Luskan's Cataclysm Raid Guide: Blackwing Descent

[Luskan]

The Broken Hall





Magmaw

has two set phases. During Phase 1, he will attack as normal, and take normal damage. During Phase 2, if the group has managed to Impale him, he will be stunned for a period of time, take extra damage, and spit out the tank he has swallowed.

Phase 1 will last for just under 2 minutes if the chains are applied properly, and Phase 2 will last for about 30 seconds.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase 1

Magmaw will melee the tank and spit lava at the raid periodically as the fight goes on.

Every thirty seconds, Magmaw will begin casting Pillar of Flame.

■Pillar of Flame tends to only target players at range.
■You'll want to have the ranged a good distance from Magmaw, but still near the center of the room. One good strategy is to divide them up into two groups, so that when Magmaw casts Pillar of Flame, the group it spawns under can begin running from it while the other group can immediately switch to the Lava Parasites and burn them down. Magmaw will cast Pillar of Flame roughly every thirty seconds, so the ranged have thirty seconds to kill the Lava Parasites.

Pillar of Flame, after four seconds, will spawn Lava Parasites.

■If the Lava Parasites manage to melee anyone, the player will receive the Parasitic Infection debuff. (This ability does not appear to affect player pets.) So, when the Parasites first appear, they should be slowed from range and AoEd down before they can reach any player.
■If a player gets Parasitic Infection, they must get away from other players before Infectious Vomit occurs, as it will deal 40,000 damage to nearby allies as well as spawn more Parasites.
■A recommended strategy is to place a death knight in the ranged. The DK must be Frost, with the talents Howling Blast and Chilblains, and must have the glyph of Howling Blast. Put the DK in Blood Presence and have them use Howling Blast and Death & Decay from a distance - it will slow the Parasites as well as keep threat directed away from the melee group.
■It is also possible to kite the parasites and keep DPS on Magmaw. AoE stuns will also work in helping prevent movement by the Lava Parasites.
After three Pillars (roughly 1:30 in), Magmaw will cast his Ignition ability.

■Both Ignition and Mangle seem to occur on the same side of the room.
■When Ignition first comes out, half the room will spawn small lavalike dots all over the ground. This is the reason that the ranged want to be near the center of the room - it makes it easier to avoid Ignition damage.

■You must flee to the other side of the room before the lava begins to steam.
Ignition is followed by Mangle a few seconds later.

■Mangle swallows the current tank. Magmaw needs to be spiked within 30 seconds, or the player will be fully eaten. The Mangled tank will be taking a large amount of damage, so he needs to be the priority healing target.
■The Mangled tank will be unable to target Magmaw himself; however, he CAN target Magmaw's Point of Vulnerability.
■Mangle will occur just as the Ignition ground begins to steam. When Magmaw uses Mangle, he lunges his body out overtop the Ignition ground. Anyone in melee range who is still inside the Ignition debuff will be stunned for a few seconds as he crashes onto them.
■Even if the tank (or current target) is across the room at the entrance to the instance, Magmaw's Mangle will still eat them. The tank's position doesn't affect where Magmaw lunges for Mangle.
While Magmaw is bent double casting Mangle, melee will have the chance to jump onto his head the same way they would any vehicle. Boarding Magmaw will take away all abilities save one - Constricting Chains, set to the first button.

■Using Constricting Chains will spawn a little AoE circle, much in the same matter as Blizzard, Death and Decay, Engineering bombs, Earthquake, and other targeted AoEs do. The players must target the spike on the ground in front of Magmaw. In 10-man, Magmaw requires two chains, and in 25-man, he requires three.
■Constricting Chains has a cooldown, so multiple players must jump onto Magmaw at once.
■If enough chains aren't applied in a short time, he will break free of them, and the riding players must wait for Constricting Chains to finish cooling down before trying again.
If performed successfully, the Point of Vulnerability at the back of Magmaw's head will be exposed to the group, and he will enter Phase 2. (Roughly 1:45 in)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase 2

Magmaw is reined in by the Constricting Chains, becoming impaled on the spike in the ground and releasing the Mangled target from his gullet. He becomes stunned and unable to attack, and takes double damage.

