We're going for a ride on Deathwing's back while we peel the armor from his flesh. Obviously this leaves just one important question. What mount skill do we need to complete this encounter? I think categorizing this guy with all the other epic flying mounts might insult him.

L2R Difficulty Ranking = 3.2/5

This fight is simply about repetition. The more you try it, the more players will get used to it. Since the fight occurs the same way each time. It is just a matter of time before a kill comes along. The average guild can expect to spend 1-3 days 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 = 6-7
  • DPS = Balanced DPS

Abilities

Deathwing

  • Barrel Roll - Throughout the encounter, Deathwing tries to throw players from his back when he senses that they are all standing on the same side of his spine. During a barrel roll, all players and other creatures not attached to his back are thrown off.
  • Elementium Reinforced Plates - The glancing strike from the Dragon Soul has destroyed one of the large armor plates on Deathwing's back and loosened another three. Players must remove all of these plates to give Thrall a chance to get a clear shot.
    • Burning Tendons - Players expose Burning Tendons when they pry up one of Deathwing's armor plates. Destroying these fibrous strands is the key to removing an armor plate.
      • Seal Armor Breach - When an armor plate is pried up, the Burning Tendons rapidly pull the plate closed, protecting the tendons from further damage and preventing the plate from flying off.
  • Deathwing's Immune System - The creatures that comprise Deathwing's Immune System emerge from the holes in his back left by torn off armor plates. Deathwing defends himself with increasing intensity as more plates are torn off.
    • Grasping Tendrils - Grabs nearby enemies, inflicting 10500 to 13500 Fire damage and sticking them to Deathwing's back, reducing their move speed by 50%. While stuck, enemies cannot be flung off Deathwing's back.
    • Corruption - These tentacles are dramatic physical manifestations of the Old God Corruption that runs rampant through Deathwing's body. They emerge first from the holes in his back left by armor plates, and they seal the wound completely, preventing any other creatures from emerging from it.
      • Searing Plasma - Coats the victim in the searing blood of Deathwing.  The thick blood will absorb up to 300000 healing done to the target and will cause the victim to cough up blood, periodically inflicting 10000 Physical damage.
      • Fiery Grip - Grips victims with a whip-like cord of plasma, stunning them for up to 30 sec and inflicting 60000 Fire damage every 3 sec. The corruption must channel to maintain this effect, and it may be broken by inflicting significant damage to the tentacle. This effect prevents players from being thrown off Deathwing's back.
    • Hideous Amalgamation - These unstable creatures are a patchwork of Elementium Armor fragments and pieces of the former Dragon's body held together by his molten blood.
      • Absorbed Blood - Absorbs nearby Corrupted Blood residue. The Amalgamation grows more unstable with each Residue absorbed, increasing its damage by 10% and attack speed by 20%. At $U stacks it will become superheated.
      • Superheated Nucleus - The core of the Amalgamation becomes critically unstable, causing it to inflict 15225 to 19775 Fire damage to all enemies every 3 sec. If the Amalgamation is destroyed in this state it will trigger a Nuclear Blast.
      • Nuclear Blast - The superheated nucleus of the Amalgamation triggers a massive explosion, inflicting 350625 to 399375 Fire damage to targets within 10 yds. This blast is powerful enough to pry up one of Deathwing's Elementium plates if it is within range.
    • Corrupted Blood - These living globs of Deathwing's blood appear fragile, but leave behind an indestructible residue when killed.
      • Burst - Inflicts 18000 to 22000 Physical damage to nearby enemies.
      • Residue

Positioning

The raid will remain stacked in the middle of Deathwing's back whenever not attempting a roll. During rolls, the raid will stack in one of the holes on Deathwing's back and quickly move back to the middle once it has been completed. The primary Amalgamation add should always be tanked near the armor plate and players should not be near it when Nuclear Blast goes off.

Strategy

You’ll start the fight by parachuting onto Deathwing’s back Delta Force style in the middle of four Corruption Tentacles. Your raid will want to immediately kill three and leave one alive. Quickly make a call or determine before the pull which one to leave up so dps can begin right away. The tentacles have no aggro so dps can go all out. Corruption tentacles will apply the Searing Plasma debuff to random players and healers will need to focus strong heals on these players to remove the absorption effect. Make sure that players try to remain toward the middle of Deathwing’s back during all times when not performing a roll. Favoring one side too much may cause Deathwing to roll prematurely and wipe the raid. Once three tentacles have been killed, the raid will want to quickly roll to allow the Amalgamation adds to fall off. Choose a side to roll to and have all players stack in one of the available holes. It can be a good idea to use a raid cooldown here as all players will be taking fire damage and many may not be able to receive heals due to Searing Plasma. Once Deathwing has rolled and the Amalgamations have been thrown off, return to the center of his back and kill the last Corruption Tentacle. This will spawn another Amalgamation add and the raid will begin to dps it down. At this point, the raid should have 1 Hideous Amalgamation, 3-4 Corrupted Blood adds, and a new Corruption Tentacle should spawn. One tank will pick up the Amalgamation and tank it close to the armor plate while the other grabs all of the Corrupted Bloods. The goal now is to dps the Amalgamation until it is very low, but don’t kill it yet. First, you must stack Absorb Blood to 9 and allow the add to become Superheated. This is done by killing Corrupted Bloods near the Amalgamation. Again it is important not to kill the Amalgamation too soon so get it low, then focus only on Corrupted Blood. Each time you kill a Corrupted Blood it will do three things: moderate damage to everybody in the raid, stack the buff on the Amalgamation add, and respawn soon after. While this is going on, the new Corruption Tentacle will occasionally grab random players with its Fiery Grip. This isn’t too big of a deal, just make sure to have ranged dps switch to it when this happens. The goal isn’t to kill Tentacle, just damage it enough to make it stop channeling Fiery Grip. Once this stun is broken, return to killing the Corrupted Bloods. After enough bloods have been defeated, the Amalgamation will become Superheated and begin pulsing for fire damage. This is the raid’s cue to kill it. If you made sure to get the add low first, your raid should be able to swap to it and finish it off very quickly. Before it dies it will cast Nuclear Blast. As this happens, all players must move away from the add or risk being blown up. The Nuclear Blast will pry up one of Deathwing’s armor plates and the raid goes into burn mode. The Burning Tendon underneath the armor plate will be exposed and begins to cast Seal Armor Breach. If it is not defeated before the cast ends, the armor plate will be pulled shut and the entire cycle must be repeated. The raid will have around 25 seconds to defeat the Burning Tendon and sever the armor plate. After the plate has been removed, the raid will gain access to two more Corruption Tentacles and another armor plate. Repeat the process just like the start of the fight. Kill off two of the now three total Tentacles, roll to remove the excess Amalgamations, and then kill off the last tentacle. Tank the new Amalgamation near the plate, stack its buff until it is Superheated and kill it to expose the next Tendon. Remember to use raid cooldowns for rolls and if you have extras feel free to drop them when appropriate. Preventing damage can be extremely beneficial to this fight since players can often be immune to heals. DPS should save their cooldowns for the Tendon burn phases and the offtank may want to brush up on their kiting skills for the end of the fight. There will be a lot of Corrupted Blood adds alive at the end and it may become difficult to keep the offtank alive. 

This fight is very rhythmic in nature and you may notice the fluid cycle it goes through rather quickly. Because of the way the mechanics and adds work this is a good fight to attack with the old school assist dps method. Assign one of your smartest dps players as the main assist and all other players must attack whatever he or she is attacking. Come on kids, Blackwing Lair wasn’t that long ago. 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.