World of Warcraft

Hello, and welcome to my Dragonsoul guide, tips & tricks. First of all, I'm not claiming to be a professional, but I'm merely creating this thread to share basic knowledge and some tips about the Dragonsoul and all of its difficulties, and the differences between Normal, LFR, and some Heroic encounters. I'm not gonna explain how to defeat an encounter, but more like push you in the right direction so you understand the fights itself abit more, and hopefully will it be useful for someone out there. It will be edited frequently when I find more useful abilities and tips that could help you during the encounters.

Please, feel free to share your suggestions and feedback how to defeat or progress an encounter, and if I've missed something in this thread, or left out something you think should be mentioned. As said above, the thread will be updated frequently as I discover more useful things that can be used. Please forgive any spelling or grammar errors for now, been typing this during breaks in our raids aswell!

Morchok
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3061881602#2

Warlord Zon'ozz
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3061881602#3

Yor'Sahj the Unsleeping
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3061881602#4

Hagara the Stormbinder
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3061881602#5

Ultraxion
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3061881602#6

Warmaster Blackhorn
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3061881602#7

Spine of Deathwing
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3061881602#8

Madness of Deathwing
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3061881602#9

Morchok - Normal & LFR

Morchok is the first boss located in the Dragonsoul. Morchok is a two phase boss and he has three main abilities; Stomp, Crush Armor, and Resonating Crystal.

• Morchok stomps the ground every few second dealing a large amount of physical damage which is split between the raid within 25 yards. The two closest players will take a double share of its damage. This is a very easy ability to counter and just stack up behind the boss and heal through its damage.

• Crush Armor does 120% normal melee damage and reducing your current tanks armor by 10% for 20 seconds and it can stack up to 10 times. Morchok uses this ability every 6 second and your off tank should taunt the boss when your main tank has his or hers debuff - and when the main tanks debuff has expired, he or she should taunt the boss back. There is no real set limit of how many stacks you should have when the off tank taunts the boss, that's something that you will have to decide and what's best and easiest for your raid to heal.

• Resonating Crystal is exactly what it sounds like. Morchok spawns a crystal at a random location somewhere around him, it will target random players and it will explode 12 seconds after it has spawned. Its damage is based by the distance between the target and the crystal. Meaning, if you're standing ontop of the crystal then you will barely take any damage, but if you stand several yards away you'll suffer a great deal of damage. If you're targeted by a crystal, you will receive a debuff which has the colour red, blue or yellow. If it's red, it means you're far away from the crystal and will most likely kill you -- if it's yellow, you'll take a smaller amount of damage, and if it's blue you will take minimum damage.

Phase Two
When phase two spawns Morchok will pull all players to him and large spikes will appear around the place. He will then channel a three second cast and spawn black blood on the ground which needs to be line of sighted between the player and the boss to avoid, so make sure you're standing correctly and there's a spike between you and the boss. If you stand in the black blood you will suffer damage which will increase over time, you may aswell just consider it being lava. When this phase is over, phase one will start again and it's a rinse and repeat.

Morchok - Heroic
The difference is when Morchok is at 90% health he will tear himself in half and spawn another boss named Kohcrom. This boss casts the same abilities as Morchok does, but five seconds later. So if Morchok casts Stomp, then Kohcrom will cast Stomp five seconds later. Kohcrom needs to be offtanked and tanked away from the raid, and your raid will have to be split up in two groups - one group who fights Morchok, and one group will fight Kohcrom.

At Heroic difficulty Stomp will also cause every player who is struck by Stomp, will receive a debuff which increases the Physical damage taken by 100% for 10 seconds. Along with that, someone who has a cooldown that can be used frequently to reduce its damage should soak the stomp damage by being closest to the boss such as a Rogue with Feint. When the boss reaches 20% of his health he will enter a frenzy and it will increase his attack speed by 30% and his damage by 20%.

Crushing Armor does not exist in Heroic difficulty!