Sweltering Armor is applied to the Mangled tank, if the tank is still alive.

This is the time to cast Heroism, Bloodlust, Time Warp, or Ancient Hysteria. Magmaw will no longer be causing any damage to players, and the only potential threat would be any Lava Parasites that remain. The Parasites should be prioritized before Magmaw, if there are any.

It is also a good time for healers to relax and recover mana if necessary. Paladin healers should immediately cast Divine Plea, whether their mana is low or not - the time it takes for Magmaw to return to Phase 2 will almost completely finish the cooldown on it, and the time spent in Phase 2 will outlast the time Divine Plea nerfs your healing for.

Any spells like Earth Shield, Beacon of Light, or any other long-term single-target spells should now be swapped over to the second tank.

This phase will last for about 30 seconds.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase 3

As the first tank will still be afflicted with Sweltering Armor, your second tank should immediately take Magmaw's aggro once he stands back up.

Phase 3 is just the same as Phase 1 - the only difference being who tanks it. Repeat the phases until Magmaw is dead







--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Arcanotron

■Pull him out of his whirlpool, but make sure he's close enough to it that melee can stand in it.
■Power Generator - A large cyan-magenta vortex on the ground. Gives whoever is standing in it a big boost to damage and mana regen. Stand in the whirlpool, but make sure the boss isn't.
■Arcane Annihilator - Short cast time, interrupt-able, does a lot of damage to one target. Buffed by Power Conversion.
■Power Conversion - Causes the boss to generate a stacking damage buff whenever he is struck. Don't hit him when he has this up. The damage buff is steal-able by a mage.

Electron

■Lightning Conductor - Puts a debuff on one target that hits all nearby raid members for big damage. If you get this debuff as a healer or dps, run away from the group. If a tank gets the debuff, pay attention and move away from the tank.
■Electrical Discharge - Moderate damage, jumps to allies. When Electron is active, stay spread out unless you're in a Power Generator.
■Unstable Shield - When struck, the boss lets out a very high damage AOE. Don't hit the boss when this is up.


Magmatron

■Incineration Security Measure - Shoots out jets of flame all over the room. Don't stand in the fire. If you are the tank, don't move or rotate the boss.
■Aquiring Target - Targets one raid member and, after a few seconds, shoots a huge jet of flame straight at them. Get out of the way, and heal the target.
■Barrier - Absorbs 300k damage and explodes to deal 75k damage to everyone. Don't attack the barrier.

Toxitron

■Poison Cloud - Causes anyone standing in it to gain a debuff that increases all damage taken by 50%, including the boss.
■Poison Protocol - Summons 3 Poison Bomb (slow moving slimes) that crawl towards a chosen target. Kill the slimes with ranged dps. If the slimes reach their target, they explode for about 100k and leave a pool of poison. Don't stand in that, and don't let a slime hit you; if you are being chased, kite it. Slimes are untauntable. Warning this can go on your tanks, in this case ALL dps must switch to kill that one first.
■Poison Soaked Shell - When struck, the boss puts a stacking dot on the attacker. However, the dot has a benefit; when you attack with it, you deal a huge burst of nature damage (10k per stack). Try not to get it stacked too much, though, for the healers' sake



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Strategy


This is council encounter consisting of 4 golem bosses with a shared HP pool of 32M. There will only be two entities moving and using skills at a time. When a new golem is activated the old one will be granted a shield. This is there to encourage the dps to switch targets.

Players can stack them for extra damage from incidental AOEs, tank cleave, etc. The bosses do not do any cleaves, stacking buffs, or crazy AoEs that punish the tanks for this strategy. When the fight starts, only one golem is active. It has 100 stored energy, which starts draining as soon as you pull. Once the energy hits 50, another golem will "wake up" and join the fight. Once the first golem reaches 0, it shuts down, and a new one spawns. This continues in a cycle until you kill the boss.

