Heroic: Shannox

This fight has been hotfixed about a week after 4.2:
Successful attacks on Rageface will now always be critical strikes while he is channeling Face Rage.

Rage Face is removed with 30k damage in a single hit in 10m, 45k in 25m.

You need 2 DDs, a main dispeller and a backup, that are able to crit with 30k in one spell. We ended up having both hunters going MM (the other DDs being ele shaman, shadow, rogue), but that was before the fix (Rageface increased the chance to crit by 50% then, what made two constant dispellers necessary) and before we knew that only 30k was required. It still is much, i.e. a BM hunter wont reach 30k with their arcane shot which is quite powerful in this spec; I'm not sure about ele shamans and spriests. Casters like Mages are definetly better for this task, as they have quick casts on short (or even without?) cooldowns, whereas a MM hunter needs to save his powerful instant (chimera shot) because of the long cooldown; an aimed shot hardcast takes too long and one can't rely on the proc.

Oh and in case it wasn't clear: avoid to kite the dogs over the fire traps by any means. The wary debuff lasts quite a while and will most likely cause trouble (it makes the dogs immune to traps for about 30s). Have a rogue remove those that are in bad positions, or kite the boss a bit to get a clear path beween him and Riplimb. The Riplimb tank should be ready to blow off a cooldown if the dog runs over a fire trap accidentally.

A word on sep anxiety: it seems that it has a min-range of about 80y. So keep Riplimb close enough or Shannox will two-hit the tank.

Dungeon Journal says major differences are that both dogs now get a stacking buff called "Feeding Frenzy", which lasts 20 seconds. Each time they perform a melee attack, their damage increases by 5% per stack. Also, Riplimb (the dog that puts bleed stacks on the tank) does not permanently die. Instead, he will rez to full health after 30 seconds once brought to 0 health.

Sounds generally like you will need to make good use of the Crystal Traps laid down by Shannox, appropriately using them on the dogs when their stacks get too high, and you need to use them wisely because Shannox only lays down so many. Also, it's obviously not a good idea (probably a wipe) if a raid member gets trapped in one and wastes it.

Also, you'll have to deal with Riplimb rezzing 30 seconds after death, meaning you should kill him when boss is near 30%, and when it rezzes, keep him chain Crystal Trapped until the fight is over, or else he will one shot people cause of his "Frenzied Devoution"

Yes, this boss is a traditional "free heroic loots". Every new expansion should have that: Northrend Beasts, Leviathan 1-3, Gunship, Halfus and now Shannox.

Like every caster in TBC should have done, when fighting against a hunter, you're killing the boss, controlling his pets. You shouldn't miss any Crystal Prison, their usage is critical for this encounter, cause high bleed stacks on the tank can become an unhealable damage. And you should have a rogue, disarming Immolation Traps, their damage is very high to catch one.

The main differences on a heroic mode:
1. You don't have to kill dogs, only control them, while nuking a boss. As was mentioned above, dogs don't enrage depending on the boss' hp, they have a stacking enrage buff. Riplimb is able to ressurect and Rageface has more hp than Shannox, so you don't want to waste your dps on them (exept Face Rage of course).
2. Shannox' tank should move the boss more far away from the trapped Riplimb to lose his bleed stacks. But be wary of this enrage, which will kill both of your tanks, if the distance between Shannox and Riplimb is too long. For some unknown reason this ability isn't mentioned in the Journal.

This encounter doesn't require full Firelands gear, it's just a failcheck - burn the boss, trap Riplimb, nuke Rageface when needed, don't get caught by traps, lose bleed stacks. And one of the most important things - your healers should be able to move with the MT, cause he'll be running a lot. And if he died, battle-ressing wouldn't help you to save the raid, cause the boss is immune to taunt, so watch for it.