F.A.Q:

Q: How many players will the Resonating Crystal target?
A: It will target 3 players in 10 man, and 7 players in a 25 man (this applies to LFR difficulty).

Q: We don't have a Rogue to soak the stomp, can any other class do it?
A: Yes, a player with alot of armor will do aswell.

Tips & Tricks
• Devoation Aura and Stoneskin totem stacks and will reduce the damage of Stomp.
• Use Reistance Aura or totem when soaking crystals, they afflict Shadow damage and it will help alot in the end.
• Death Knights can use Anti-Magic Shell in phase two so they can continue and DPS the boss.
• Always wait for the Stomp before running to soak the crystals.
• If you're struggling with mana, make sure you regain mana during phase two by using Divine Plea or other mana cooldowns (for an example).

Videos:

LearntoRaid: Morchok 25 PTR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDQacgRX6pQ&feature=related

Warlord Zon'ozz - Normal & LFR

Warlord Zon'ozz is the second boss in the Dragonsoul. Warlord Zon'ozz is also a two phase boss and will require both more healing and DPS than the previous boss. Warlord Zon'ozz main abilities are; Focused Anger, Psychic Drain, Disrupting Shadows and Void of Unmaking. Warlord Zon'ozz has a 6 minute enrage timer.

• Focused Anger increases Warlord Zon'ozz damage and attack speed by 10% and it does stack. The only thing to worry about here is to make sure you don't take too many so your healers can keep up.

• Psychic Drain is a frontal cone ability which only the tank is meant to get hit by, it's a nasty ability and inflicts quite abit of damage on the tank and it will heal the boss for 10 times the amount of damage dealt. Healers beware of this ability.

• Disrupting Shadows is a debuff Warlord Zon'ozz places on random targets which deals damage over time, and it can be dispelled. If dispelled at Normal difficulty, it will cause a direct damage and it will knockback the player. If dispelled at LFR difficulty, it will only cause damage with no knockback.

• Void of the Unmaking is the main ability of this boss. A few seconds after you've pulled the boss he will spawn an purple Orb. This orb requires to be bounced between two groups, so you need to be split up in two groups -- one in the melee, and one ranged group. Everytime the Orb hits a player it will deal damage which is split between the amount of players it has hit and after it has hit a player, it will richocet in the opposite direction. The Orbs damage is increased by 20% every time it bounces of a player, and along with that, everytime the Orb bounces of a player, the boss will receive a debuff increasing the damage he takes by 5% and this debuff stacks.

It's very important to make sure the Orb does not hit a wall, otherwise the boss will cast an ability called Black Blood Eruption, causing 60,000 damage shadow damage to all players and it will knock the entire raid into the air so you will suffer fall damage aswell. For a low geared raid, this is a instant wipe.

Phase Two
You enter phase two by letting the Orb hit the boss, this will cause the boss to run to the center of the room and he will spawn several adds that are stuck to the ground and will deal damage to the entire raid, it's at this moment you and your entire raid should stack in the melee and heal through the damage until the phase is over and then phase one will start again with a new Orb. The adds from phase two will despawn when you enter phase one.

Warlord Zon'ozz Looking For Raid
The difference between Normal and Looking For Raid is as said above, when dispelling Disrupting Shadows you will not get knock backed. The second difference is that the Orb will automatically move into the boss at 10 stacks so you enter phase two. The third change is the Orb has a static damage and will not be split between all nearby players so I suggest to have one or two players to handle the orb alone instead of having the Orb being ping ponged between the melee and range, otherwise both groups will suffer a static damage of 60,000 on every player.


Warlord Zon'ozz Heroic
Warlord Zon'ozz is pretty much the same as on Normal mode, but in Heroic difficulty you should kill all of the adds that spawn once you enter phase two because these adds will nolonger despawn when you enter phase one again and you do not want that extra damage -- and you need to kill the adds fairly quickly before a second Orb spawns as you will require as many people as possible to soak its damage.