Tanks
A "stream" from the back wall to the next golem will show you which one is spawning next. Get ready to pick that one up once your golem reaches about 3 or 4 energy. You will know what golem to expect based on the color of the stream. Don't stand in poison clouds, and don't let the boss stand in whirlpools.
Healers
When you see "Aquiring Target" go off, Magmatron's target is about to take a lot of damage. A helpful red beam points to whoever is being targeted. The tanks are eligible targets as well. Get ready with preventive healing/shielding. If you are running low on mana, stand in a whirlpool for some nice regen.
DPS
Stand in the whirlpools for a buff. Don't stand in the poison clouds. Kill any slimes that spawn (they spawn 3 at a time and you get a raid warning). If a slime is targeting you, kite it (especially if you are melee). Use slows like Frost Trap, Earthbind Totem, and Mind Flay. When a boss casts their "shield" ability (look for keywords Barrier, Shield, Shell, or Absorption) switch targets immediately, or bad things happen. Special note for melee: Your tank might get hit with the "Lightning Conductor" debuff. Watch out for this. If that happens, get away from the tank ASAP as they will be hitting you with a big aoe.
Everyone
Spread out as much as you can. Don't stand in the bad stuff, but do stand in the good stuff. If you are targeted by Magmatron's "Acquiring Target" spell, stand there and take it (use damage reduction cooldowns if you have them; it will save the healer a lot of trouble).




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------













Vault of the Shadowflame





Maloriak

The Maloriak encounter switches between several sets of abilities depending on which vial Maloriak throws into the Cauldron. There is a pattern to his vials, every third vial will be a Green one. He will randomly choose between Red and Blue for the first two, then the sequence resets. Each Vial lasts 40 seconds, after which Maloriak will cast a new one.

There are 18 Abberations in total, one strategy is to kill the Abberations while they have Debilitating Slime. There other is to interrupt every Release cast and 'zerg' the boss at 25% ignoring the abberations entirely.

All phases

■ Arcane Storm—Deals 14137 to 15862 Arcane damage per second to all enemies within 50,000 yards. Lasts 6 sec.
■ Release Aberrations—Releases 3 Abberrations from their growth chambers, causing them to attack all enemies in the area.
Red Vial - Mix and stir! Apply heat!

■ Consuming Flames—Ignites a random target in flames, dealing 9000 Fire damage per second. Any additional magic damage taken by the target increases the damage dealt by this effect by 25% of the damage taken. Lasts 10 sec.
■ Scorching Blast—Deals 750000 Fire damage, split among all targets in a cone up to 60 yards in front of the caster.



Blue Vial - How well does the mortal shell handle extreme temperature change? Must find out! For Science!

■ Biting Chill—Surrounds a random player target with a ring of frost which deals 7500 Frost damage per second to the target and any friends of the target within 8 yards. Lasts 10 sec.
■ Flash Freeze—Causes an area around a random target to become suddenly freezing cold, dealing 47125 to 52875 Frost damage to all targets within 10 yards of the target and encasing them in solid ice for 30 sec. When the ice is broken, the targets are released but the breaking ice deals an additional 47125 to 52875 Frost damage to all targets 10 yards around that target, breaking all ice in that area as well.
Green Vial - This one's a little unstable! But what's progress without failure?

■ Remedy—Heals the caster for 150000 health and generates 2000 mana per second. The amount healed by this effect increases by 150000 per second. Lasts 10 sec. Magic dispellable.
■ Debilitating Slime—Slime sprays out from the cauldron, coating every unit (players and enemies!) in the room. The slime increases all damage taken by 100% and suppresses any Growth Catalysts on the target, causing it be removed temporarily. Lasts 15 sec.
25% Health - When pushed to the edge, results may become unpredictable!

