should use their remaining 3 charges of Flight to fly up in the air when Ji-Kun casts Feed Young on her platform, and intercept as many balls of slime as they can. This will allow them to stack the Primal Nutriments buff, and greatly boost your raid DPS. In 10-man, this task can be performed sporadically by any raiders who have spare Flight charges.

When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp
We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp towards the end of the fight. Things can tend to get out of control when the fight nears the end, and you may even have a few Juveniles that had time to hatch from an upper nest which will now circle your raid. You can use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp here to kill Ji-Kun faster.

Learning the Fight
There are several important things your raid members must learn.

First and foremost, several raid members will have to master the task of handling the eggs located on the nests below Ji-Kun's platform, as failing this task will quickly cause a wipe. There is no special way of learning this, and you will simply have to sacrifice a few attempts while these players understand the task.

Secondly, everyone must be prepared to run towards Ji-Kun when she casts Down Draft, as otherwise they risk being thrown off the platform or at the very least pushed on top of Feed Pools.

The remaining tasks are more subtle and will require more practice, and they both have to do with the Feed Pools. Having your raid members intercept Feed Pools before they even spawn, and having them despawn some regularly to keep their numbers in check are things that will make your attempts to kill the boss go a lot more smoothly.

Ok, so here is my guide for the 1 Team Nest Plan.

Platform Order

The following image is for 25 man, so ignore the timers on it.



Nests 1 - 5 are the lower level nests.
Nests 6 - 10 are the upper level nests.

The nest spawning order starts at Nest 1 and moves clockwise to nests 2 and 3 for the lower levels. After the 3rd nest, the nests move to the top and start at nest 6, then 7, then 9.

After the 3 upper nests are completed, the nests will spawn at the bottom again, starting at 1, then 2, and 3. Take note, that when nest 3 spawns for the 2nd time that another top nest will spawn at the same time (we'll ignore this one).

After the 9th nest, the upper nests will start spawning again. But I'm not 100% of the order at this point. But we should be burning Ji-Kun around this point.

Nest Timing
0:01 - Lower Nest 1 Spawns
0:30 - Lower Nest 2 Spawns
1:00 - Lower Nest 3 Spawns
1:30 - Upper Nest 6 Spawns
2:00 - Upper Nest 7 Spawns
2:30 - Upper Nest 9 Spawns
3:00 - Lower Nest 1 Spawns
3:30 - Lower Nest 2 Spawns
4:00 - Lower Nest 3 Spawns + Upper Nest 6 (Ignore)
4:30 - Upper Nest 7 Spawns
5:00 - Upper Nest 9 Spawns

From this point on the cycle repeats. But the fight shouldn't be lasting this long.

Handling the Dual Nests

If you noticed above, that at 4:00 we will actually get 2 nests spawning at the same time. If the platform ordered is followed, then 2 spawns from the upper nest will hatch and fly over the raid and start dealing damage.

There are a couple ways to deal with this.
1. We ignore them and are burning Ji-Kun by this point.
2. We have range, from main platform team, burn them down once they show up.
3. We simply deal with the additional raid damage while working on Ji-Kun and continue to handle platforms.
4. We work in a complex strat to get additional people feathers and have them burn the upper level.

I personally am going to go with recommending option 1 or 2. 1 if Ji-Kun is low enough to burn by the end of the 8th/9th platform. Option 2, if we need more time to get Ji-Kun down to a burnable health.

According to Icy Veins, the Juveniles only have 1.9M health in 10 man. So, I think range burning them down is doable. Actual attempts will confirm or disprove this.

Edit: Icy Veins says Juveniles above the main platform are out of range of the range dps.

Nest Team

The nest team will consist of:
1 Healer
2-3 DPS

The make up of the nest team will really depend on how fast they can clear a platform and move to the next. If a 3 man team (1 h, 2 dps) have enough dps to finish the platform and make it over to the next platform before it spawns then this is perfect. If we find that the nest team is falling behind, then adding a 3rd dps will be optimal to our success.