F.A.Q:
Q: How many tanks do you need at Heroic mode?
A: You only need one tank for Heroic mode.

Tips & Tricks
• Using Mana Tide, Mana Hym, or other mana cooldowns such as Divine Plea when entering phase two is suggested, or when it's over.
• Resistance aura or totem highly suggested!
• Hand of Sacrifice or Pain Supression on the tank helps alot with the last Psychic Drain at Heroic mode.
• Anti-Magic Zone is a very nice ability for a raid cooldown here when bouncing the Orb between the melee and range.
• Feint and Anti-Magic Shell can be used as great damage reductions in all phases.
• Running away from the raid with Disrupting Shadows to dispell is a personal suggestion, it worked very nicely for us and it gave us more control over the fight, just make sure you've health so you can get back in and soak the next Orb hit.
• Death Knights can use Dark Simulacrum on Flails to spell copy Sludge Spew. This can only be done at Heroic mode on the boss as the tentacles are not attackable on Normal.
• If you're a Paladin healer, don't raid when you're tired so you forget to put up Beacon of Light on your tank when leaving phase two. I'm not speaking out of experience.

Videos:

LearntoRaid: Warlord Zon'ozz 25 PTR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVghm9u63Cs&feature=related

Yor'Sahj the Unsleeping - Normal & LFR

Yor'Sahj is the third boss of the Dragonsoul and is personally one of my favourite bosses to heal. Yor'sahj himself doesn't have any major abilities other than spawning adds and putting a damage over time debuff on your current main tank. Instead, he spawn several adds and you get to choose which abilities he should inherit for a short amount of time by killing one add. Please note the boss only spawns three adds each wave and not all at the same time.

• Glowing Globule (Yellow Add) will cause the boss to use his abilities faster than normally, and his attack speed is increased by 50%. If the boss is affected by the yellow add, he will use his damage over time ability here aswell, but instead, this time it's static damage and hits all nearby players with Shadow Damage.

• Cobalt Globule (Blue Add) will leech all players mana within 30 yards and it will then spawn an add called Mana Void. This Mana Void has all of your mana storged within itself, and when killed it will restore all of the mana leeched to the players.

• Crimson Globule (Red Add) will make the boss cast an fire ability at three random players, and its damage is increase the further away you stand from the boss.

• Dark Globule (Black Add) will spawn adds which will fixate each player and attack it. Each add has one ability and it deals damage to its fixated player with ~30.000 - 35.000 Shadow Damage.

• Acid Globule (Green Add) will cause the boss to use an AoE ability which hits the entire raid with Nature damage and you need to be spread out atleast 4 yards away from eachother or you will link the damage, causing you to get double damage. If you're using a boss mod addon such as Big Wigs, enable the range indicator by typing /range 4 in the chat. The Acid will not not be chained on LFR, and you're allowed to hug eachother if wanted.

• Shadowed Globule (Purple Add) will make the boss to place a healing debuff on every player. It's a stacking debuff and it limits down the amount of heals a player can take before it resets, and a player can only take 4 heals and then the debuff have to expire. Upon taking a 5th heal, the player will explode and cause alot of Shadow damage to the entire raid. Personal cooldowns are appreciated in this phase. There are a few heals that doesn't trigger a stack, and all listed spells does not trigger a stack:-

Effloresence
Healing Stream Totem
Spirit Link
Beacon of Light
Lay on Hands
Word of Glory
Echo of Light (Holy Mastery)
Prayer of Mending
Healing Rain gains one stack with the initial tick, but the remaining heals does not generate a stack. If you walk out of the healing rain and then back in, it will generate another stack.

Other abilities
Death Strike
Leader of the Pack
Chimera Shot
Vampiric Embrace
Recuperate
Drain Life
Fel Armor
Healthstones

Yor'Sahj the Unsleeping - Heroic
The difference on Heroic is that the boss doesn't spawn three adds, instead he will spawn four. And with increased health and damage, of course.

