Tips

• This encounter bears a number of similarities to Nightbane. Felmyst will alternate between fighting on the ground and attacking from the air, and the raid must properly transition between these phases.
• The main tank should wear a good amount of nature resistance gear to help avoid the corrosion debuff.
• Priests should be quick to use mass dispel to remove the gas nova debuff as otherwise mana users will quickly be out of mana.
• Raid members must pay close attention to where the vapors are as getting caught in their debuffs can quickly cause wipes.
• As with Nightbane proper management of the skeleton adds is very important. Paladins should be particularly useful for this task.

Abilities

• Immune to taunt
• Melee – Unconfirmed.
• Cleave – 6,000-8,000 Physical damage.
• Corrosion – 9425-10575 Nature damage. Increases physical damage taken by 100% on the tank. .75 second cast with 10 second duration. Cannot be spell reflected.
• Gas Nova – Area-of-Effect spell dealing 1885 to 2115 Nature damage and draining 3000 health and 1000 mana every 2 seconds for 30 secs to everyone in a 50 yard diameter. Dispellable. Should be removed with Priests’ Mass Dispel.
• Noxious Fumes – Aura type spell. does 1000 nature damage every 3 seconds within 100 yards of boss. Not resistible.
• Encapsulate – Lifts a random player into the air and does 5 ticks of 3500 Arcane damage to them and everyone within 20 yards.
• Demonic Vapor – Breath ability cast in flight phase, similar to Nightbane in Karazhan. She will use it twice per air phase. Deals 4000 nature damage when it hits, summoning skeletons and leaving a trail which, if you step in it, does 2000 nature damage per second for 10 seconds and summons more skeletons.
• Fog of Corruption – Area-of-Effect spell. Mind controls players inside it for duration of the battle. Big coverage and can cover a random 1/3 of the area. Characters afflicted by this debuff should be killed as quickly as possible because it also increases run speed, damage and healing. Once everyone is dead or mind-controlled Felmyst will temporarily despawn, and everyone mind-controlled will be killed instantly, so that the encounter can be reset. If a wipe is called during the air phase then you can deliberately enter the cloud so as to avoid repair costs from dying.
• Berserk – After 10 minutes; all damage dealt is increased by 500%. Attack speed increased by 150%.

Strategy

Even though the majority of raidwide damage Felmyst does is nature based the resistance that will help you most (and one you should use at least while learning) is Arcane. The incoming Nature damage is low and predictable. The Encapsulate damage (which is Arcane based) is rapid, random and affected by normal resistance rules. For that reason, during the learning, everyone should use their Violet Badge and plenty of Major Arcane Protection Potion.

Ground Phase

Separate your raid into three groups, each comprised of no more than 10 people (so as to benefit from Mass-Dispel). The most common tactic is keeping a melee group directly behind Felmyst, and ranged groups on either side. There is no tail swipe, nor cone-breath, but she does cleave, so make sure no-one but the tank is in front of her. The Corrosion ability cannot be resisted and must be healed through. During that time the tank should also watch his own HP very closely, and stop attacking if his health ever drops under 50% – to avoid getting killed by Parry hasten. Everyone should stay a little apart to spread out quickly if anyone nearby gets the Encapsulate, but not too spread out so they can receive Mass Dispel to negate Gas Nova. The Noxious Fumes, like most aura-type spells, should simply be healed through.

Flight Phase

During this phase Felmyst still can – and should – be attacked. For the first few seconds, while she’s taking off your main tank can keep building aggro. Once she is in the air, only ranged attacks are possible – so all ranged DPS should be ready to use Soulshatter, Invisibility, Feign Death or any other aggro-dropping ability as soon as Felmyst lands again, if they are above the tank. Hand of Protection may also be used, provided that the ranged DPS character will be below 130% of the main-tank’s threat, once it expires.
Felmyst will use her first aerial-ability roughly 5 seconds after leaving melee range; the Demonic Vapor. She will target a random player for a couple seconds, then cast it under them. The spell follows that player for about ten seconds, leaving the DoT trail and summoning skeletons soon after. Stepping in the trail is not only lethal but will also summon more skeletons, which will likely overwhelm and wipe the raid. Best way to counter this ability is spreading out until second use – and starting to kite the beam away as soon as it’s used. The safe spot for tanking skeletons and moving during Deep Breaths should be assigned – and until second Demonic Vapor starts no-one should move near it. The area around huge crate directly south from the dead tree is a good place for that. The adds spawned by the Vapor are perfectly tankable by a protection paladin. Slowing effects like the hunters’ Frost Trap are recommended in either case. This spell is cast twice, with the second cast right after the first ends.

Following the two Demonic Vapor attacks, Felmyst emotes a raid warning and flies over the stage casting her Fog of Corruption attack, covering a third of the stage with a lime-green cloud. Anyone caught in the cloud will be mind-controlled until they are killed. If your raid group tanks Felmyst on an edge of the stage, the cloud can be avoided easily while you continue clearing the skeleton waves. After three breaths Felmyst will land and return to the Ground Phase.

Rinse and Repeat. You have 10 minutes. A well-geared group can down the boss before a third flight phase.

At level 80

Ideal Raid Composition: 4 healers (2 priests), 2 tanks, 19 dps

Strategy

At level 80, Felmyst is still a technical fight and is the biggest hurdle a raid attempting Sunwell Plateau will face. The easiest way to deal with this fight is to burn Felmyst down (preferably to 1%) during phase 1, properly deal with phase 2, and finish her off when she lands again (phase 1). If your raid group has very high dps output, it is possible to kill Felmyst before she takes off the ground (phase 2). Below is a breakdown of each phase.

Preparation: Before the fight, clarify each of the three “safe” zones where people should run during Phase 2. The safe zones are behind the tree, in the middle (where the ground slopes down) and all the way down by the river that is on fire. Assign a spotter to call out where she will breathe in Phase 2.

Phase 1 (ground phase) is for the most part a tank and spank with a few noteworthy exceptions:

1. She is immune to taunt and the raid should be aware of this when attempting the burn strategy outlined above.
2. Everyone but the tank needs to avoid her frontal cone as she cleaves and casts Corrosion in this direction. However, melee and ranged should stay group together for ease of mass dispels.
3. Priests need to be ready to use their mass dispel IMMEDIATELY for Gas Nova, as it will still wipe a level 80 raid if not dispelled.
4. Encapsulate should be healed though. Don’t bother running out, continue to burn her down.
5. You have approximately 60 seconds to dps close to 4.9 million hp (down to 1% health) before she takes to the air (phase 2). Not taking healers or tanks into consideration, each dps would have to do close to 4000 damage per second to achieve this. However this number can be lower considering DoTs and ranged abilities which are still effective in phase 2.

Phase 2 (flight phase) begins 60 seconds after phase 1 (ground phase). During this phase Felmyst flies around and casts two abilities:

1. Demonic Vapor (cast twice in a row) – “Stay out of the fire” applies here as it will do 2k per tick if you step into it. This ability will also summon skeletons similar to Nightbane in Karazhan. Tanks need to pick these up and they need to be aoe’d immediately.
2. Fog of Corruption (cast three times in a row after the second Demonic Vapor) – This ability (which is emoted before being cast as a warning) will cover approximately 1/3rd of the encounter’s area with a green cloud. Anyone touched by this cloud will be instantly mind controlled and must be crowd controlled (or killed) immediately. FoC can be avoided by spotting Felmyst’s position in the sky and shifting the entire raid either south or north of her position (relative to the ground). This spotting is exactly like spotting Onyxia’s Deep Breaths. Marking an experienced raid member with a raid icon and having the raid follow him/her is a good option to consider here. Felmyst will land after this ability is cast a third time.
3. Once Felmyst lands for a second phase 1, assuming the majority of the raid has survived phase 2 (still by far the hardest part for a pick-up-group), there should be little work left to finish her off and ensure a successful kill.

Notes: Any raid member who is killed after being mind controlled by Felmyst’s Fog of Corruption will not take any durability damage and should not worry about a big repair cost if the raid has wiped this way multiple times.

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Possible origins of name

M’uru’s name is possibly derived from the early writings of Tolkien. In some early drafts, the evil spider goddess Ungoliant was called Múru in the Quenya language. (Many see this as a pretty unlikely connection, a coincidence at best.)

Tips

• This encounter involves considerable shadow damage, thus shadow resistance gear may be necessary.
• Protection paladins make formidable tanks for the various shadow beings summoned during the fight.
• Area of effect healing spells are a powerful asset. Restoration shamans are an excellent choice for healing this encounter.

As of patch 2.4, M’uru is missing from his location beneath the Blood Knight headquarters in Silvermoon’s Farstriders’ Square, having been captured by Kael’thas and brought to the Sunwell Plateau. Magister Astalor Bloodsworn curses Kael’thas and his felbloods for their treachery, commenting that Lady Liadrin is looking for another source to power the Blood Knights’ magic.

M’uru is located behind Rohendor, the Second Gate and ahead of Archonisus, the Final Gate, placing it as the fifth boss encounter of the instance. M’uru was made accessible at the same time across all servers five weeks (29 April, 2008) after the opening of Rohendor, the Second Gate. The removed quest Rohendor, the Second Gate warns that M’uru is now a “twisted reflection of its former self”.

Abilities

M’uru

• Negative Energy: A black beam used on 4-5 random targets every second throughout the fight. This does ~940-1060 unresistible Shadow damage.

