Headed South

Headed South is a dungeon & raids achievement earned for defeating Siamat with 3 stacks of Lightning Charge in Lost City of Tol'vir on Heroic difficulty.

It is accomplished by killing Siamat with three stacks of Lightning Charge. This debuff is gained by being in melee range of the when it dies. In order to complete the achievement, the player must have three stacks of the debuff, requiring that it be cast by all three Servants prior to killing Siamat. The debuff remains on the player for 30 seconds, meaning that it must be refreshed or Siamat killed within 30 seconds of the previous cast. Each stack of the debuff increases damage taken by 33% and damage dealt by 10%, adding up to 100% increased damage taken and 30% damage dealt by the third stack.

Strategy
Due to the increased damage taken by those with the Lightning Charge debuff, this achievement can be difficult. It can be made easier, but long, by pre-DPSing Siamat with the endurance method.

Endurance Method
This method is easy and very reliable, but it takes some time. It's helpful if the tank is overgeared, as there will be three Servants of Siamat attacking the tank for quite a while. Only one ordinary healer is required. At no time does the group take excessive damage; only the tank takes significant damage.

Synopsis: Siamat will be DPS'd down to approximately 50k health, while the tank holds the Servants of Siamat, and someone kills the Minions of Siamat away from the group. Then everyone stacks on the tank and the Servants are killed in the order that they spawned. Siamat drops his shield and is killed immediately, granting everyone the achievement.

Detail:


 * Everyone: Everyone must refrain from using AOE attacks, as there are multiple people (the tank and a designated DPS) who will be relying on aggro to perform their tasks. Trinkets such as Cunning of the Cruel should not be worn. Everyone should be helping the designated DPSer to spot Minions, since they can be hard to see if they spawn on the far side of Siamat or under the tank and his Servants.


 * Tank: The tank's responsibility is to pick up and hold the Servants of Siamat without killing them. It may be necessary to stop all attacks, even autoattacks, to accomplish this. Therefore, no one should use AOE attacks at any time. The tank should mark each Servant as it spawns; good marks are: Skull, X, and Circle. These marks establish the kill order for later. The tank may dps each one down to about 50% health.


 * Minion-DPS: One DPS is responsible for picking up each Minion of Siamat, kiting it to a far corner, and killing it. This is necessary because each one spawns a storm when it dies, and these storms do not expire. If the storms accumulate near Siamat, it will make the healer's job harder. This DPS should have an interrupt (not a stun). To handle a minion: First hit it and gain its attention. Then interrupt it while it is casting. It will now follow you; take it to a far corner and kill it. Again, this is a situation where AOE attacks would cause trouble, because if anyone else aggros a Minion, it will be difficult for the responsible DPS to regain aggro without killing it - and then it would drop its storm in an inconvenient location. Also note that the Minions don't hit very hard, so clothies can easily perform this role.


 * Other DPS: The other two DPS (and the Minion DPS) are responsible for attacking Siamat and bringing him down to about 50k health. This sort of accuracy is not difficult due to his 90% damage reduction.


 * Healer: The healer is responsible for healing.

When Siamat is at about 50k health, everyone will stack on the tank. The Servants will be killed in the order they were spawned, and should have been marked (skull, X, circle). It's advisable to allow each one to finish its two-second death cast before killing the next one.

When the third Servant is killed, Siamat will drop his shield. He can be immediately killed and everyone gets their achievement.

Note that depending on luck it may take Siamat several seconds to put his shield up at the beginning of the fight, so offensive cooldowns may be used here to get a short burst of damage. Due to the extreme length of the fight, heroism may usually be used twice, so it is acceptable to use it here (activate it before starting the fight).

Healing Throughput Method
The proper method of performing this achievement requires intensive healing due to the large damage increase from the debuff, and may be more than a single healer can handle. If this is the case, an off-healer e.g. a DPS shaman with healing rain can help some.

This method relies on killing the Servants one at a time, killing the next before the debuff from the previous expires; note that it takes several seconds for each to cast the debuff on death, so the party should kill each with at least 5 seconds left on the previous stack. The third Servant must be killed first, as that will cause Siamat's shield to drop so the party can do full damage, but the other two may then be killed in any order. After the shield falls and Siamat finishes throwing the party around, heroism and offensive cooldowns should be used to burn him down as quickly as possible, but don't forget to kill the other two Servants as necessary; defensive cooldowns may also prove useful to reduce the damage taken by the party.

Solo Method
This is a method for getting the achievement on your own, while part of a group (not for solo-killing the boss). This assumes that the other members of your group are unaware/uninterested in the achievement. It puts you at considerable risk of dying and makes more work for the healer.

Whenever a Servant of Siamat spawns, go over to it. Be sure to stand on it when it dies, and remain there until you receive its debuff (there is still a two-second cast when it dies). After the third Servant dies, you will bounce around and take lots of damage; reserve any self-survival cooldowns for this time. You will then have less than 30 seconds to kill the boss, so pop all CDs and burn him. Using a potion will help.

Do not use Ice Block or other debuff-clearing self-defense mechanisms, as they will prevent you from earning the achievement.