I spent some time today reviewing the logs from our attempts on Ko'ragh. I also tried to find the logs of other guilds with similar progression to compare.
First, we have fewer attempts on the boss than the guilds I looked at.
Second, our individual DPS is too low. We had at least 3 attempts that went over 5 minutes, one went over 7 minutes. These are all long enough to get a kill, the fight should only last 4-5 minutes. Guilds getting kills have dps ranging from 16k to 20k. Our DPS on previous bosses was close to that range, but for some reason on Ko'ragh we were only doing 13k each at best.
Our item levels may still be a bit low. They are lower than the guilds I found who had defeated the boss.
We are getting killed by mistakes, standing in stuff and from the adds. I certainly died from Expel Magic: Arcane too many times, but on the last 5-6 attempts it was the scrambling with the adds that seemed to cause the wipes. In watching the video from Fat Boss, their entire guild moves to the same location behind a void zone when the adds pop, so all of the adds move directly into a void zone. That should also allow ranged dps to put dmg on the adds without fearing aggro, because the tanks will be stacked with them, and will pick up aggro easily once in melee range. I propose that everyone should stack immediately when adds pop or slightly before. Perhaps melee can take some liberties to put some dmg on the boss if they are prepared to drop aggro or sprint to the stack if they draw aggro.
Finally, I checked the progress for guilds on our realm with 1/7 and even 2/7 heroics down. As a rule, they have not completed normal and many have not defeated Ko'ragh.
To add to Aanvil's suggestions I'd like to try a few attempts with no dispelling of Expel Magic: Fire. The group I cleared Normal with on Saturday (mix of noobs like me and Mythic raiders) specifically instructed no dispelling. A couple of top Heroic logs I looked at also skipped dispells. This gives everyone a nice countdown of when to get out and away from everyone instead of surprising them with a dispell when they haven't finished moving out. Healing it wasn't bad, although we were well suited to healing the DoT with 2 druids in the raid. Still, Rada can go Holy and shine here or even with both of us Disc, AA boosted PoH and bubbles will be more than enough to keep people up. Stone and Bugz also contribute massive AoE healing to make quite a difference.
A few different ideas to try:
We should try to keep the dps and healers all behind the boss, while the tank is in front of the boss. As the ranged move in a circle around the room at about the edge of the circle, so should the melee dps to stay on the same side as them. When the adds spawn they will move to where the melee dps are standing. The tanks join the melee dps, who can continue attacking the boss from just outside the circle and cleaving the adds. This should increase our dps on the boss. At this point, the soaker is getting dot'd and needs big heals. If they get too low, they should simply step out of the circle to survive.
Once all of the adds have spawned, the tank can then move INTO the void zone with them, making sure to hit cooldowns before going in and getting big heals. It should be easier to single target heal the tank than to aoe heal the whole raid. At this point the ranged dps should switch and kill the adds, while the other tank picks up the boss. If we don't have enough ranged, then melee should help out.
Once expel arcane hits, the tank needs to /immediately/ turn and run away from the raid. I've noticed when the tank hesitates or doubles back -- even for a split second -- tank goes down. If you see the boss running away from the melee, it's because I'm not going to wait for a taunt before running. Soon as DBM pops up, I'm outta there. >D
Putting everyone behind the boss except the MT and OT will avoid getting people smeared by arcane, because then the T has a clear route to the nearest wall. What I've been doing is OT'ing 90 from the MT, so once he gets the arcane debuff, I can taunt and the melee are still in a safe zone. Korgagh jumps around and I shift left before he runs back, so he assumes the same position.
Tank in the void zone... interesting idea. Happy to try it.
Another idea I had with the void zones is, stack the circles much closer together (like OO not O O) and tuck the raid right in the nook before the two circles touch. If everyone stacks right there, including the tank, every mob which charges toward the group would be standing in the void zone when it attacks the raid. Right? Now, we have mobs going between the two circles and never end up in a void zone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HXFMVhE5rs
http://www.wowhead.com/guide=2791/koragh-highmaul-raid-strategy-guide
Aanvil has some good positioning suggestions. I'd like to make a few more changes:
Ranged do a loose spread or 2 ranged groups near each other instead of stacking. Stacking ranged and healers in one group interrupts ranged DPS and healing every time there's a Trample, Expel Fire, and Frost Orb. We can cut that interruption in half at the cost of losing some floor healing. At best we stack up for a positional cooldown on Expel Shadow, though we might evaluate getting that to melee instead.
Ranged should not be going behind a Suppression Field during the add phase because they should not have aggro on the adds. Ranged should be turreting the boss because this is a prime DPS opportunity. Once the tank has the adds grouped ranged should switch to the adds to finish them off. Healers might get healing aggro, they can drag the add to the tank. Watch the Fat Boss video again, the ranged group is not behind any of the Suppression Fields, they're loosely spread out to the right.
Melee go back the boss after the soaker is inside getting a bubble. A little cleave on the adds while the soaker is getting into place is fine but they should not be killing adds (implies they're either in Suppression zone taking damage or causing excess raidwide damage outside supression) or getting aggro on the adds. If ranged can't switch fast enough we'll split some assignments to fine-tune things.
I like Muta's suggestions. I think they match with this video from LOS Gaming. It's very short and they put the time into adding graphics and position maps and such.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLvRM31sJTw
The video is good but I just want to doublecheck: we're going to have only the T collect the adds up by the boss then retreat back to the suppression field, with everyone else staying on the boss?
I really like the 2-minute Tips video Aanvil linked! Good suggestions, all. Quick recap:
Let's get him!
For Science!