• Summons 2 Shadowsword Berserker: Run very fast, can be crowd controlled. Dual Wielders, hit for 3.5k with Main Hand, 1.5 with Off Hand. Has buff called Flurry in which attack speed increased is by 100%, movement speed increased is by 100% for 6 sec. 124k HP.

• Summons 1 Shadowsword Fury Mage: Run very fast, can be crowd controlled. Fel Fireball (2 sec cast) deals 4250 to 5750 fire damage (resistible.) Also melees for 3-4k damage. Has a buff called Spell Fury which can be spell stolen. Spell Fury causes spells cast to be instant, increase magic damage by 50% and make them unable to move. 104k HP.

These spawn 1 Mage and 2 Berserkers at both sides every 60 seconds. That is 6 Humanoid adds every minute. The Humanoid adds spawn from the corridor behind M’uru, and the ramp/doorway from which you enter, running towards the center.

• Summon Void Sentinel: Summons a large Voidwalker that hits very hard, roughly 8-10k melee on tanks (~25k unmitigated). 70k HP.
  • Shadow Pulse: AoE ability which deals about 4k shadow damage about every 3 sec.
  • Void Blast: Single target attack which deals 10-11k dmg and puts a debuff slowing your attack by 35% (is spell reflectable and can be resisted).
  • 8 Void Spawns appear upon a Void Sentinels death, doing 700-900 melee damage each. 30k HP. Can be enslaved by warlocks, can be worthwhile enslaving a few at the end of phase one to use against Entropius or even during phase 1.
    • Shadow Bolt Volley: 1200-1600 shadow damage to targets around them (resistible.)

Void Spawns and Void Sentinel can be snared, Void Spawns can be feared.

• Darkness: Every 45 sec, creates a large Void Zone, covering the larger circle (i.e. from up to the outside edge of the wide purple band in the center) in the middle of the room, and does ~3,000 shadow damage per second to anyone standing in it and they cannot be healed. This also spawns 8 Dark Fiends which explode for 5,000 raid-wide damage and leaves a 2000 damage dot on raid when one reaches a target (resistible). These can be killed by Dispels or Purges.

• Enrage: M’uru and Entropius share a 10 minute enrage timer. At this point all damage increases by 5x and the raid instantly wipes due to 2500 – 10,000 damage Negative Energy attacks.

Entropius

• Negative Energy: Becomes a Chain Lightning type attack with random targets every second throughout the fight. This does ~1885 to 2115 Shadow damage to the 1st target, ~50% of that to 2nd target and ~25% to 3rd target. The number of primary targets increases every 12–13 seconds. Unresistible.

• Darkness: Spawns a Void Zone under a player dealing 3000 Shadow damage every second. Will spawn 1 Dark Fiend after a few seconds which must be Dispelled or Purge.

• Singularity: Spawns over a player. After a few seconds will move around and toss any nearby players around dealing 500 damage a tick.

Raid Composition

M’uru is a very DPS intensive fight, and as such it requires stretching your healing and tanking as much as possible. This includes having about 4 tanks, 6 healers and 15 DPS. It is highly recommended, if not absolutely necessary, to include a Protection Paladin as one of your tanks to pick up the Void Spawns that spawn.

You must divide your DPS up into a few sub-groups, that are able to each put out substantial amounts of DPS. Generally you will have 2 groups assigned to killing Humanoid adds, as well as a Warlock group assigned to kill Void Sentinels and Void Spawns.

Strategy

Pulling M’uru

When you are ready to pull M’uru, DPS will mount up in the door way and be ready to run in to their positions and burn M’uru as hard as possible before switching to your respective jobs. Humanoid tanks should be ready to pick up their adds on each side from the start, using only one or two attacks to throw up a Sunder Armor or Faerie Fire on the boss.

Can also use an Eye of Kilrog to engage and quickly reset him, allowing 30 seconds for the raid to setup and position themselves.

Phase 1

While your raid group runs in and attacks M’uru, you will be in Phase 1. This phase is a combination of a control fight and a DPS race. Each Humanoid group, which will be comprised of one tank, one healer, and three to four DPS, will be in charge of controlling each add entrance (the doorway and the opposite side of the room, where the ramp down to Kil’jaeden is blocked off.) A Mage is also highly recommended on each side, to Polymorph a Berserker or Mage. You will also have a group of AoE, generally Warlocks, to control the Void Sentinels and Spawns. This AoE group is recommended to be comprised of a Protection Warrior or Feral Druid, a Protection Paladin, 3-4 Warlocks and 2 healers (one for each tank). You should also have two raid healers assigned to keep the rest of the raid up.

Humanoid Adds

Each Humanoid Wave consists of two Berserkers and one Mage. When the Humanoid wave enters the room, the tank should pick up all 3 of them while a mage sheeps a Berserker and the tank drags the other two adds slightly away from the sheep so multitarget attacks such as Blade Flurry, Cleave, Sweeping Strikes or Multi-Shot can occur.

Void Sentinels and Void Spawns

The warrior will need to be fast in picking up the Void Sentinels, and the warlocks need to be quick in DPSing the Void Sentinels to allow this mobility. Warlocks will have to manage a rotation on the Sentinels and Spawns to ensure that DPS is still active on M’uru, you need to allow the Protection Paladin to gather up two or three sets of spawns before AoEing them down. Warlocks should DPS the Void Sentinels, kill them, allow the Protection Paladin to pick up the adds and while this is occurring DPS M’uru until another Sentinel is ready to be DPSed.

Darkness

You should assign a Shadow Priest to DPS M’uru full time and Mass Dispel the Dark Fiends when Darkness comes up inside of it, thereby killing them. Be ready to target ones that resist with a single Dispel or call it out so someone else can Dispel/Purge.

Phase 2

After M’uru has been slain, he transforms into Entropius, a demon-type void god. Most of the adds that were alive during the transition should be dead or almost dead as there is 10 seconds before Entropius engages the raid. Entropius has 1,450,000 health and at this point the fight turns into an all-out DPS race before the raid damage from Negative Energy ramps up substantially and overwhelms your healers. This fight also tests the reflexes of all players in the raid and their ability to move on a seconds notice.

At level 80

Ideal Raid Composition: 4 healers, 2 tanks, 19 dps

Strategy

At level 80, like Brutullas before him, M’uru is a trivial encounter due to the fact it was designed to be a gear check and dps race. However, please remember to:

1. At least 2 tanks should still be assigned to pick up any adds that are summoned and/or spawned around the encounter area (especially Void Sentinels).
2. Stay out of void zones.
3. Spellsteal / purge / (mass) dispell Dark Fiends.

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Although Kil’jaeden was infuriated at the failure and death of Archimonde, he knew better than to take reckless vengeance. Aware that the Lich King had grown out of his control, he then went about to acquire a new pawn. He found Illidan, and told him that, despite his part in the Legion’s downfall, The Deceiver was willing to offer him a chance at power. However, Illidan failed and the Lich King persists, having cheated The Deceiver by merging with Arthas. For now, Kil’jaeden’s vengeance is embodied in the mighty fel reaver Doomwalker, who lays siege to the gates of the Black Temple.

Players face off against this twisted avatar of Kil’jaeden, which is still being summoned into Azeroth through the Sunwell itself by his new lieutenant, Kael’thas Sunstrider. Anveena, the embodiment of the Sunwell’s energies, is held in an arcane barrier, her powers being drained to feed the portal.

Biography

Destroyer’s offer and the flight of Velen

Twenty-five millennia ago, the world of Argus was the home of the wondrous eredar civilization, a race of natural magic-wielders. Kil’jaeden, respected for his intelligence, a genius among a race of geniuses, quickly rose to become one of the three most prominent leaders of the eredar, along with his colleague Archimonde and best friend, Velen.

Kil’jaeden had loved Velen as a brother.^[6] Eredar society was shattered when these three leaders were contacted by Sargeras the Destroyer. Sargeras offered a deal: in exchange for their loyalty, the eredar would gain untold power and prestige. Kil’jaeden and Archimonde readily accepted, though Velen curiously held back.

As the eredar were preparing to receive their new powers, Kil’jaeden learned that Velen and his followers had sided with Sargeras’s enemies, the naaru, and were in the process of fleeing Argus. Enraged by this “betrayal” Kil’jaeden loosed his new powers and minions on the “Exiled Ones”, or draenei, and relentlessly pursued them across the cosmos for five thousand years… but Velen was as cunning as the Deceiver, and the draenei soon vanished.

Kil’jaeden made his World of Warcraft appearance with the release of the Sunwell Plateau, the 25-man raid introduced in patch 2.4.0. He appears as a combination of man’ari eredar and the winged, horned daemon appearance as seen in the manual to Warcraft II.

Players face off against Kil’jaeden himself, who is still being summoned into Azeroth through the Sunwell itself by his new lieutenant, Kael’thas Sunstrider. Anveena, the embodiment of the Sunwell’s energies, is held in an arcane barrier, her powers being drained to feed the portal, but later in the encounter she is sacrificed to weaken the Deceiver, who can then successfully be banished back into the Nether.

Strategy

This fight consists of five phases. During the first phase players must defeat three Hands of the Deceiver. Once they are defeated, Kil’jaeden will emerge from the Sunwell, starting phase two. Phases three, four, and five start when Kil’jaeden’s health reaches 85%, 50%, and 25%, respectively. Each phase introduces more complexity to the fight.

Phase 1

Initially, three Hands of the Deceiver are positioned next to the Sunwell, channeling Anveena’s powers into the Sunwell. They have a significant aggro range, and are linked. However, due to the nature of their abilities, it is recommended that they are dragged apart immediately after the pull, and tanked separately afterwards. They have the following abilities:

• Shadow Bolt Volley: Deals 850 to 1150 shadow damage and leaves a debuff increasing shadow damage taken by 750.
• Soul Portal: Summons a soul portal that periodically summons Volatile Felfire Fiends. These will run towards players and detonate, dealing heavy damage. They have low health and can be killed with a single hit, but detonate when killed.
• Shadow Infusion: At around 20% health, the Hand will gain a self-buff that makes him immune to stun and silence effects. At this point, the raid must quickly finish him off.

Phase 2

When all Hands are defeated, Kil’jaeden arrives in a blaze of glory, knocking back all players. Kalecgos arrives and begins bombarding Kil’jaeden with arcane bolts. Meanwhile, the demon begins randomly casting the following spells on players:

• Soul Flay: Deals 3000 shadow damage per second and slows movement speed by 70% for 3 second. Channeled spell, always hits the player with the highest global threat.
• Legion Lightning: Deals 3007 to 3493 shadow damage and drains 1500 mana. Similar to chain lighting, this attack chains to up to four secondary targets, dealing less damage with each jump.
• Fire Bloom: Places a debuff on up to five random targets that deals 1619 to 1881 Fire damage to the debuffed player and all other raid members within 10 yards. Lasts 20 seconds. Not dispellable (except by immunity effects).
• Summon Shield Orb: Summons a Shield Orb that is similar to Doom Blossoms in the Teron Gorefiend encounter. They are constantly shooting Shadow Bolts at the raid (up to 3 bolts within 1 second). Since they are targetable and have only 20,000 health, it is recommended for ranged DPS to take them down as quickly as possible, to reduce incoming raid damage.

Phase 3

Begins when Kil’jaeden reaches 85% health. The shield orbs will now spawn in pairs. Also, in addition to the above spells, he gains the following abilities:

• Sinister Reflection: Used at the beginning of the phase. Spawns five Mirror Images of a randomly targetted raid member that look identical to the target, and have the abilities of the target’s class. Their melee attacks deal an incredible amount of physical damage and their casts do considerable damage/healing. These mirror images cannot be crowd controlled in any way, but do have normal threat mechanics.
• Shadow Spike: 28 second channel. Bombards randomly targeted raid members with Shadow Spikes, which float towards the target’s position upon the moment of cast. When they reach their destination, they explode, inflicting 5100 to 6900 Shadow damage to all characters within 8 yards, and leave a debuff that reduces all healing effects by 50% for 10 seconds.
• Flame Dart: Every 3 seconds, all raid members will be hit by Flame Darts that cause 1663 to 1837 Fire damage and reduce movement speed by 50%. Lasts 15 seconds. Resistable, but not dispellable.
• Darkness of a Thousand Souls: Kil’jaeden does a raidwide emote (‘Kil’jaeden begins to channel dark energy’) and covers himself with wings. After 8 seconds, he will hit all players inside the instance for 47500 to 52500 Shadow damage. This is countered by the Shield of the Blue ability (see below).

Phase 4

Begins when Kil’jaeden reaches 50% health. Shield orbs will now spawn in groups of three. Kil’jaeden gains yet another ability, for a total of nine possible abilities:

• Meteor Storm: Meteors fall from the sky, hitting anyone within a 5 yard range for a fatal amount of damage. There is a Hellfire animation that appears about five seconds before the meteor lands, giving time to move out of the landing area. Three meteors will be in flight constantly throughout this phase. During this phase, Meteor bombardments will stop while he is casting Darkness of a Thousand Souls.

Phase 5

Begins when Kil’jaeden reaches 25% health. At this point, Kalecgos cries out to Anveena, causing her to awaken. After some dialog, she sacrifices herself, stunning Kil’Jaeden for five seconds and increasing the damage he takes from holy spells. After the stun wears off, Kil’jaeden will begin to use all his abilities on very short cooldowns (Darkness of a Thousand Souls as quickly as every 20 seconds), and Meteors will bombard the raid during the Darkness of a Thousand Souls’s casting. Players must defeat him quickly before getting overwhelmed by the damage.

Orb of the Blue Dragonflight

Beginning in phase three, Kalecgos will periodically empower the orbs surrounding the room. Players may use this orb to gain the Vengeance of the Blue Flight, which transforms them into a blue dragon for two minutes. Using an orb depletes its power until it is empowered again. While in dragon form, players have the following abilities:

• Shield of the Blue: Extends a powerful shield around the caster that reduces all incoming and outgoing damage on friendly targets within 10 yards by 95%, but stuns the dragon and drains 10% of the dragon’s health per second. Lasts five seconds and has a 20 second cooldown. Must be used to counter the Darkness of a Thousand Souls.
• Blink: Teleports the dragon forward by 20 yards.
• Breath: Revitalize: Breathes arcane energy in a 13-yard cone in front of the caster, causing friendly units to regenerate 2250 health and mana over 10 sec. 10 second cooldown.
• Breath: Haste: Breathes arcane energy in a 13-yard cone in front of the caster, increasing the attack, casting, and movement speeds of friendly targets by 25% for 30 sec. Also grants immunity to effects that reduce movement speed. 10 second cooldown.

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The instance contains both outdoor areas and building interiors, where players will find captured naaru, which are the primary power source of the town, and inside the final building the Sunwell itself.

The architecture of the Sunwell Plateau is comparable to that of Silvermoon City.

Attunement

The instance was open to players right from the start of patch 2.4,, but the last 3 bosses were only available as each gate – which blocked the next boss encounter – opened over a set period of time on all servers. (Although this happened on maintenance day, so the US had an apparent one day advantage over the EU servers) The first gate was opened on 8 April 2008 in the US, two weeks after the patch went live. The second gate opened after weekly maintenance on April 29, 2008. The third and final gate was opened on May 20, 2008 on US realms. The difficulty of the instance was set at the first 3 bosses being on par with Tier 6 encounters, and then the last three and increasing from each.

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Abilities

Kael’thas, his advisors, and the phoenixes are immune to Taunt, Crowd Control and all snare or slow effects. The Weapons are susceptible to all of these effects.

The advisors enter Phase 1 with half of their normal HP. After they are resurrected for Phase 3 they are at full health.

Thaladred the Darkener

• ~560k health (~280k in P1)
• Melee – 3-4k on plate plus 2.5k every tick for 12 seconds
• Gaze – Fixes aggro to a random person in raid; 9 second cooldown
• Psychic Blow – 4-5k damage plus knockback to his current target, 30 yard range
• Silence – Silences anyone within 8 yards

Lord Sanguinar

• ~580k health (~290k in P1)
• Melee – 3-4k on plate
• Bellowing Roar – 35 yard AoE fear centered on himself, 1.5 second cast, no aggro reset

Grand Astromancer Capernian

• ~400k health (~200k in P1)
• Fireball – 6-7k single-target fire damage
• Conflagration – Randomly targets players within 30 yards; causes disorient effect with 600-900 damage per second plus 300 damage per second to all players within 8 yards of the debuffed player. Capernian will not attack players afflicted by conflagaration.
• Arcane Explosion – 4.5k Arcane damage plus knockback and slow debuff; only used if players are in melee range

Master Engineer Telonicus

• ~550k health (~275k in P1)
• Melee – ~5700 pre-mitigation
• Bomb – 7-9k fire in a small AoE centered on current target’s location, 1.5 second cast; not subject to miss or resistance; cast takes the place of a melee attack
• Remote Toy – 60 sec debuff placed on a random player, periodically stuns the affected player for 4 seconds

Kael’thas Sunstrider

• ~3.6 million HP
• Melee – ~4k on plate
• Fireball – 2.5 sec cast, ~16-20k fire damage, interruptible
• Flamestrike – 3 sec cast, ~120k AoE in a 6 yard radius plus 3k fire damage per second AoE for 8 sec in a 10 yard radius
• Summon Phoenix – periodically summon a Phoenix
• Arcane Disruption – 1750-2250 Arcane damage and a 10 second disorient to every raid member, 20 sec cooldown, can be removed with PvP Trinket
• Shock Barrier – a shield which absorbs 80,000 damage, lasts 10 seconds and prevents spells from being interrupted

Phase 4 specific abilities

• Mind Control – Mind controls 2-3 people in the raid
• Pyroblast – 4 sec cast, 45k-55k fire damage, interruptible, 60 sec cooldown; begins casting immediately after casting Shock Barrier

Phase 5 specific abilities

• Gravity Lapse – All members of raid are teleported to him and then swim in the air for 30 sec
• Nether Beam – 1850-2150 arcane damage to a random target, jumps to nearby players, damage doubled for each jump (similar to C’Thuns eye beam)
• Nether Vapor – Small black clouds floating in the air near Kael’thas. If touched they add a stacking debuff which reduces max health by 10% each time, stacking up to 9 times, to 90% reduction.

Raid Composition

• Main Tank
• Fire Resist Tank (~150 for use as Conflag target during P1 and Phoenix tank in P4/5)
• 2 Off-Tanks
• 6-7 Healers
• 5-6 Melee
• 10-11 Ranged

This fight favors ranged damage dealers because there are mobs which are highly dangerous for melee (Thaladred and Capernian), and the Phoenix eggs are much easier killed by ranged (only 15 sec time to do 70k damage), melee lose too much time running to the egg.

Strategy

Phase 1: Introducing the Advisors

The raid can leisurely kill each advisor. To make phase 3 easier, each advisor should be killed in a pre-planned location.

The advisors engage in the following order:

• Thaladred the Darkener fixes aggro on (“sets his gaze on” emote) a raid member at all times, and, for the duration of the gaze, walks toward that target, who must run away and thus kite him while ranged DPS attack Thaladred. For brief intervals between gazes, or if the gaze target dies, Thaladred may melee or follow the target with the most threat. Nobody should be closer than 10 yards when a gaze shift takes place.
• Lord Sanguinar is a simple tank and spank boss, made interesting only by his fear ability (which no longer resets aggro).
• Grand Astromancer Capernian casts Arcane Explosion if there are people in melee range, making this another ranged-only fight. Conflagrate must be avoided by everybody except her tanks. One possible setup is to have a fire resist tank stand rather close to her (about 15 yards, still outside Arcane Explosion range) to eat the conflagrations, while a Warlock kills her from 30 yards away. Such a setup needs two healers on the warlock, and one on the fire tank. Alternately, she can be tanked by two warlocks which take turns – when one is conflagrated, the other takes over. Warlocks tanking her must not have Nether Protection, or she closes range, melees and casts Arcane Explosion after one of her spells is resisted.
• Master Engineer Telonicus is probably the least dangerous of the advisors. His Remote Toy debuff is potentially fatal if active on a tank during phase 2 (significantly hampering threat generation and making positioning difficult), so delay killing Telonicus until no tank has the debuff. In phase 3, the debuff is made irrelevant by the staff’s anti-stun aura.

Phase 2: The Weapons

After all advisors are dead, Kael’thas summons his arsenal of seven legendary weapons. By killing and looting these weapons all raid members can equip themselves with legendary weapons for the rest of the fight (the weapons are multi-drop but unique; one player can theoretically pick up one copy of each). Killing the weapons is a mixture of AoE and focus fire. There should be an AoE kill zone, where most of the weapons are held, while the remaining DPS concentrate on one weapon after the other. Here’s an overview of the weapons in a reasonable kill order:

[Netherstrand Longbow] ~210k HP

Has a Multi-Shot attack, drops aggro if any melee or pet attack it. Preferably tanked by a hunter facing it away from the raid to avoid Multi-Shot hitting others. This is the most dangerous weapon and should be killed first by all hunters and ranged DPS which do not take part in the AoE.

[Staff of Disintegration] ~170k HP

Low melee damage, attacks with Frostbolt and Frost Nova. It likes to cast a Frost Nova, run away 10-15 yards and then start to Frostbolt. It’s a highly desirable item because its “use” ability grants immunity to the Remote Toy debuff, and it increases the damage output of casters. It also has low HP and dies faster than the other weapons.

[Cosmic Infuser] ~280k HP

Low melee damage. Heals itself and friendly targets, which must be interrupted. The melee damage dealers should control and kill this first.

[Infinity Blade] ~210k HP

Hits normal but attacks very fast. Has a Thrash ability (similar to Prince Malchezaar’s phase 2 ability) that grants it two extra attacks.

[Warp Slicer] ~290k HP

Hits for 1-1.5K every 2s on plate. Applies a stacking Rend DoT. Each stack ticks for an additional 500 damage every 3s for 15s; the Rend attack that applies the DoT can miss, be dodged or parried.

[Devastation] ~230k HP

Frequently Whirlwinds, which one-shots any non-tanks. Must be tanked slightly away from the other weapons, near the edge or even outside the AoE zone. Not very useful for most raid members, therefore it’s not a problem if it doesn’t die quickly.

[Phaseshift Bulwark] ~290k HP

Does high damage. Has a “shield spike”-like ability which when activated can reflect a lot of damage to a fast attacking melee DPSer. Also has much higher HP and armor than the other weapons. The tanks can manage phase 3 without it, but they must absolutely have it to tank Kael’thas in phase 4.

Weapon tank list:

• Main Tank: Axe [Devastation]
• Main Tank: Sword [Warp Slicer] + Shield [Phaseshift Bulwark]
• Offtank #1: Mace [Cosmic Infuser] + Dagger [Infinity Blade]
• Offtank #2: Staff [Staff of Disintegration]
• Hunter: Bow [Netherstrand Longbow]

The weapon corpses despawn after 60 seconds, and the looted weapons disappear 15 minutes after being looted. Players also lose them when releasing (after a death) or when the encounter is reset.

It’s not a big problem to have two weapons alive (e.g. the [Phaseshift Bulwark] and [Devastation]) when phase 3 starts.1

Alternative strategy

Some guilds believe that managing to get all weapons down before phase 3 is the basis for a perfect Kael’Thas kill. Suggested raid composition for this is 3 tanks 6 healers and 16 DPS players. The DPS composition should include at least 2 hunters, 3 mages and 3 warlocks.

As soon as the weapons spawn the main tank should grab the axe. The bow should be tanked by 2 hunters. The staff should be tanked by your off tank (A good position is behind Kael’Thas). A paladin tank can and should tank all the other weapons.

The Two hunters should be left alone to kill the bow. The mages and warlocks should start by nuking the axe. The Melee should take care of the staff very very fast. As soon as the staff is down the DPS you have assigned to the axe should change their focus to the group of weapons tanked by the protection paladin regardless if the axe is down or not (it will be finished later by the hunters). Additionally they should proceed in good order to loot the Staff one by one (if all of them rush to get it then the AoE on the group of weapons will be too low to take them down in time). At the same time the melee should focus on the cosmic infuser which will now be tanked by the tank that was on the staff (assign a rogue or two to stop it from healing).

As soon as the two hunters finish with the bow they should proceed to loot it and then finish off the axe (hence freeing the main tank for phase 3)

The AoE group should by now have started their AoE (with at least 40 seconds remaining). The moment the cosmic infuser comes down the tanking paladin should move a few yards back to allow the healers to loot easily at this point melee and the mace tank should nuke the shield.

The AoE should continue non stop with the addition that the mages and warlocks should now target the Phaseshift Bulwark (shield) and cast any instant spells they have (such as fire blast or a curse) so the can hasten the downing of the shield. Each time a weapon goes down the tankadin should move another 3 yards backwards to allow for easier loot.

The last two weapons that will go down are the Infinity blade and warp slicer (in that order). Two rogues and possibly a DPS warrior or an enhancement shaman should loot the infinity blade to use it in the mind controlled of the raid during phase 4.

If you have followed this tactic then the last weapon should go down just about the moment phase 3 starts. Such a smooth handling of weapons is the half of a very smooth performance in phase 3 and hence a very promising phase 4 and 5.

Phase 3: All Four Advisors

Exactly two minutes after the start of Phase 2, Kael’thas resurrects all the advisors at once. The advisor tanks and their healers should start to move to their assigned advisors (or rather their corpse) about 10 seconds before the end of Phase 2, so that they can immediately pick up the advisors.

Advisor tank list:

• Main Tank: Sanguinar
• Off-tank: Telonicus
• Warlock/fire resist Tank: Capernian

Kill order

As before, Thaladred and Capernian should be avoided by melee. All four advisors can be safely attacked by ranged. Since Thaladred is the biggest nuisance, ranged DPS should concentrate on him first. One melee damage dealer with the [Infinity Blade] should put the debuff on him, but very carefully – the player must be highly aware of imminent gaze shifts, move away *before* each shift, and get back in only when some other person gets the gaze.

All other melee damage dealers should concentrate on Sanguinar first and Telonicus second.

After Thaladred is down, ranged DPS can either help the melee group at Sanguinar, or start on Capernian. This decision mainly depends on whether the melee group is strong enough to kill Sanguinar on their own, or the ranged DPS have to help.

When all other adds are down, Telonicus is finished off last by all damage dealers together.

Alternative strategy

Since all of your tanks are now free and all of the weapons are down, the melee and your Main tank should head to Sanguinar (One healer needed and a CoH priest for the melee group).

One of your off tanks must tank Telonicus the engineer (one or two healers needed) and one of your warlocks tank Capernian (one healer needed – preferably a paladin in the group with the warlock for the fire resistance aura). That leaves one healer for the ranged DPS group (preferably a resto shammy or a CoH priest)

Kill Thaladered with your ranged DPS as fast as possible and then proceed to Sanguinar.

As soon as Sanguinar is down, the melee group and their healers should proceed to kill Telonicus.

The Ranged DPS should then start with Capernian (you should have approximately 1 min left before phase 4) and kill her.

As soon as Capernian is down everyone should move and finish off Telonicus (don’t forget to rebuff the tanking warlock with salvation). The main tank should take position in front of Kael’Thas. Telonicus should be down just as Kael comes out to play.

You are now in a very good position to do a very clean Kael’Thas kill. The rest of this strategy (phase 4 and 5) is the same with the “classic” one.

Phase 4: Kael’thas Sunstrider

Three minutes after the start of Phase 3, Kael’thas himself enters the fight. If only one advisor is still up at that point, a smooth kill is close. If two or more are still up, a wipe is highly probable.

Fireball should be interrupted as much as possible.

Mind Controlled raid members should best be sheeped. It’s also possible to use the [Infinity Blade] with low damage skills (e.g. Hamstring, Shiv) to dispel the MC. Stunning is not always effective because the buff from the [Staff of Disintegration] may be in effect. In addition to that hunter freezing traps must be set randomly on the ground, and all kinds of fears should and must be used when Kael is mind controlling your raid members. This will solve a lot of problems and it will improve the reaction time of your mages. (Decursive add on is a must for mages here)

Flamestrike MUST be avoided at all costs by everyone in the raid. Set Spell Details to High to see the glow on the ground, which is visible during the 3 sec cast time before it hits. The AoE looks similar to a Paladins Consecration.

Every 30–40 seconds Kael’thas summons a Phoenix. The graphic effect for this summon is identical to Flamestrike, however the cast time is much shorter, and it deals no damage.

Phoenix handling

After its birth, the phoenix can either be kited by a ranged damage dealer, or simply be tanked by the fire resist tank (it melees for ~800 on plate). It continually uses a hellfire ability which damages itself (5% HP) and everybody around it for ~5,000 fire damage per 2s tic, resulting in an (at most) 40 second life span. Upon its death, it will do an Ember Blast (4,500 fire damage melee range knockback, binary resist) and then turn into a Phoenix egg. This egg has ~70k HP and must quickly be killed, else it spawns a new Phoenix after 15 seconds.

Pyroblast

Every 60 seconds Kael’thas casts an invariable sequence of Shock Barrier, 3 successive Pyroblasts and Arcane Disruption.

Even with all the possible mitigations in effect, Pyroblast deals up to 23,265 fire damage. Tanks with the [Phaseshift Bulwark] can use it to absorb one Pyroblast. If the damage dealers are up to it, the best course of action is to burn down the shield fast enough to interrupt the second pyroblast. Failing this, a tank with ~20k HP can just barely survive one pyroblast (with the Infernal Protection buff from the [Cosmic Infuser], a Fire Protection Potion or Nightmare Seed and PW:Shield). If a raid consistently fails to interrupt the second pyroblast, it’s possible to have the tank eat the first one and absorb the second. This gives the healers enough time to bring the tank up to survive the immediately following arcane disruption. The third pyroblast can always be interrupted, because the shock barrier autmatically wears off after 10 seconds, which leaves a 2 second window for the interrupt.

Event Cycle

In summary, there’s a 60 second rotation which takes place over the entire phase:

[0sec]->[20sec](MC + Arcane Disruption)->[40sec](Phoenix + MC + Arcane Disruption)->[60sec](Shock Barrier + 3 Pyroblasts + Arcane Disruption).

Flamestrike can happen all the time.

Phase 5: True Power

Once Kael’thas’ health reaches 50%, he does a short cutscene and becomes invulnerable for a while. During this time, all remaining Phoenixes and their eggs should be killed. With unlucky timing it’s possible that he reaches 50% just as he begins a pyroblast cycle, and thus become invulnerable (and truly uninterruptible) while casting 3 pyroblasts. Although this is a rare event, it doesn’t hurt to pay attention to this possibility, and slow down some DPS if it could occur.

Gravity Lapse

In Phase 5, he no longer uses Mind Control and Pyroblast, instead he regularly casts a combination of Gravity Lapse, Nether Vapor and Nether Beam. Gravity Lapse teleports the entire raid to Kael’thas’ position and up in the air from there. In order to avoid the Nether Vapor debuff and Nether Beam chaining, the raid must move away from Kael and spread out, best in three dimensions. Near the end of the 30 sec duration, people should try to keep close to the ground to minimize falling damage, but must not get too low, else they take damage and get launched back up high in the air.

Kael’thas continuously uses Shock Barrier during a Gravity Lapse, and the phoenixes go into a kind of evade mode. There’s no point in trying to deal damage during that time.

At the end of a Gravity Lapse, Kael’thas and the phoenixes return to their prior targets, there’s no aggro drop. Mages should Counterspell Kael’s first Fireball so that he runs to the MT. The raid should initially be careful with DPS because the tank needs to build some rage first. This is a good opportunity to burn down the phoenix and his egg.

Enrage

Kael’thas has no built-in hard enrage timer. The only problem is that the legendary weapons looted in phase 2 despawn 15 minutes after acquiring them. It’s possible to bring him down using normal equipment, but the Arcane Disruptions cause the healers to run out of mana sooner or later.

Notes

It is a good idea to use Heroism/Bloodlust prior to Phase 4, so that Kael’thas can’t buff himself when mind controling a shaman. Some raids prefer to go all-out at the start of Phase 2, others wait until Phase 3.

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Non elite Adds (Agents):

• 30,000 Health
• 1500 damage on cloth

Elite Adds (Priests):

• 80,000 Health
• 300 damage on cloth

Tips

• Much like the Baron Geddon encounter, raid members must be quick to react to the Wrath of the Astromancer debuff and run away from the raid to avoid unnecessary damage.
• Proper add control during her teleport is crucial. The adds are not elite and can be nuked down with area of effect spells.
• The Solarium Priests can heal themselves as well as Solarian. Thus they must be kept stunned / silenced until they are dead.
• The Void Walker phase can usually be won with only a handful of raid members alive since her damage output drops dramatically.

Abilities

• Wrath of the Astromancer: Bomb-style Debuff placed on a random target
• Arcane Missiles: 3 times 3000 arcane damage on random target, not interruptible
• Blinding Light: 2500 arcane aoe damage to the whole raid. 20 second cooldown.
• Every 50 seconds Solarian disappears, summons non-elite adds, and returns after 15 seconds with two elite priest adds.

Raid composition and gear

Since most of the damage dealt to the raid is arcane, some arcane resistance will help. It’s a good idea if everybody brings their Violet Badge. Players should not nerf themselves to obtain high amounts of resistance though.

Melee damage dealers are very effective because while Solarian is continuously spamming some spells, she can’t dodge. During the adds phase, the tanks have to control 15 mobs, thus some solid AoE tanking is required. A good paladin tank can be quite valuable here.

Phase One

During this phase, all ranged classes (healers and damage dealers) should stand close together on one spot. This makes it easier for people with the bomb debuff to get clear of everyone else, and AoE heals are more effective. During this phase and up until phase Three, she has no aggro table.

Wrath of the Astromancer

This is the main reason for wipes here. In irregular intervals, Solarian casts this debuff on a random raid member. The affected player immediately deals continuous AoE damage to others for 6 seconds, and then explodes. The AoE damage is a fixed amount, distributed evenly to all targets in range (thus if many raid members are close, they take only low damage). The explosion deals 5400-6600 arcane damage to everyone in a 10 yard radius, and throws everybody affected by it high enough into the air for about 90% falling damage. Upon landing, the person with the debuff is protected against falling damage, while everybody else is usually killed.

Raid members receiving the debuff must immediately get clear from all other raid members. This is the single most important aspect of this fight. If people are slow in noticing they are the bomb, then the addon SolarianAlarm which turns the entire screen blue for those with the debuff, may be helpful.

Note: A Rogue’s Cloak of Shadows and a Paladin’s Divine Shield no longer trigger the explosion instantly, so using these abilities is now perfectly safe.

Arcane Missiles

Most of the time, Solarian busies herself with spamming Arcane Missiles. Since they deal a substantial amount of damage, it’s important that healers react quickly when a raid member is about to receive it. 2-3 healers should be dedicated to the task of keeping the arcane missile targets up. They can set up a macro to cast a quick heal on Solarians current target. It’s rather risky to use slow heals here.

Shamans should keep up four totems at all times, since the arcane missiles do target them, and pop Heroism/Bloodlust early.

example macro for paladins (just spam this when Solarian is casting missiles)

/target High Astromancer Solarian
/assist
/cast Flash of Light(rank7)

similar example macro for priests:

/target High Astromancer Solarian
/assist
/cast Flash Heal

or more elegantly formatted: (Solarian is target)

/target High Astromancer Solarian
/cast [help,nodead][target=targettarget,help,nodead] Flash of Light(rank 7)

or a focus version: (Solarian is focus, nice if you change targets frequently while healing group)

/focus High Astromancer Solarian
/cast [help,nodead][target=focustarget,help,nodead] Flash of Light(rank 7)

Phase Two

Every 50 seconds, Solarian disappears and 12-15 non-elite adds spawn from three “light portals”. After 15 seconds, she re-appears together with two elite priest adds, and Phase 1 starts again.

During the 15 seconds of phase 2, the whole raid should concentrate in the center of the room, and start all-out AoE. People need to be very quick here, because Solarian starts her usual phase 1 routine right after she reappears.

This need for high speed puts the AoE damage dealers at a high risk – they cannot allow a lot of time for the tanks to build aggro (but still need to do so, else they’ll die right away).

After 15 seconds, Solarian and two priest adds spawn from the beams of light. It’s possible to determine from which beam the boss spawns – it’s the one which is exactly on the circular border, whereas the two other beams which are not exactly aligned with the border spawn priests.

The priest adds will begin casting either Holy Smite or a healing spell on themselves or Solarian. Two tank+rogue groups can split off on the priest adds and have the tank handle the damage from Holy Smites while the rogue uses Kick or Kidney Shot on any upcoming heals.

Phase Three

When Solarians health hits 20%, the fight turns into a simple “tank and spank” style combat (even if only a few raid members are alive the fight is usually won at this stage). She turns into a massive armored voidwalker and stops all of her former attacks. In that form, she has substantially increased armor, an arcane bolt attack and fears people in melee range. This fear can be avoided by the usual measures (Fear Ward, stance dance, tremor totem).

Quick Facts

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Lore

Al’ar is Kael’thas Sunstrider’s precious pet phoenix that he cares for deeply. His children also serve Kael’thas. As with all phoenixes, he is reborn from his own ashes, so adventurers wishing to take him down may have to do so more than once…

Abilities

Both Phases

• Flame Buffet: Stackable debuff incurred every 1.5s that causes 2000 fire damage and increases fire damage taken by 10% per debuff. Lasts 10 seconds. Cannot be avoided by line of sight. This is only cast if the person with the highest threat isn’t within melee range

Sometimes Al’ar will cast Flame Buffet even if there is a tank in melee range. If this happens, your tank should move forward and quickly back into position to fix the bug.