■ Release All—Releases all remaining Abberations from their growth chambers. In addition, releases the two Prime Subjects from their growth chambers.
■ Magma Jets—Releases a stream of small fire fissures towards a random enemy. These fissures deal 23562 to 26437 Fire damage to all enemies within 0 yards. In addition, the fissures leave behind a persistent burning effect which deals 4713 to 5287 Fire damage to all nearby enemies.
■ Absolute Zero—Summons a sphere of sub-freezing energy near a random target. If this sphere comes within 6 yards of an enemy, it will explode, dealing 18850 to 21150 Frost damage to all enemies within 6 yards, knocking them back.
■ Acid Nova—Deals 5000 Nature damage per second to all enemies for 10 sec.
Abberations

■ Growth Catalyst—Increases nearby allies' damage dealt by 20% and reduces damage they take by 20%. Affects all allies within 10 yards.

Prime Subjects

■ Growth Catalyst—Increases nearby allies' damage dealt by 20% and reduces damage they take by 20%. Affects all allies within 10 yards.
■ Fixate—Fixated on a target. Immune to taunt. Lasts 10 seconds.








The Maloriak encounter has some rather unusual mechanics. He switches between several sets of abilities depending on which vial Maloriak throws into the Cauldron. There is a pattern to his vials, with every third vial being a Green one, and the two before it are either Red then Blue, or Blue then Red. Each Vial lasts 40 seconds, after which Maloriak will cast a new one. He also has adds, that he summons in packs of 3 with an interruptable cast, twice every Red or Blue Vial phase.

There is a limited amount of adds he can summon; 18 Abberations and 2 Prime Subjects, which he will only summon in his final phase from 25% to 0. Because of the adds' Growth Catalyst ability, they need to be tanked away from Maloriak, so he won`t get the buff as well. By the time 9 adds are up, they will be dealing tank-killing damage, which can only be survived by a) popping cooldowns, b) kiting, or c) having a third tank pick up a couple of adds.

The Red Vial gives him a flame breath. Unlike other flame breaths, that you want to stay out of, this one does shared damage to everyone in the breath, meaning that if only the tank is in the breath, he will get one-shotted. So, when he throws a Red vial into the cauldron, everyone but the off-tank(s) should stack up in front of him.

The Blue Vial gives him a spell which randomly freezes a random member of the raid and everyone within 10 yards of that person in an iceblock with 5k hp. One player, preferably a fire mage (for fire blast) should be assigned to breaking these immediately. The raid should spread out for this phase.

The Green Vial wipes the Growth Catalyst buff given by the adds, and puts a debuff on everyone including both adds and players increasing damage taken by 100%. During this phase all dps should be focused on aoeing the adds down before the green phase is over, as he will immediately follow up the green phase with an add summon.

Throughout the fight he will also randomly start to channel Arcane Storms, which must be interrupted, so as to mitigate raid damage. When he reaches 25%, he will release all remaining adds (hopefully only the two Prime Subjects, or you will likely wipe) and enter a Soft Enrage-like phase, where he deals more damage, summons void zones of fire in a line in front of him, ice orbs that will explode if dpsed down or if they reach a player, and does high raid damage through Acid Storm. Pop all cooldowns, and nuke him through that last phase as quickly as humanly possible.

The main mechanic of the fight is actually the adds, because of their absurd damage. There are a number of ways to deal with this:

1.Interrupt one cast of Release Aberrations, and let the off-tank pop all cooldowns when 9 adds arrive.


2.Interrupt one cast of Release Aberrations, and have dps use kiting abilities such as Blast Wave, Ring of Frost, Earthbind Totem, and Frost Trap.


3.Interrupt no casts of Release Aberrations, and split adds between two off-tanks, instead of one.


4.Interrupt the second cast of Release Aberrations, and single-target dps the first set of three adds down before the third cast.
He has a 7-minute enrage timer on normal. To beat this fight, you will have to face two sets of three phases (Red/Blue, Green, Blue/Red, Green). DPS has to be careful, as you don't want to push him to 25% until the second Green Vial is thrown in the cauldron, or you'll likely wipe due to not being able to take down your remaining Abberations.






Atramedes


You will have a 'sound bar' in this encounter. If it hits 100 Atramedes will aggro and kill you! (And kill you, yes even if you are the tank.)


Thwack one of the ancient dwarven shields around the room to cause Vertigo to Atramedes. This resets everyone's sound to zero. He will destroy it when he recovers.

