High Botanist Freywinn is the second boss of the Botanica wing of Tempest Keep in the Netherstorm. He appears to be a druid and is probably in charge of the experiments the blood elves are conducting on the plants in the Botanica. It seems he at some point had time to write a comprehensive botany guide; Botanist's Field Guide.
Spells and abilities[]
- Plant Red Seedling (summons a Red Seedling)
- Plant White Seedling (summons a White Seedling)
- Plant Blue Seedling (summons a Blue Seedling)
- Plant Green Seedling (summons a Green Seedling)
- Tranquility (heals the caster and any allies within radius for 1% of the caster's health every 2 secs)
- Tree of Life Form (changes only when channelling Tranquility)
Summoned Minions:
- Red Seedlings: Fire Blast
- Blue Seedlings:
- Green Seedlings: Toxic Pollen (causes the caster to automatically inflict 150 Nature damage every 2 sec. to nearby enemies)
- White Seedlings: Bind Feet: (slows movement speed by 70%)
- Frayer Protector: Shoot Thorns (ranged attack, 4000 physical damage)
Fight[]
Once engaged, Freywinn spawns a small seedling elemental every few seconds. The seedlings have a low amount of health (~750) and need to be killed in order to avoid their special abilities, which vary based on their color: short freeze (white), direct damage (red), root (green). Allocate one DPS to deal with them. Anyone with good burst damage can do the job.
About every 30 seconds, he will transform into a treant (much like a druid's Tree of Life Form), spawn three lashers, and start channeling Tranquility, which heals himself and the lashers. When Freywinn is in treant form, he is invulnerable and will keep channeling Tranquility. The Lashers also deal a thrown "Thorn" attack that hits for around 800-1000 damage. Only when all the three lashers are dead he will stop channeling Tranquility and return to the normal blood elf form.
NOTE: This fight can go on indefinitely if Freywinn is allowed to continue to heal himself with the lashers. Kill them as fast as possible.
There are several strategies to deal with the treant form phase:
Line of sight strategy[]
The easiest strategy is to have the WHOLE group (including healer and ranged DPS!) to move immediately out of line of sight of the lashers when they spawn. This is easily done by tanking the boss on the bridge during normal blood elf phase, and everyone run and hide behind the left corner to the bridge when he changes to treant form. If done correctly, the lashers will follow the group around the corner, out of Tranquility's range. Tank should use their AOE skills (e.g. Thunderclap, Consecration, AoE taunt, etc.) to aggro the lashers as quickly as possible. Start dps the lashers only when you are sure they are out of Tranquility. Damage dealers should target tank's target to reduce the chance of pulling aggro. When all three lashers are dead, the tank should run back to the boss and pull him back to the bridge. DPS can resume attacking the boss when the tank has grabbed aggro.
Groups that fail to use this method may have made the following mistakes:
- Fail to have the whole group run to the designated location immediately. This is a common problem for PUG. Usually it is the healers or the ranged DPS who forget to run. As a result, the lashers will keep attacking them while staying in Tranquility, and the tank will have a hard time to pull them to proper position.
- The boss is not tanked on the bridge. As a result, when he transforms, it will be much harder to pull the lashers out of Tranquility.
- Death of DPS during this phase. Either the DPS fail to run to the designated location, or they are not attacking tank's target, or a bad tank fails to get aggro of the three Lashers.
Fear strategy[]
For those who failed with the above strategy, you can try fearing the lashers when they spawn, if you have a warrior, priest or warlock. Fear caused the adds to get out of Tranq range very quickly. DPS the lashers down one by one then.
Focus fire strategy[]
For groups that cannot perform the line-of-sight strategy properly, and do not have fear, it is possible to kill the lashers one at a time even when they are within Tranq range, if all DPS focus on one target at a time. It is vital to kill the lashers quickly, thereby preventing the Botanist from healing himself out of control. Therefore, this strategy requires good DPS and the ability for everyone to focus on one target. Not a recommended strategy.
Other tips[]
- When the lashers spawn they enter the fight with NO AGGRO. So a healer topping off the tank or healing as they enter can pull aggro. It is recommended that priest healers use their Fade ability when the lashers enter. Paladin healers can Divine Shield/Blessing of Protection if aggroed.
- It is recommended that everybody in the party make a quick /assist macro for the same person (usually the tank). This will enable you to all target the same Lasher quick and take them down. (It can be done without, though).
- When he is in "normal form", make sure the DPS not dealing with spawns is pumping out as much damage as they can, or else the fight will go on forever.
- He seems to change into his tree form a lot sooner as the fight goes on, so it's important to take him down quickly.
- If you have a rogue in your group, you can apply a stack of wound poison to the boss before he goes treant, and it will decrease the amount he heals for from ~1000 to ~500.
- The Warlock spell Seed of Corruption is a very potent spell to use in this fight. While it is mana intensive for the lock, it pretty much takes care of all the small seedlings he sends out, leaving the rest of the group free to DPS down Freywinn (and that's what you want since it detonates Seed of Corruption quicker). Cast it on Freywinn, and when it detonates, it will almost always kill all the small seedlings that spawns, in addition to damaging him.
Heroic mode[]
In heroic-mode, this fight is not much different to normal-mode. Same strategies apply. He does hit a fair bit harder, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Loot[]
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 200200
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Quotes[]
Aggro:
- What are you doing? These specimens are very delicate!
Summoning his plants:
- Nature bends to my will...
Killing a player (Blood Elf form):
- Your life cycle is now complete!
Shapeshifting into Tree of Life:
- Endorel aluminor!
Wipe:
- ....mumble mumble...
Death:
- The specimens...must be preserved.
Random quotes when working (not in combat):
- ...thorny vines...mumble...ouch!
- ...mumble mumble...
- ...mumble...Petals of Fire...mumble...
- ...with the right mixture, perhaps...
The buzy Freywinn:
Occasionally, a Sunseeker Researcher from the pack of mobs on the other side of the bridge leading to Freywinn (as long as the players have not killed them) will approach Freywinn, who is too buzy to notice the researcher requesting his attention. The yellow quotes below are said by the researcher.
The Sunseeker Researcher approaches Freywinn.
- High Botanist?
Freywinn continues moving back and forth between his tables, eventually saying one of his working-quotes.
- High Botanist?
- Sunseeker Researcher sighs.
The Sunseeker Researcher leaves Freywinn and returns to the other researchers.