Phase 1

• Flame Quills: Occasionally, Al’ar will fly to the center of the room instead of switching platforms. Al’ar then launches quills that hit anyone on the platforms or the outer part of the ramps. Deals ~8k Fire damage per second, for several seconds. Unknown cooldown
• Ember Blast: Explodes upon ‘death’, knocking back any player in range (~15 yards). Deals ~10k fire damage, and an additional ~1000 fall damage. Used just before transitioning to Phase 2.

Phase 2

• Rebirth: ~5000 fire damage to anyone in melee range, with a knockback across the room. This occurs a few seconds after a Dive Bomb, in the same location where the Dive Bomb hit. Al’ar also uses this ability at the start of Phase 2, when resurrecting in the center of the room.
• Dive Bomb: Al’ar flies up, and targets the ground beneath a random player. Al’ar then crashes into the ground at that location. This deals ~5000 fire damage, and spawns two Ember of Al’ar adds. Al’ar then uses Rebirth at that location. 30 second cooldown.
• Flame Patch: Spawns under a randomly targeted player, deals ~3000 fire damage per tick, and applies a stackable debuff similar to Flame Buffet
• Melt Armor: Target’s armor is reduced by 80% for 60 seconds, tanks must taunt immediately when this happens. 60s cooldown.
• Berserk: Al’ar’s damage is increased by 500% and attack speed is increased by 150%, wiping the raid very quickly. This occurs 10 minutes after the start of phase 2.

Ember of Al’ar

• ~70,000 health.
• Hit for ~1500 damage.
• One is spawned after each position change in Phase 1, and two are spawned after each Dive Bomb in Phase 2.
• Each time one is destroyed, Al’ar’s health is drained by 2% of max health.
• Ember Blast: Explodes upon death, knocking back any player in range (~15 yards). Deals ~7000 fire damage, and an additional ~1000 fall damage.
• Can be stunned. Immune to all other forms of Crowd Control.

Strategy

This is a heavy mobility fight. Contrary to popular belief, no amount of fire resistance is generally needed for the fight. It may help certain individuals (eg. the tank that handles the Embers) but you should avoid sacrificing more important statistics. Fire protection potions are helpful if their use is timed properly.

Phase I

Phase I is straightforward.

Al’ar will always fly to the left ramp when pulled. A tank needs to wait there to avoid Flame Buffet.

During this phase it is impossible to draw aggro at range; like Ragnaros, Al’ar will not aggro on people outside melee range. Melee can draw aggro from tanks, however. Al’ar spends around 30 seconds on each platform, then moves on to the next, flying clockwise (W, NW, NE, E, repeat). Tanks should stay on the edge of their platform to maintain line of sight with the healers. Two tanks is enough for this simple rotation, but three makes it easier to react to Flame Quill.

Adds

Al’ar will summon an add every time it switches position. This add spawns at the very position it just left. The adds need to be off-tanked away from the rest of the raid and DPS’d down as soon as possible to keep the total number of spawned adds to a minimum. The adds do not deal much damage but explode on death for a significant amount of fire damage (healers should be prepared to respond as the adds approach death). They are immune to crowd control and fire damage.

The adds will generally fly to the healers, particularly if a paladin keeps Righteous Fury up; have an off-tank waiting downstairs to pick them up. It is usually a good idea to have the melee DPS take care of these adds, since they can’t move fast enough to keep steady DPS on the boss herself, but be very careful with the explosions. Note that these adds can be stunned, and a useful technique is for a rogue to save up 5 combo points, wait for the add to get low on health (around 4%), stun the add while everyone else moves away, and then use Cloak of Shadows and finish off the add.

Flame Quills

Occasionally when leaving a platform, Al’ar will fly to the center of the room and begin spinning, which signals the upcoming Flame Quills. Every person in the raid needs to be aware and fall down from the upper platform, especially the tanks, since anyone left there will take 6-8k fire damage per second. People standing on the outside of the room on the floor (south near the entry door) are also susceptible. Unobservant tanks will be killed very quickly by this ability, most likely causing a wipe (if no soulstone was set). So whenever Al’ar is about to leave a platform, rotate the camera appropriately to keep an eye on the movement. Don’t just run blindly to the next platform, wait a bit to see where exactly Al’ar goes next.

Once the Quill ends, Al’ar will land on platform 1 or 4. One tank needs to be positioned on each side, at the base of the ramp, ready to quickly reach their platform before Al’ar does more than two buffets. Intercept is useful. A third tank can be helpful here; if you have only two tanks, and both are on the same side of the room as Al’ar leaves a platform to start Flame Quills, they may have trouble crossing the room to reach the far platform. Priests can summon their shadow fiend up to Al’ar if the tank is having trouble getting to the platform in time to minimize buffets.

Between handling adds and avoiding the Flame Quills, heavy DPS needs to be put out on the boss. In an ideal scenario, Al’ar should die within 2-3 flight cycles.

Keeping the Adds

Alternatively, you can “save” the phase 1 adds for phase two (when the enrage timer becomes important). Have melee bring each add to 10% and have a warrior spam Demoralizing Shout and Thunderclap. If you have access to a Paladin tank, they can solo the adds from phase 1 to 10%-20% by spamming Consecration and Holy Shield. The tank will have about 10 adds on him by the end. The damage is difficult to heal through, but not dangerous if the healers pay attention. Once Al’ar has respawned at the start of phase 2, use AoE to kill all the adds simultaneously, and Al’ar will lose about 20% HP instantly. The add tank will usually be knocked away by the first explosion and should not take damage from any of the others; however it is possible to be hit by several and killed. Therefore, it is sensible to Soulstone him. The add tank could also use a Major Fire Protection Potion before the first add explodes, to avoid high peak damage.

Phase II

Phase II begins right after Al’ar reaches 0%. At this point it will explode for ~5000 fire damage with AoE knockback and reappear roughly at the center of the room, where it will cast a powerful AoE knockback with fire damage. After this, it must be immediately tanked or it will start casting its flame buffets once again. Phase II is not an aggro wipe and Al’ar should fly to the top threat person. But it may decide to stay put and cast flame buffet if not picked up immediately. In case there are still some adds up from phase I, raid should focus on getting them down as soon as possible, preferably before Al’ar casts the first Dive Bomb. Other than that, phase II is all about survivability. Melee DPS should focus on the boss while ranged DPS focuses on the adds and then Al’ar if no adds exist.

While being on the ground, it will occasionally spawn flame patches on random people that work in a similar fashion to void zones. People need to be aware and move away from the fire trails as soon as possible. Al’ar can charge people for 5000 damage leaving them momentarily stunned. It usually flies back to its previous target but can sometimes remain next to the charged target and cast flame buffet until taunted.

It also casts a Melt Armor debuff on the current MT every 60 seconds. The other tank must taunt immediately when this happens. Having both tanks wear a high amount of +hit helps a lot. Al’ar’s melee damage is fairly weak, so reaching the hit cap is more important than damage mitigation. Note that the current MT can use [Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch] every time the debuff is applied. After Dive Bomb, Al’ar sometimes targets the tank having Melt Armor, so the current MT should be ready to taunt, and never move too far away from the other tank. A Warrior MT can also Intervene. While most boss mods will announce when Melt Armor is cast and its duration, it will be beneficial to many to announce this over Vent or Teamspeak. Healers must be ready to change targets when needed.

Last but not least, while airborne, it will cast Dive Bomb on a seemingly random target. The Meteor does about ~5000 fire damage on a single target and should be survivable or avoided by running from the area. Using consumables/abilities that can mitigate this sort of damage (fire protection potions, ice barrier, mana shield, barkskin etc) is also recommended. People should be aware of the fact that Al’ar spawns with an AoE fire knockback where the meteor hits the ground as well as with two ember adds, so your raid should move away from that spot as soon as possible. The adds spawn immediately when the meteor hits the ground, whereas Al’ar spawns roughly 2 seconds afterwards, giving a small window to pull the adds out without accidentally hitting or taunting Al’ar. Failure to do so will result in them being knocked across the room taking both fire damage and potentially some falling damage. Also be sure to NOT kill adds during a meteor or Al’ar won’t take the 2% damage from its death.

Note: Everyone should stay off the ramps and in the room completely, if Al’ar targets a person for Dive Bomb while they are on the ramps, Al’ar will evade glitch and go back to full health.

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General Tips

• Void Reaver should be tanked in the middle of his room, with the rest of the raid spread out in a circle around him. This maximizes available space and travel time for the arcane orbs.
• Players should be kept at full health so they can survive a 6300+ maximum damage arcane orb (for ranged classes) or a 6750+ maximum damage pounding
• Due to the aggro reduction by his Knockback ability, the main tank will lose aggro eventually, to one of the offtanks, who will in turn lose aggro on Knockback. With 4 tanks, the first tank should have enough time to rebuild aggro before the 4th tank is punted and loses aggro. This tank rotation will continue until Void Reaver dies. Note that Void Reaver is not tauntable.
• As with other mechanical mobs, Void Reaver is immune to health-draining effects such as Drain Life, and Death Coil. He is also immune to poisons.
• Melee may run out during pounding to avoid the damage, but doing so results in lost DPS and comes with the risk of being targeted by arcane orb. It may instead be advisable to equip some arcane resistance gear and have the healers keep melee alive.
• Void Reaver can be reset by running out of the room.

Lore

Void Reaver is a fel reaver built by the Burning Legion and taken by Kael’thas Sunstrider as a guardian for his palace. He now resides in The Eye, awaiting the daring adventurers who are brave (or foolish) enough to enter the realm of the blood elves.

Abilities

• Melee: 3000-4000 on tanks.
• Pounding: 18 yard AoE around the Void Reaver, 3 sec channel, 1350-2250 arcane damage per sec (resistible), and 12 sec. cooldown.
• Arcane Orb: 7000+ AoE with 6 sec silence, (resistible, binary), and 3 sec cooldown. Arcane Orb is fired at a random raid member at least 18 yards away from the Void Reaver and takes a few seconds to reach the place where the player was standing. Orbs may be fired at people below the minimum range if there are no other valid targets.
• Knock Away: Single Target knock back vs. the highest aggro target, reduces aggro, and 30 sec cooldown. Can miss, be dodged, or parried to avoid the threat reduction.
• Enrage: Wipes the raid after 10 minutes.
• Cannot be taunted.
• Immune to health-draining effects (e.g. Drain Life, Siphon Life, and Death Coil).
• Immune to poisons and mana drain.
• Not immune to bleed effects.

Positioning

The melee group fights in the center of the room.

Ranged and healers stay in a wide circle around the boss, at the maximum range of their abilities, in order to maximize available space and travel time for the Arcane Orbs. Well-geared Resto Shaman can consider staying with the melee group – this means that they take Pounding damage too, but never have to interrupt their Chain Heal spam to evade Arcane Orbs. This tactic also works with a decently geared priest in the melee, as Prayer of Healing easily heals through the damage while conserving mana.

Combat

The encounter does not have different stages and is exactly the same from 100% to 0%. All raid members should be kept as close to full HP as possible, to increase their chance to survive an Arcane Orb or Pounding.

Due to the aggro reduction caused by Knockback, the main tank eventually loses aggro, and a tank rotation should be set up to counter this. Three tanks are necessary, and four are sometimes used. Void Reaver is not tauntable.

If three, or even two tanks are unable to stay at the top of the threat list, or if you need more dps, one tank with a high level of avoidance (dodge and/or parry), in combination with hunter misdrects can essentially solo tank this fight. The aggro drop from knockback is roughly 10k to 12k threat, with a few misdirects and a extremely well geared tank, it can be done. Items like Moroes’ Lucky Pocketwatch can aid in this.

Arcane Orb

The Arcane Orbs should be avoided by running away. Ranged players should never run towards the melee, as this may cause an Orb to hit the melee. The room is large, and the orbs move relatively slow. Healers can stand with their backs to the Reaver, so that they can start running as soon as they see an incoming orb. Ranged dps should be spread out as much as possible for the entire fight, and at or near their maximum attack range.

Ranged dps should use their Maximum Camera Distance setting and look more up into the sky than usual. Early accurate recognition of the threatening Orbs is important for this fight. Ranged dps may want to use, “strafe moving” to make it easier to watch for new Orbs while running from an existing Orb. Some ranged DPSers may want to equip their Violet Badge which gives a 13.5% chance to fully resist the Orb’s binary spell damage. All players should have the buff, Mark of the Wild. Mage’s Ice Block appears to effectively cancel an Orb’s damage.

Note (1-28-2008): Currently the graphics do not match the explosion. The explosion will go off before the graphic “hits”. It is best to begin moving within the first second, so as to be well out of range.

Starting with Patch 2.4.0 the Void Reaver stopped targeting a player before casting an Arcane Orb, so Add Ons such as Deadly Boss Mods or BigWigs did not warn players of incoming Orbs.^[1]

As of Patch 2.4.3 there’s now a combat log entry for cast orbs, the warnings from BigWigs work, and as of July 2008, Deadly Boss Mods was giving targeted players a warning.

Pounding

The easiest solution is to have the melee group eat the Pounding damage and heal through it. Circle of Healing is very effective, however if you do not have a priest with this then a shaman with chain heal can sometimes fulfil this role. In order to make Chain Heal as effective as possible, the melee group should stay close together in this case. Rogues can use Cloak of Shadows right before VR starts Pounding to resist the arcane damage.

If the healers are not up to that challenge, it’s possible to avoid the Pounding damage by running out of it. The Void Reavers hit box is nearly as large as the Pounding’s AoE, stepping out of the damage doesn’t cost that much DPS. The bigger problem is that they may be targeted by an Arcane Orb while outside the Pounding range. Therefore, the melee group should disperse when this tactic is used.

Aggro

Since the fight is on a 10 minute timer, all DPS classes need to maximize their damage output while paying attention to their aggro. Threat-reducing abilities such as Vanish, Soulshatter, Blessing of Salvation, Cower, Feign Death or Invisibility are invaluable. If Shamans are present in DPS groups, they should consider whether to drop a damage increasing Air Totem (like Windfury Totem, or Wrath of Air Totem), or a threat reducing Tranquil Air Totem. Shadow priests should refrain from using Vampiric Embrace to avoid healing based threat. This fight is like Broodlord – the more tanks the higher the threat that can be generated as every tank takes fewer knockbacks.

Alternate Tactic

If the ranged DPS/Healers are having issues with avoiding the orbs, an alternate tactic is possible. It can done with 1 non-CoH Priest, 2 CoH Priests, 1 Resto Shaman, 2 Paladins and 1 Resto Druid, but it’s easier with one more CoH-Priest or Resto Shaman. You also need at least 1, but preferably 2, classes that have an easy time moving at range.

The basic idea is that everyone, except the Hunters, run to the middle and park themselves under Void Reaver. The Hunters will stay at range and proceed to avoid Orbs like normal, though not really caring much about their DPS. When the Pounding hits the group, all AoE healers take care of the group while the Paladins heal the tanks, tossing other people heals should it be needed. This makes the fight even simpler, assuming people make sure they move if a Tank gets knocked back and VR follows and that tank and the Hunters/kiters don’t get too close to melee, which will instantly lead to a wipe.

The advantages of this method are; DPSers don’t have to move and can just continue nuking, and healers don’t risk being out of range of the tanks. The cons are; Everyone takes more damage (though not terribly hard to heal through, especially not if everyone brings their Violet Badge) and if an orb for any reason hits the raid, it’s likely to cause a wipe.

Notes

• A hunters pet with maxed arcane resistance can stay on the boss all the time and easily be healed with mend pet.
• The fight can be reset by running out of the room.
• About 8k DPS is required from the whole raid. Assuming 15 damage dealers this means each damage dealer needs to sustain 530 DPS over the whole fight.
• Using the /script SetCVar ("cameraDistancemax" ,50) maximizes your camera distance beyond that of the default limit making the orbs much easier to see.

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The three remaining wings are differentiated by the different color themes:

• Botanica: Light blue
• Arcatraz: Red
• Mechanar: Light purple

Optional Attunement

Note: As of June 19, 2007 there is no longer an attunement for The Eye. The quests have been kept in the game for lore and challenge of the quest line.

1. Complete the quest line that begins with The Hand of Gul’dan (alliance / horde), and finishes with The Cipher of Damnation.
2. Once you have completed that section of the quest line you will receive an in-game mail from Khadgar in Shattrath City.
3. Accept the three quests Khadgar gives you, Trial of the Naaru: Mercy, Trial of the Naaru: Strength and Trial of the Naaru: Tenacity.
4. Complete Shattered Halls, Shadow Labyrinth, The Steamvault and The Arcatraz on Heroic mode.
5. Return to Khadgar and accept Trial of the Naaru: Magtheridon.
6. Slay Magtheridon in Magtheridon’s Lair.
7. Return to Khadgar and receive your The Tempest Key.

Summary

• Layout: Three 5-man wings, One 25-man raid
  • The Mechanar (Level 69-72 mobs).
    • First Layer Bosses: Gatewatcher Gyro-Kill, Gatewatcher Iron-Hand, Mechano-Lord Capacitus
    • Second Layer Bosses: Nethermancer Sepethrea, Pathaleon the Calculator
  • The Botanica (Level 70-72 mobs).
    • Bosses: Commander Sarannis, High Botanist Freywinn, Thorngrin the Tender, Laj, Warp Splinter
  • The Arcatraz (Level 70-72 mobs)
    • Bosses: Zereketh the Unbound, Wrath-Scryer Soccothrates, Dalliah the Doomsayer, Warden Mellichar Event. The Warden Mellichar Event include the spawn of: random boss (70+) – Millhouse Manastorm (friendly gnome) – random boss (72+) – random boss (72+) – Harbinger Skyriss
  • The Eye (25-man raid wing)
    • Bosses: Al’ar, Void Reaver, High Astromancer Solarian, Kael’thas Sunstrider
• In order to access the Tempest Keep you will either need a flying mount (druids can use flight form), or as of patch 2.4.0 be summoned from a warlock that is currently inside.
• Populated with blood elves.

History

The mighty Tempest Keep was created by the enigmatic Naaru, sapient beings of pure energy and the sworn enemies of the Burning Legion. As a base of operations for the Naaru, the structure itself possesses the technology to teleport through alternate dimensions, traveling from one location to another in the blink of an eye.

With Outland serving as the strategic battlefront in the ongoing Burning Crusade, the Naaru used Tempest Keep to reach the shattered land. However, when the Naaru set out from their stronghold, Prince Kael’thas and his blood elves quickly raided the dimensional fortress and assumed control over its satellite structures. Guided by some unknown purpose, Kael’thas manipulates the keep’s otherworldly technologies, using them to harness the chaotic energies of the Netherstorm itself.

Though Kael’thas and his minions maintain a tight hold on the keep, a band of Draenei hijacked one of its satellite structures, the Exodar, and used it to escape Outland. In seeking out other worlds, the Draenei, led by the ancient prophet, Velen, hoped to find allies who would stand with them against the Legion and its nihilistic Crusade. The Exodar was damaged in the escape, and eventually crashlanded on Azeroth.

Functioning

Tempest Keep can be accurately described as an enchanted fortress. It has the ability to Travel along the Twisting Nether – a realm of intense energy that links all the worlds of the Great Dark together. This is where the term “inter-dimensional” comes from. A “space ship” would simply traverse the distance of the great dark from point A to point B. Tempest keep uses the Twisting nether to travel almost instantaneously from place to place. In essence, it is a self-contained Dark Portal which operates on the same principle.

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Background

A fierce forest troll of the Amani tribe, Zul’jin’s ability as a warrior and leader meant that he did what no other troll has done since the Troll Wars: unite the warring tribes of Zul’Aman under a single leader. He was infamous for his daring raids on the outskirts of Quel’Thalas, at a time when trolls had been completely beaten into obscurity by the high elves. Some say he planned to unite all trolls, but his plans were quickly put on hold by the events of the Second War.

Abilities

Every time his health drops by 20%, he walks to the center of the platform, switches form, and does a threat wipe. Note that he’s immune to Taunt, but Debuffs (and DoTs) remain on him. The use of Misdirection is strongly recommended for every phase change.

Phase 1: Troll Form

• Whirlwind: AoE dealing 3k damage on plate, 6k on leather. 2s cast time.
• Grievous Throw: 1.5-3.5k initial damage on a random player. DoT deals 2.4k damage every 2s, removed if the affected player has been healed to 100% hp.

Phase 2: Bear Form

• Creeping Paralysis: Debuff on the entire raid. Deals 4.5k Nature damage after 5.5s, and applies the debuff Paralyzed. Paralyzed players are stunned for 4s. Both debuffs are dispellable magic effects. Rogues, you can use Cloak of Shadows during that 6 second span of the Creeping Paralysis debuff to get to avoid getting stunned.
• Overpower: 4.6-5.9k on the tank, ~9s cooldown.

Phase 3: Eagle Form

While in Eagle Form, he remains stationary, and doesn’t attack.

• Energy Storm: Debuff on the entire raid causes every character that uses spells to take 1250 Nature damage, can be resisted.
• Feather Vortex: 4 Feather Vortex spawn, they look like tornados and move around. They deal 1k Nature damage and knock players back if they are touched.

Phase 4: Lynx Form

• Claw Rage: Zul’jin focuses a random player other than the tank, and hits him 12 times with Claw Rage in about 6s. The first strike deals 500 damage. Every strike applies the stackable debuff Claw Rage, which increases the damage taken by consecutive attacks by 150. Thus, the second hit deals 650, the third 800, and so on. The last hit deals 2150 damage, for a total of 16k. Claw Rage attacks cannot miss, be dodged, parried, or blocked. If the focused player feigns/vanishes/etc, Zul’jin will focus the tank.
• Lynx Rush: When he uses this ability, he does so 9 times in a row in quick succession. Every attack targets a random player, and deals about 2k damage, further mitigated by armor. The target is chosen completely random; one player might be targeted multiple times in a row (up to 3?), and he can also target the tank. Every player that was attacked also gets the debuff Lynx Hunt, which deals 1.5k damage every 2s over 10s.

Phase 5: Dragonhawk Form

• Flame Whirl: He gains this buff, rotates for 2sec, then deals 1k Fire damage to the entire raid (partially resistible). This will also apply a stackable debuff that increases Fire damage taken by 50%, which cannot be resisted. 12sec cooldown.
• Flame Breath: Hits everyone in front of him for 2k Fire damage (partially resistible). 7sec cooldown.
• Flame Columns: Point Blank AoE cast on a random player (or pet), dealing 900 Fire damage every second for 10 seconds. There may be up to 3 columns at the same time.

Strategy

Get your whole group up on his platform past the threshold when you start the fight, there’s a wall of fire that closes his platform off. The 8 adds don’t have many hitpoints and die fast to AoE. The adds are linked to the boss.

Every phase change he does a threat wipe, so be careful with DoTs. He’s immune to Taunt, so the tank must quickly gain aggro. Use Mis-direction if possible. When he turns into an Eagle you do not need to worry about the threat list though, as explained below. He changes phases every 20% of his hitpoints. Also, raid members might want to consider changing their gear out for max, or at least more, stamina. Having the mages/priests/healers above 9k health is a lot of help in this fight.

Phase 1

Melees watch out for his whirlwind. Healers react quickly to Grievous Throw. Players only lose this DoT when their health reaches 100%. General methods which make players immune to phsysical damage like Paladin bubbles/Ice Block can work here. The dwarven racial Stoneform also removes it. It is not advised to use Healthstones or Healing Potions to remove it because he can hit the same person several times in succession and these will be much more useful in Phase 4.

Phase 2

As soon as he starts this phase you will notice everyone gets a Paralysis debuff. Dispel it off the main tank and yourself, then other healers if time (or the tank doesn’t need a heal). DPS etc do not need it dispelled. After 5 seconds of having the debuff, you will take damage and become stunned, assign someone to top people off before the next. He can hit decently hard, so keep the tank topped. Uses overpower on the tank.

Two tactics exist to cleanse the debuff. Either have the raid stack, and use Mass Dispel to cleanse the entire raid of the debuff, or just dispel the MT and a healer or two of the debuff.

• Note: Being killed by Paralysis counts as suicide so you won’t suffer durability loss.

Phase 3

The tornados have a fixed algorithm of movement, they’ll move to one person, hit them once, and start moving towards another person.

The best way to avoid this is to leave your two best melee dps hitting the boss, and the other members go to the corners of the room, two at the sides of the entrance, two on the left side on each corner, two on the right side on each corner, and two on the bottom of the stairs where Zul’jin is standing, leave a healer at one side of the entrance and one on each side of the room, so each healer will have line of sight of at least six members of the raid, this will minimize the damage taken by the tornados.

The tornados knock you back and deal around 1k damage. If you are a caster (yes healers included) every time you cast you will get hit for about 1250 damage. Heal over time spells really make this phase much easier. Melee need to try and burn him down as quick as they can, as they get no punishment for doing damage. Use bandages. Casters use wands and regenerate mana for the next phases. Hunters may use Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, Multi Shot, Aimed Shot, and Serpent Sting. Hunters will take damage from using Feign Death, Rapid Fire, and switching Aspects. Hunters are important for doing lots of damage during this phase. It is recommended that hunters use Rapid Fire on this phase, even though you will take damage, as a good use of Rapid Fire can really be helpful.

Retribution Paladins can use Crusader Strike without taking damage. Spells with a base mana cost of 0 such as Desperate Prayer, Inner Focus, and Starshards will not cause damage to the caster.

Warlocks can use Shadow Bolts timed in conjunction with Drain Life to nullify the repercussion from casting and maintain DPS. With healing assistance you can get all your DoTs off and take minimal damage.

It’s worth mentioning that casters can follow a spell with a casting time by an instant casting spell without getting hit twice by the tornadoes. For example, a druid can cast rejuvenation right after casting regrowth (not necessarily on the same target) and just get hit once.

Phase 4

Lynx form he melees fairly weak on the tank. He also will use Claw Rage on a random player in the raid and melee them. Claw Rage is the deadliest ability of this fight Zul’jin will turn towards a player and pause for a second then starts to hit that player several times increasing damage and attack speed every hit doing a lot of damage in a short time. Intervene near the end of the phase (9-11 stacks) to help out cloth wearers. Healers must use fast spells or instant spells, lag can make suvival problematic here. Announce Vanish/Divine Shield/etc to the raid, so healers know that he will change back to the tank. Healers take good care of Lynx Rush victims, as everyone should be topped for the next Claw Rage. He will stop claw rage on the target if the target uses Ice Block, Divine Shield, Blessing of Protection, Vanish, Feign Death and will return to his default highest threat target. The dwarf racial Stoneform can also help mitigate the damage. Druids should use Barkskin and can try to turn into Bear Form if they are fast enough although that limits them from using potions. Everyone needs to be on their toes to stay alive, he’s very fast, and your health can drop quickly. Keep Healthstones/potions ready.

Healers may find the following macro useful in the Lynx phase. It will quickly find Zul’jin’s target and cast your fast heal on them. Hit this macro as soon as you see him turn to go after a raid member. Replace Regrowth with your appropriate fast heal spell (ie: Flash of Light, Flash Heal, Lesser Healing Wave).

#showtooltip
/target Zul'jin
/assist
/cast Regrowth

Phase 5

Everyone will get a buffet like debuff every so often, increasing fire damage taken. He will choose random people throughout the raid and place a beam of fire on them. They may take lots of damage due to the debuff, so move out of these beams ASAP. It’s a simple phase if people are good at staying out of void zones. Spread out so only one person is hit at the same time. Flame Breath will hit the tank for more and more fire damage due to the debuff, so DPS him down as fast as you can. The tank needs to build threat fast, but also stay focused to move out of the beams quickly. Melee stay in his back to avoid getting hit by Flame Breath.

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