■ Vertigo—The Resonating Clash has sent the target into a state of Vertigo, increasing damage taken by 50% for 5 sec.

Ground Phase 80 seconds.

■ Sonic Breath—Cast at the highest sound player. Does 15,000 damage per second and adds 20 sound per second. Follows the player faster the higher their sound is.
■ Searing Flame—The blindly aimed flames inflict 15062 to 15438 Fire damage every 1 sec and increases Fire damage taken by 25% per stack. Applied 8 times over 8 seconds. Interrupt this with Vertigo.
■ Modulation—The Blind Dragon begins to Modulate, increasing the Sound of all enemies by 7 and inflicting 39000 to 41000 Shadow damage. Damage increased by your sound bar.
■ Sonar Pulse—Sends discs of sonic energy flying around the room. If touched inflicts 5850 to 6150 Arcane damage and adds seven sound.
Air Phase 40 seconds.

■ Roaring Flame Breath—Cast at the highest sound player. Does 15,000 damage per second and adds 20 sound per second. Follows the player faster the higher their sound is. This time it keeps speeding up, and you will want to use a shield to stop it. After the vertigo he will follow the player who hit the shield.
■ Sonar Pulse—Sends discs of sonic energy flying around the room. If touched inflicts 5850 to 6150 Arcane damage and adds seven sound.
■ Sonar Bomb—The Sonar Bomb inflicts 30000 Arcane damage to enemies within 8 yards and allows Atramedes to hear the targets more easily! Adds thirty sound.
■ Sonic Fireball—29250 to 30750 Fire damage to enemies within 6 yards of the impact.
■ Roaring Flames—Atramedes scatters flame patches across the room. The Reverberating Flames inflict 14625 to 15375 Fire damage and an additional 7800 to 8200 Fire damage every 1 sec for 4 sec. Additionally the Reverberating Flames increase sound by five.






Strategy




This encounter revolves around the Sound Bar mechanic. All of Atramedes' abilities cause their target's sound bar to increase, and when 100% sound is reached Atramedes will begin hitting them for 30-50k fire damage per second until they die. Atramedes two targeted abilities, Sonic Breath and Flame Breath, are both typically used on the player with the highest sound.

There are ten 'gongs' around the room that can be interacted with, using them will reset every raid member's sound to zero and stun Atramedes for 5 seconds. However when they are used Atramedes will become extremely upset with them and burn them to ash, so they can only be used once each. For most raids, gongs are used on a pace of one per ground phase (to interrupt Searing Flames) and one per air phase (to reset the kite path).

Ground Phase
During the ground phase, the main objective is to avoid Sonar Pulse. Several discs will spawn in the center of Atramedes and fly out towards random players. Players should avoid getting hit by these discs in order to avoid increasing their sound. Twice during the ground phase, Atramedes will cast Sonic Breath on the player with the highest sound. This player should run in one direction while all other players run in the other direction.

Finally, Atramedes will cast Searing Flames. The moment he begins casting, a fire AoE pulse will active, dealing damage to the raid and placing a few fire patches on the ground. The gong should be immediately rung once he begins casting. This resets sound along with interrupting Searing Flames.

Air Phase
When the air phase begins, everyone should immediately start moving in anticipation that they are targeted by Flame Breath. Once the Flame Breath starts approaching the player, a rogue (or other mobile class) should ring a gong. The Flame Breath will always resume on the player who hits the gong. That player should start running in a large circle around the room to kite the Flame Breath for the remainder of the air phase. Body and Soul can help them get a few more steps ahead.

For all other players, the primary goal is to avoid the flame patches and sonic bombs. It is strongly encouraged that players keep moving and forget about DPS'ing.

Enrage
On normal, there's a soft enrage in which the raid runs out of gongs to hit. Patch 4.0.6 introduces a 10-minute hard berserk for the heroic difficulty of this encounter.





Chimaeron

Be sure to talk to Finkle before aggro-ing Chimaeron in order to gain the buff:

■ Finkle's Mixture—Damage taken while above 10000 health cannot reduce your health below 1.

Chimaeron Phase One - 100% to 22%

■ Caustic Slime—Deals 280000 Nature damage and briefly reduces chance to hit for all enemies in an area. Damage is split between all enemies within 6 yards of the impact crater.
■ Massacre—Inflicts maximum damage to all enemy players.
■ Feud—Chimaeron is unable to perform melee attacks while his heads are fighting each other.
■ Double Attack—Chimaeron will strike twice on his next attack.
■ Break—Chimaeron attacks viciously, breaking through his target's defenses. Increases Physical damage taken by 25% for 1 min. Stacks.

Phase Two - 22% to 0%

■ Mortality—Chimaeron goes into a rage, rendering him immune to Taunt effects but increasing the damage he takes by 20%. Reduces healing effects for all enemies by 99%.
■ Double Attack—Chimaeron will strike twice on his next attack.





Strategy


Phase 1
There are three basic phases to the fight.

When the Bile-o-Tron is online the raid will spread out, the buff will protect them from being one shot by Caustic Slime and Massacre. Healers need only heal people to above 10,000 HP.

When the Bile-o-Tron is knocked offline by Massacre Chimaeron's heads will begin fighting eachother but will still cast Caustic Slime. Thus the raid will stack up on top of eachother and will need to be healed as much as possible. You should assign 1-2 large AE cooldowns to be cast per each Feud phase, such as Hymn, Divine Guardian, Tranquility, etc. Any nature resist buff (aspect, totems, etc) you can cast is also EXTREMELY helpful for this phase. Since the damage is split between all targets hit, you should also have all possible pets out that you can; warlocks and hunters should recall their pets to stand next to them to help soak damage. Mages can Mirror Image, Druids can summon treants, etc to also help soak. When the Bile-o-Tron comes back online the raid should spread out again.

Phase 2
Shortly before 22%, you should aim to heal everyone above 10k health. At 22.0% HP Chimaeron will become untauntable, take extra damage, and apply a debuff to the raid reducing healing done by 99%. You will still have the Bile-O-Tron, which means that any players above 10k health can survive 2 attacks from Chimaeron. At this point it's a simple burn. Because of the lack of healing, healers should help DPS. All DPS should use survival abilities: Rogues evasion, Priests fade, Mages mirror image, Hunters Deterrence, etc. In the 10man version, the "burn phase" can be somewhat challenging due to "running out of bodies." In the 25man version, the "burn phase" is generally viewed as a free kill assuming that you have 20+ people alive.

Strategy 1
Simple in concept but more difficult in execution, Chimaeron is a gear check boss.

This fight requires 2 tanks; one will take all regular melee attacks, and the other will taunt off and take only the double strike attacks. The boss attacks extremely slowly (around 5 seconds inbetween each attack) so the regular melee tank will only need 10k hp for each hit. The offtank however needs to be topped off due to the double strike mechanic. Double Strike causes the boss to gain a buff which will make his next attack hit twice at once. You want to have the first attack leave you with more than 10k hp, so that the next attack will not kill you. Each attack is about 100-150k damage unmitigated, thus the need for full health on each double strike (barring a lucky dodge/parry/miss). Due to the "Break" debuff, you can not have just one person tank it all due to the fact that the increased damage taken debuff from break will cause the first double strike attack to do enough damage to leave less than 10k hp remaining, which makes the second attack kill you. Thus the overall objective is to have all break debuffs stacked on the normal melee tank, while the offtank gets no break stacks and takes only double strikes.

Strategy 2
Once your tanks have some epic gear, you should use 2 tanks that swap at 2-3 stacks of break and simply soak the double attacks. This means that the current tank must be topped off at all times.








Nefarian



Abilities:





Throughout the entire encounter every 10% of Nefarian's health will cause Nefarian's lightning machine to strike the raid with Electrocute.

Nefarian's Lightning Machine

■ Electrocute—Generates a massive bolt of lightning that strikes the ground, inflicting 103950 to 106050 Nature damage on all enemy targets.



Phase OneEdit
File:Undead Onyxia waiting.jpg
Undead Onyxia is the first part of the encounter. She awaits players following the intro. Onyxia - 6.6 million (10-man) / 24 million (25 man) HP

■ Electric Discharge—When the lightning orbs on Onyxia's sides are glowing inflicts 19500 to 20500 Nature damage per second to enemies on Onyxia's sides. Damage increased by Onyxia's lightning charge level. Can be avoided by line of sight behind the pillars in the room.
■ Shadowflame Breath—Inflicts 35,000 Shadowflame damage to enemies in a cone in front of the caster every 0.5 seconds for 1.5 seconds. Also resurrects Animated Bone Warriors in the area of effect.
■ Cleave—Inflicts 110% of normal melee damage to an enemy and its nearest allies.
■ Tail Lash—A sweeping tail strike hits all enemies behind the caster, inflicting 15750 to 20250 damage and stunning them for 2 sec.
■ Children of Deathwing—Nefarian and Onyxia attack 100% faster when they are within 60 yards of eachother.
Nefarian

■ Hail of Bones—Nefarian will cast this six times in phase one before landing, each time spawning an Animated Bone Warrior and doing 23987 to 26512 Shadow damage to nearby enemies.
■ Cleave—Inflicts 110% of normal melee damage to an enemy and its nearest allies.
■ Shadowflame Breath—Inflicts 54,000 Shadowflame damage to enemies in a cone in front of the caster every 0.5 seconds for 1.5 seconds. Also resurrects Animated Bone Warriors in the area of effect.
■ Tail Lash—A sweeping tail strike hits all enemies behind the caster, inflicting 15750 to 20250 damage and stunning them for 2 sec.
■ Children of Deathwing—Nefarian and Onyxia attack 100% faster when they are within 60 yards of eachother.
Animated Bone Warrior

■Have an energy bar that slowly depletes over time. It will be reset to full if they are touched by shadowflame effects. While they have far too much HP and are too numerous to be killed, they will 'lie down' and despawn if they run out of energy. Their damage increases steadily while melee-ing, so they should be kited. They can also be feared and crowd controlled.
■ Animate Bones—Shadowflame energy animates these bones, taking 2 energy per second.
■ Empowering Strikes—Melee and Ranged attacks empower the caster, increasing all damage dealt by 100% and movement speed by 10%. Stacks infinitely.
Phase TwoEdit
File:Nefarian new flying.jpg
Nefarian in the air

Lava

■ Magma—Swimming in Magma deals 5,000 fire damage per second. Increases damage taken from Magma by 2000. Stacks.
Nefarian

■ Shadowflame Barrage—Spammed on the raid the whole of phase 2. Inflicts 22500 to 27500 Shadowflame damage to an enemy.
■ Shadow of Cowardice—Inflicts 30000 Shadowflame damage to an enemy and increases Shadow damage taken by 100%. Appears to only be used when trying to exploit the encounter.
Chromatic Prototype

■Will stand in place and constantly try to cast Blast Nova, which can be interrupted. 2.6M/8M HP. Does not melee.
■ Blast Nova—Deals 30050 to 40950 Fire damage to all enemies every 2 seconds for 30 seconds. Interruptable.
Phase ThreeEdit
Nefarian

■ Cleave—Inflicts 110% of normal melee damage to an enemy and its nearest allies.
■ Shadowflame Breath—Inflicts 54,000 Shadowflame damage to enemies in a cone in front of the caster every 0.5 seconds for 1.5 seconds. Also ressurects Animated Bone Warriors in the area of effect.
■ Tail Lash—A sweeping tail strike hits all enemies behind the caster, inflicting 15750 to 20250 damage and stunning them for 2 sec.
■ Shadowblaze Spark—Creates a shadowy blaze at a nearby location that spreads quickly. It will expand from its starting location in a circular shape and will follow players and speed up if it is touched.
■ Shadowblaze—Inflicts 50,000 Shadowflame damage per second to enemies within the Shadowblaze. Also ressurects Animated Bone Warriors in the area of effect. Breaks crowd control effects and roots on Animated Bone Warriors in the area of effect.
Heroic Mode Only

■ Dominion—Dominate the minds of 2/5 nearby humanoids, seizing control of their bodies for 20 sec. Immune to stuns and roots. Dominated players will walk towards Dominion portals which will spawn nearby, killing them instantly when they touch them. If you survive the dominion your next ability will deal 2000% more damage.