F.A.Q:

Q: Which adds should I kill?
A: I can't really tell you, it depends on your setup (especially healing setup) of what you can handle and it's something you will have to try and figure out for yourselves.

Tips & Tricks
• When you get the Purple add (Healing debuff) you should try to heal as much as possible with heals that does not generate a stack. If you're a Paladin, I suggest you to place Beacon of Light on your Tank and point heal your raid. Meaning, if your tank is dropping, you should cast your strongest heal on another player (who do not have many healing debuff stacks) to heal your main tank with the Beacon. I'd also suggest to use Crusader Strike as many times as possible on the boss to generate Holy Power so you can use more Word of Glory during this phase as it does not generate a stack and it's a real life saver in some cases.
• Use your mana cooldowns such as Divine Plea when the boss spawn his adds. There's no damage there other than the damage over time on your tank which expires shortly.
• Lay On Hands is awesome!
• If you can, use mana cooldowns if you must when a Mana Void has spawned so you can heal the raid. A personal suggest is to save the Mana Void on Heroic so you can kill it when you actually need it. For an example, you let the Mana Void spawn and you use your mana cooldowns so you can continue to heal, and then another Mana Void spawns the next time, then you kill your first Mana Void and you're all full with Mana again, with one extra Mana Void for more mana, and you're nolonger out of mana.
• Using Feint, Anti-Magic Shell, Anti-Magic Zone and other personal cooldowns will make your healers to love you.

Videos:

LearntoRaid: Yor'sahj the Unsleeping 25 PTR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgzwZLRiMzc&feature=related

Hagara the Stormbinder - Normal & LFR

Hagara the Stormbinder is the 4th boss of the Dragonsoul and she has 6 main abilities; Ice Lance, Ice Tomb, Shattered Ice, Focused Assault, Frozen Tempest, and Lightning Storm. She has a enrage timer of 8 minutes.

• Ice Lance is an ability which targets a random player near Hagara and it deals 20,000 damage to the targeted player and everyone within 3 yards. This ability should be soaked by either a Ranged DPS or a Healer to prevent the melee from getting it. In Normal difficulty Ice Lance will also reduce the attack speed of all targets struck by 25%, which is why you don't want it in melee as it will affect all of your melee DPS.

• Ice Tomb will be casted on two random players and it will freeze them in a block of ice which needs to be killed before the players within dies. It only freezes the targeted players and not nearby players. I'd suggest the two targeted players to stack up in melee so the iceblock can be cleaved down and AoE'd by the ranged. It's worthy to mention, these Ice Blocks causes line of sight issues, so make sure you have your tank in sight before the iceblock as spawned. Ice Tomb does not exist in LFR difficulty.

• Shattered Ice is an ability which Hagara shoots at a random player dealing a great deal of damage and reducing the players movement speed for 4 seconds. It's a magic effect, and it can be dispelled.

• Focused Attack is sort of like a temporarily berserk. When active, Hagara will attack the current tank with 50% normal weapon damage every 0.5 sec for 5 seconds. This will cause your tank to drop, so be ready with some instant or fast heals. If your tank is quick enough, he or she can strafe out of it before taking major damage. Moving away from Focused Attack does not work on Heroic difficulty.

• Frozen Tempest is another phase. When this phase triggers, Hagara will run to the center of her platform and start to channel her spell. Once finished, four crystals will spawn at the outer area of her platform at north, west, east, and south. Hagara will also spawn ice walls which will move clock wise along the platform -- once you kill all four crystals, the phase is over and Hagara will be stunned and take extra damage. Hagara is immune to all sorts of damage during this phase, and make sure you don't stand in the middle when she reaches the center. Again, I'm not speaking out of experience.

• Lightning Storm is a channeled ability by Hagara, just as Frozen Tempest, Hagara will run to the center of her platform to channel it. During this phase, she will spawn an add and multiple conductors across her platform. You have to kill the add near a conductor, once killed, the conductor will be infused with lightning, and granting nearby players with lightning. You have to chain this lightning between all players, for every conductor. