I've been thinking a lot about the first group last night, and I think it could have worked, and potentially brought down the elephant even faster than the later group, but it would have required a bit more dance. The later group operated on brute force and corpse pushing.
Using a TA:
Save oathies.
Reveal Weakness remains on Upal'Keng at all times to avoid the 5 second cool down between mobs.
Whole group focuses on one archer. Bring archer down, create puddle.
Oathies on Upal'Keng only while puddle exists, whole group switches. Rinse, repeat.
If Oathies is on and we're in a puddle, we heal through it, do not move.
What I saw last night looked more like:
Whole group on Upal'Keng.
Those who can, use AoEs to hopefully take down an archer now and then.
Oathies whenever it comes up.
Ignore puddle and move whenever mobs spawn.
I will also be reviewing my DPS spec, since apparently CC isn't worth anything in the new instances (again), to see if I can move some points and get Enrage so damage can be boosted during the puddle even more.