Deathwing's got so many adds, he could solve a math problem and let's be real. The only thing "mad" about this encounter are all the horrible jokes we're going to make. Like the one at the start of this guide.

L2R Difficulty Ranking = 3.2/5

The fight is complex in design but simplistic in execution. It will take an average guild 2-5 nights learning and executing this encounter.

  • Tanking = 3/5
  • Healing = 4/5
  • DPS = 4/5
  • Movement = 2/5
  • Situational Awareness = 3/5

About the difficulty ranking: L2R ranks the difficulty of different fights based on an average of how difficult the different aspects (tanking, healing, and dpsing) are as well as the fights overall movement and situational awareness requirements.  These stats are weighed on a scale of 1-5 and the values are averaged together to form the L2R Difficulty Ranking you see above.  The rankings assume you are attempting the fight at the inteded gear level at the time it was most relevant.

Raid Makeup

  • Tanks = 1-2
  • Healers = 5-7
  • DPS = Balanced DPS

Abilities

Phase 1

Deathwing

  • Assault Aspect - Deathwing begins to search for his next enemy to assault.  Deathwing will assault the platform with the largest number of players present on it that one of his limbs is still grasping onto.
  • Elementium Bolt - Deathwing creates an Elementium Bolt, sending it to the target platform.
    • Elementium Blast - The Elementium Blast inflicts 380250 to 399750 Fire damage to enemies within 200 yards, and an additional 17550 to 18450 Fire damage until the player destroys the Elementium Bolt.
  • Cataclysm - Deathwing is trying to finish the job he started by bringing forth a second Cataclysm, inflicting 1462500 to 1537500 Fire damage to all enemies.
  • Hemorrhage - 
    • Regenerative - A Regenerative Blood heals to full health when it reaches maximum energy.
    • Degenerative Bite - Inflicts 1462 to 1537 Shadow damage every 1 sec for 10 sec.  Stacks.
  • Limb Tentacle - Deathwing grasps onto each platform with one of his limbs.
    • Blistering Tentacle - At 75%, 50%, and 25% remaining health the Limb Tentacle sprouts several Blistering Tentacles that are immune to Area of Effect abilities.
      • Blistering Heat - Inflicts 2500 Fire damage and increases damage taken from Blistering Heat by 5%.  Stacks.
    • Agonizing Pain - The pain from severing Deathwing's limb interrupts his concentration, stunning him and inflicting 20% of his health in damage.
  • Mutated Corruption - A Mutated Corruption appears shortly after assaulting a platform.
    • Crush - The crushing weight inflicts 100000 Physical damage and increases Crush damage taken by 0% for 10 sec.
    • Impale - The Tail Tentacle is preparing to Impale it's target, inflicting 400000 Physical damage.

Phase 2

Deathwing

  • Elementium Fragment - Pieces of Deathwing's armor chip off, forming three Elementium Fragments nearby. In 25 player raids, Eight Elementium Fragments form.
    • Shrapnel - The Fragment fires a piece of Shrapnel at the target, inflicting 195000 to 205000 Physical damage, piercing through armor.
  • Elementium Terror - Pieces of Deathwing's armor chip off, forming two Elementium Terrors nearby.
    • Tetanus - nflicts 29250 to 30750 Shadow damage every 1 sec for 6 sec.  Stacks
  • Corrupted Blood - The Corrupted Blood gushes from Deathwing, inflicting Fire damage every 2 sec.

Aspects

Alexstrasza

  • Alexstrasza's Presence - The Presence of the great aspect Alexstrasza increases max health by 20%.
  • Cauterize (Phase 1) - Alexstrasza begins to Cauterize the Blistering Tentacles, inflicting lethal damage over 5 sec
  • Cauterize (Phase 2) -  Alexstrasza begins to Cauterize Deathwing, destroying the Corrupted Blood.

Nozdormu

  • Nozdormu's Presence - The Presence of the aspect Nozdormu increases Haste by 20%.
  • Time Zone - The Time Zone slows time in the area around it, slowing attack speed by 50%

Ysera

Kalecgos

  • Kalecgos' Presence - The Presence of the great aspect Kalecgos increases damage dealt by 20%.
  • Spellweaver - The Presence of the great aspect Kalecgos causes allies attacks and spells to cause Spell-weaving.

Thrall

Positioning

The raid is generally free to stand anywhere on the platform. It is just important not to stand in front of the mutated corruption and to move away from the Elementium Bolt before it lands.

Strategy

 