So, a few early attempts with 2 dps will allow us to make that judgement call. The highest dps/ae dps players will be preferable. We may very well end up requiring a 3 dps nest team, but it is considered doable with 2 with enough dps.



Nest Team Plan of Action

The following plan lays out an order of attempt and movement to help optimize time spent killing eggs and conservation of feather charges. It also tries to work out minimal platform jumping to remove accidental misses.

1. Nest Team starts at Lower Nest 1.
2. Nest Team destroys eggs, picks up feather charges (4 charges)
3. Nest Team flies directly to Lower Nest 2 and waits for egg spawns (3 charges left)
4. Nest Team destroys eggs, and flies directly to Lower Nest 3 (2 charges left)

At some point during Lower Nest 3, the debuff that prevents picking up another feather will wear off.

5. Nest Team destroys eggs on Lower Nest 3 and must not leave till they have refreshed their feather charges (4 charges).
6. Nest Team flies to main platform and dps's Ji-Kun with any seconds remaining before first upper nest spawns. (3 charges left)
7. As soon as Upper Nest 6 spawns (East side of map), the Nest Team will immediatly fly up to it. (2 charges left)
8. Nest team destroys spawns at Upper Nest 6 and then immediately flies to Upper Nest 7 (1 charge left)
9. Nest team destroys spawns at Upper Nest 7 and then immediately flies to Upper Nest 9 (0 charges left)

At this point the Nest team is out of charges, but Nest 9 is right above the main platform.

10. Nest team destroyes spawns at Upper Nest 9 and then jumps down to main platform.
11. Nest team will have to Jump down to Lower Nest 1 again at this point as they have no charges left.
12. Repeat Steps 2 thru 5 at this point.

Important: During Lower Nest 3 at this point, Upper Nest 6 will also spawn at the same time. This means that 2 Juveniles will end up above the main raid platform. Depending on Ji-Kun's health we'll either be burning Ji-Kun or range will kill the Juveniles.

If we are burning Ji-Kun, the nest team will follow step 13A and ignore all remaining steps. If we are not burning Ji-Kun yet, the nest team will follow 13B and subsequent steps until burn is called.

13A. Nest Team flies up to main platform after refreshing charges. And will use remaining charges to grab damage buff during burn phase from Ji-Kun feedings.

13B. Nest Team will fly up to main platform and wait for Upper Nest 7 to spawn (3 charges left)
14. Nest Team will fly to Upper Nest 7 (2 charges left).
15. Nest Team will eliminate spawns at Upper Nest 7 and then fly to Upper Nest 9 (1 charge left).

We should be burning by this point. If we aren't, our dps is terribad Although, Nest Team can continue if needed.

Platform Tips

• Stack for Quills, spread immediatly after.
  
• DPS/Healers can stand right nest to pools, to help keep new pools compact and concise.
  
• Try to get close to Ji-Kun for Down Draft to minimize any falling.
  [/list
  
  Extra Feathers for Extra Damage
  
  With the above strat, no feathers will be picked up on Lower Platform 2 on either pass. The main platform dps/healers could theorectically jump down to Lower Nest 2 after the Nest team has left and pickup a feather. Then use 1 charge to get back to the main platform and have 3 charges to grab food / green globes for damage/healing buff.
  
  So, depending on who we have on the main platform. I would suggest 1 healer and 2-3 dps go grab a feather from the 2nd platform. I'm not sure how long hte feathers last, if it's long enough and we only have 2 dps on the main platform. Then 1 healer and 2 dps could go grab it, then when they are back, the 2nd healer could go grab one.
  
  Well, thats all I got for now.

In order to help me describe it, I simply googled Ji Kun Map and that was a result that I felt worked, so I included it.

It isn't necessary. It's 30 seconds between nest spawns. If they follow the plan I've laid out, there isn't a need for more than 1 nest team.