Animated Bone Warrior

■Same as Phase One.








Strategy




Phase One

The encounter begins with an introductory event in which Nefarian (as Lord Victor Nefarius) resurrects Onyxia. He then turns into his dragon form and flies into the air, landing 30 seconds into the fight. Before Nefarian lands he will spawn 6/12 (10/25-man) Animated Bone Warriors which can be either kited, CC'd or tanked until they run out of energy and die on their own in this phase. Onyxia and Nefarian should be tanked on opposite sides of the room to remove their 100% haste buff Children of Deathwing. Onyxia should be damaged down to low health but not killed. This will give you some time to burn Nefarian's health down before the last phase. Onyxia will eventually hit full energy and instantly kill the raid, and every 10% of Nefarian's health adds 25% to her energy charge. You will generally have time to burn Nefarian down to sub-80% before killing Onyxia and ending the phase. Do not let either Dragon breathe on the Animated Bone Warriors as this will break CC, snares and roots and reset their energy to full.

Phase Two

The arena will fill with lava and three Chromatic Prototypes will spawn on each raised pillar of the room. They do not melee. They cast Blast Nova which must be interrupted.

Assign players to each of the three platforms for phase two. Each platform needs one reliable interrupt for 10-man and two reliable interrupts for 25-man (you will need interrupt rotations on 25). A ranged interrupter is helpful in the beginning of the phase on each platform while everyone is jumping up. It is important to spread out around the edge of the platforms in phase 2 as splash damage from Shadowflame Barrage will cause deaths. You should try to damage Nefarian below 70% in this phase, survival cooldowns should be used to mitigate the electrocute at 70%. The phase will end after the Chromatic Prototypes die or after three minutes.

Phase Three

The lava will subside and Nefarian will land, stay spread out until Nefarian has stopped casting Shadowflame Barrage.

Phase Three is like phase one except Nefarian will now cast Shadowblaze Spark, it will always be targetted on the location of the Animated Bone Warriors. It will break CC, snares and roots on the Animated Bone Warriors and reset their energy to full just as the dragons' breath does.

Since Shadowblaze Spark is always targetted on the Bone Warriors, CC and roots are ineffective. You should have a tank kite the Bone Warriors away from Nefarian and continually move to avoid the Animated Bone Warriors ever regaining energy. They will die after 50 seconds and reset their empowering strikes stacks, this will allow the Bone Warrior tank to survive. Both tanks will need to use a survival cooldown to survive Electrocute every 10% of Nefarian's health.

The longer Nefarian takes to die the faster he will cast Shadowblaze Spark, until it is impossible to avoid and the raid dies.



~Good Luck!


~From: Luskan

[Bender]

Great guide, I am going to recommend this to our guild master for a reference tool.

[Luskan]

Thanks Bender, great to see some appreciation for my work.

[linhely]

The Maloriak encounter has some rather unusual mechanics. He switches between several sets of abilities depending on which vial Maloriak throws into the Cauldron. There is a pattern to his vials, with every third vial being a Green one, and the two before it are either Red then Blue, or Blue then Red. Each Vial lasts 40 seconds, after which Maloriak will cast a new one. He also has adds, that he summons in packs of 3 with an interruptable cast, twice every Red or Blue Vial phase.

[Luskan]

Originally Posted by linhely

The Maloriak encounter has some rather unusual mechanics. He switches between several sets of abilities depending on which vial Maloriak throws into the Cauldron. There is a pattern to his vials, with every third vial being a Green one, and the two before it are either Red then Blue, or Blue then Red. Each Vial lasts 40 seconds, after which Maloriak will cast a new one. He also has adds, that he summons in packs of 3 with an interruptable cast, twice every Red or Blue Vial phase.

I'm warning you, the next time you quote information from a previous post and use it to bump up your post count, you'll recieve a temporary suspension.