Mythic Mannoroth - Retribution Paladin

yup, we are 12/13M now and this is the 2nd week we down mythic mannoroth.
based on the boss mod statistic, our first kill took us 168 wipes.
surprisingly, the second kill took us only 7 wipes.


Spec: Final Verdict vs Seraphim

Final Verdict is definitely the better choice because for mythic mannoroth, imps continue to spawn throughout the fight. since the imps have to die within a couple GCD, in a way it is very similiar to kromrok dragging hands. for such situation, a FVDS (or FVEDS proc) is the best way to dps.


Spec: Unbreakable Spirit vs Clemency

Unbreakable Spirit is great because everyone will take a lot of damage from this boss. the fight will take around 7-9 minutes, which means 3 Divine Shield, 2 Lay on Hands, and Divine Protection for every imps / Shadowforce. when i can use our defensive CD so often, my damage taken for this boss is always significantly lower than the other raiders.

although the tank also need my Hand of Sacrifice for the Glaive Combo, we have enough external CD to go through it.


DPS Assignment

doom lord > mannoroth and cleave imps

this is the dps priority for the majority of us.

for consistent purpose, our guild prefer to appoint specific classes such as warlocks and warriors to focus AOE on the imps, while the rest of us focus on the doom lord and mannoroth. the main reason is to push the boss to 65% hp before the 4th doom lord, or even better if we push before the 4th set of imps.


Wrath of Gul'dan

Wrath of Gul'dan only happen 2 times in the whole fight because it will happen during phase transitions and there are only 2 phase transitions. and for each phase transition, 5 random players will be selected for wrath. it is always 2 melee-dps, 2 range-dps, 1 healer.

our guild decided that we should only deal with the 1st wrath and it is easier to ignore players who got the 2nd wrath.

for the 1st wrath, the raid leader addon will assign 5 icons on the 5 wrath players. 1 special icon (we use skull) is assigned to a player who will stand alone at the skull marker where both our tanks will then take turns to soak the player's wrath. the other 4 icon players will stand at their own pre-assigned markers forming a square shape. there, we assign 2 mages to take turns and soak up all the wrath of the 4 players by standing in the middle of the square shape formation and using iceblock.

for the 2nd wrath, we decided to ask all the players to stand outside the raid, each on their own. the most dangerous thing in this phase is the Empowered Shadowforce and the whole raid will be cluster at the center lane so that everybody can survive the empowered shadowforce by running against it in a straight line. straight line running is the only way we can survive without falling off the platform. however wrath players who are standing outside the raid means that our pivot direction from the boss will not be a straight line, and we will definitely fall out the platform during empowered shadowforce. as a paladin, we don't have blinks, leap jump, charge, etc but we are still able to survive the first empowered shadowforce using divine shield because there is one pillar remaining in the last phase. this pillar has a very strong electric AOE that can kill us in a few seconds but if we can stay inside the pillar with divine shield, we will be able to survive the first empowered shadowforce without falling off the platform. due to our guild choice of strategy, there is unfortunately no way for me to survive the second shadowforce except to cheat death by stacking up with the rest of the raid, but i'll only consider that if all our healers are alive and the raid looks healthy.

just for example,
during my first kill, i am only 58 percentile because i got the 2nd wrath.
during my second kill, i became 91 percentile because i didn't have the 2nd wrath.


AW Planning

since our role is to focus on doom lord, i decided to plan all my Avenging Wrath around the 5 doom lord.

1st AW + 1st Ring = when mannoroth is pulled
2nd AW = when second doom lord spawn
3rd AW + 2nd Ring = when 3rd imps spawn
4th AW = when fourth doom lord spawn
5th AW + 3rd Ring + Bloodlust + Potion = after clearing the mark from fifth doom lord

6th AW = if i have 2nd wrath, i will use it after the first empowered shadowforce because im probably going to die in the second empowered shadowforce. otherwise, we can save it to be used together with the 4th Ring.

1st Ring is used to dps mannoroth at the beginning and explode on the doom lord shortly after it is spawned.

2nd Ring can be used for dps padding on the 3rd set of imps and then explode on the 3rd doom lord when it is spawned. this explosion should instantly kill the doom lord.

3rd Ring is delayed a little bit, until the mark of doom is cleared and everybody is ready to dps push the boss to the final phase.

4th Ring is probably the end, the boss should be death pretty soon. use it as soon as it is available.


Trinkets: Empty Drinking Horn & Discordant Chorus

i believe the highest dps trinket is EDS + Libram and pray that you never get chosen for mechanics because mark of doom can easily put you out of range and remove the 3 LOV stacks. otherwise, a wrath + shadowforce combo can also push you out of range to maintain 3 LOV stacks.

for personal preference, i prefer to use EDH and DC, understand they may not be the best choice, but it definitely make my life easier, and allow me to focus on the dps targets, dps rotation or reacting to the mechanics correctly.

Edit: in case you were wondering, i did not have unending hunger or heirloom trinket (introduced later in 6.2.3) during our mythic mannoroth progression.