The only time there should be any kind of issue is during the 9th nest, which is the only time 2 nests spawn. There is no need to do anything special during the 4th nest. If the team can't finish the 3rd nest and get to the 4th nest in time then we don't have enough dps. Because the 4th to 5th nest is 30 seconds, 6th to 7th is 30 seconds, jsut like the 2nd to 3rd is 30 seconds.

1 team should be enough.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jGBDgu_c-k

The problem that the nest team complained about on the 2 attempts we tried was that their wing buff wouldn't take them straight from the lower 3rd nest to the upper 6th nest. So, as I stated in the strat, they need to fly to the main platform. Then activate a second buff where they fly to the upper nest.

If they kill the eggs fast enough they will have lots of time. And if they follow the flight plan, they will have enough charges for all platforms.

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Now, if your plan is to get extra feathers by sending main platform people to the 3rd platform, this generates 2 issues.

1. You add complexity. The problem here is that we are now sending a majority of the raid off to do platforms at various points of the encounter. Increasing the risk of mistakes (such as people missing the platform, which we saw often). And there will only be 1 healer on the main platform (if we are 3 healing) during a point in the encounter.

2. This will cause the number of charges available for flight to the 2nd team to be different.

^^ I layed out the above plan in order to make sure that the nest team would have enough charges to get to all upper nests. If they were to stop after the 2nd nest platform, they wouldn't actually be able to pickup the feathers from the 2nd nest.

Which means they would only have 2 charges left after leaving the 2nd nest and coming to the main platform. Meaning they wouldn't have enough charges to do all 3 upper platforms.

You might then say, the 3rd nest team could do an upper nest. And then we are basically back to a 2 nest team strategy and not a 1 nest team strategy.

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The reality is a 2 nest team strategy is unnecessary. It is necessary in a 25 man fight as there are multiple nests that activate at the same time. In a 10 man fight, the only time this happens is during the 9th spawn. And this is manageable.

The nest teams should be able to clear the lower nests within 15 seconds or so of them spawning. Leaving plenty of time to get to the next nest.

A 2 team strategy is quite doable, but after 3-4 hours of attempts the other night, I feel a 1 team strat will work better for us. And we should at least give it some honest attempts before making adjustments.

A 2 team strategy when executed correctly can allow you to get more damage/healing buffs because more people will have feathers, but increases the chance of mistakes because more people are doing more things.

A 1 team strategy will reduce the people can get the damage/healing buff. However, this is countered by the fact that there is only 1 team following a specific flight plan, there by reducing the chance for mistakes. Also, you will have more people constantly on the boss, thereby increasing overall damage on Ji-Kun.

We tried the 2 team strat for 3-4 hours, and I'm not arguing that it couldn't work. But I think it's unecessary when you look at the overall picture.

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One final note though, if we do execute the above 1 team strategy and we are getting to the 10or 11th platform and the burn phase isn't in sight. Then our dps is very low and we will need to do a 2 team strat in order to get the dps buffs.

But if it works out like I hope it does, we'll be closing in on the 30% target by the end of the 9th nest, if not earlier. Although, if we 2 healed it, we might get their earlier.

A nice, informative, if somewhat long video of Ji Kun from the nest team perspective.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jGBDgu_c-k

Basically the nests are in a standard pattern that the nest team should be familiar with. This group only used 2 healers and one nest team of 3 or 4. The nest team was made up of 2 melee and a healer. Makes it easier if the melee on nests can self heal to keep things going.

The feather mechanic is important to understand. Upon killing a hatchling on a nest, a feather appears. This gives you 4 short flights and a debuff that will prevent you from picking up another feather for a short duration. When the debuff wears off you will reset the charges on your feather. Understanding this is important when you only have one nest team.

The feed that flies thru the air can be intercepted giving a dps buff of 30% and a dot. This stacks (another 10% dps buff and doubling the dot) per feed intercepted. Intercepting the feed also keeps 1 puddle from spawning on the main platform. I would recommend that the feed be intercepted only to refresh the 30% dps buff, but not stacking more dots than needed.

Please watch the video and feel free to skip around to find your roles description.

Stormbringer