Phase 1 is about saving each platform and npc from being assaulted. This is done the same way on all of the four platforms, but the raid will lose npc buffs as the fight goes on. Your raid will be able to choose platform order and therefor which order to lose the buffs, but we’ll go into that a little later. Without taking the buffs into consideration, each platform is handled the exact same way. Begin by dpsing the Limb Tentacle. Go all out as it has no aggro. A few moments later, the Mutated Corruption will spawn. The tank will want to quickly pick this add up and face it away from the raid. Redirect all dps to the Mutated Corruption to kill it as quick as possible. As it is killed, it will place the impale debuff on your tank. The debuff deals extremely high damage when it wears off so the tank should make sure to  pop a strong cooldown before this happens. Feel free to use outside cooldowns such as Pain Suppression or Hand of Sacrifice as well. If Ysera is still active, use her Dream spell to reduce the damage from this. After being hit, the tank may gain a debuff that increases damage from further Impales. If this is the case, it is  a good idea to have the offtank taunt the Mutated Corruption and eat the next Impale. While your raid kills the Mutated Corruption, Deathwing will launch an Elementium Bolt at the platform. This will fly over the center of the platform and land in a spot indicated by a large yellow swirling graphic. The raid will need to keep two things in mind. A: Immediately redirect all dps to the Bolt and ideally kill it before it lands. B: If it is going to land, make sure to be max distance since it deals less damage to players who are farther away. This is also a good opportunity to use raid cooldowns. Aura Mastery, Barrier, Totem, and more are all good options for the Bolt’s impact. Remember to use the Dream spell as well if Ysera is still available. If it does land, players must continue dpsing it to finish it quick before it begins to tick too much. Once the bolt has been destroyed, continue dpsing the Mutated Corruption. It should die fairly soon. After the Mutated Corruption has been destroyed, return raid dps to the Limb Tentacle. At this point the raid will need to finish off the Limb as fast as possible. This will only be hindered by two things. Shortly into this, the Tentacle will spawn multiple Regenerative Blood adds. These low health adds should be picked up by the tank and if Nozdormu is still active, tanked inside the Time Zone. Tanking the adds in this effect, will lower their attack speed and decrease the rate that their Degenerative Bite stacks. Theoretically these adds can be aoed down, but because they will heal to full health every 10 seconds, it may be easier to single target them. If this is the case have one player assigned for the rest of dps to assist or simple mark each add to kill until none remain. Again, the adds can be aoed down and Kalecgos’ buff will certainly make this easier, but without proper execution this will be more of a headache than a help. As the raid kills the Limb Tentacle, it will spawn Blistering Tentacles. This occurs when its health reaches 75, 50, and 25%. The Blistering Tentacles cannot be aoed and must be focused down one at a time. If Alexstrasza is still active, she’ll destroy all of them quickly with her Cauterize spell. Deathwing will begin to cast Cataclysm as your raid is finishing the Limb Tentacle and you’ll have 60 seconds to finish the job. If successful, the platform will be saved and you can proceed to the next. Saving a platform will however cause your raid to lose the buffs granted by the npc at it.  Let’s go over how this can affect the fight.

The order your raid chooses to save the npcs may drastically change the difficulty of the fight. The encounter can of course be completed in any order, but realistically, some raid comps and players may struggle with certain orders more than others. We can’t give an exact order to take since it will vary depending on your raid’s preference, but we can give a general sense of what to expect. Much of this fight is about defeating adds quickly to prevent the damage they do. Because of this, the two npcs who are arguably the strongest are Alexstrasza and Kalecgos. These two will increase raid dps by the highest amount and we suggest your raid saves both until last. In general we feel Ysera is the weakest since 20% extra healing is not needed if the adds die 20% faster. Dead adds lower healing requirements anyway. After this, Nozdormu is the next weakest npc. His Time Zone will give the raid more time to dps Elementium Bolt before it lands, cutting down on raid damage, as well as slow the attack speed of Regenerative Bloods, cutting down on tank damage. Yes Time Zone lowers damage from Bolt, but he barely helps you actually kill it faster. Because of this you aren’t saving that much time. Raid cooldowns such as Barrier or Tranquility can make up for the extra healing needed since the Bolt will now be landing and the cooldowns are not needed for much else in phase 1 so it isn’t a loss. The attack speed slow on Regenerative Bloods is negligible since you’ll be killing them much quicker by leaving Kalecgos up; cutting down on the added tank damage. This means the most difficult choice is whether to save Kalecgos or Alexstrasza for last. We recommend Alexstrasza since not having to kill three waves of Blistering Tentacles will increase raid damage much more than splash damage that doesn’t affect many targets at the proper time. By leaving Alexstrasza up, the raid gains much more focused dps on the Tentacle. Alternatively, by leaving Kalecgos up, the raid gains much dps on everything else: The Mutated Corruption, the Elementium Bolt, Regenerative Bloods, Blistering Tentacles, and the Limb Tentacle itself. However, there are no Blistering Tentacles the other way around and they spawn three times. Ultimately, we can’t really tell you which order will be best for you and it will depend on your raid’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, you could opt to lose Alexstrasza and Kalecgos first and second, run a low number of healers, extra dps, one tank and rely on Nozdormu’s 20% haste and Ysera’s 20% healing and Dream to give your 3 healers the output of 5 or 6. There are many ways to determine your best order. Our recommended order is Ysera, Nozdormu, Kalecgos, then Alexstrasza.

Thankfully, at the start of phase 2, the raid will regain all npc buffs. This is primarily a burn phase, but the raid will need to quickly swap dps to focus down adds anytime they spawn. Elementium Fragments will need to be picked up by tanks and must be killed very quickly. If not killed fast enough, the add’s Tetanus spell will stack too high and kill the tank. Tanks must remember that in addition to their own defensive cooldowns, they will once again have access to Ysera’s Dream spell.  Other players will want to use Dream as well, when focused by the Elementium Fragments. These adds will place the Shrapnel debuff on random targets that deals very high damage when it expires. Be proactive about cooldowns and focus adds whenever they spawn and phase 2 shouldn’t prove to be a problem.

This is another fight that sounds much more dangerous than it is. Phase one can be quite long, but remember it is just a repeating cycle. Remember the dps priorities and kill the correct adds quickly if you want to succeed. Don’t hesitate to adjust the platform order as well, to better suit your raid. If you found this guide helpful or informative remember to bookmark us at LearntoRaid.com, subscribe to us on youtube, and follow us on Twitch.tv and Twitter. As always we hope this guide was helpful and we’ll see you at the next boss.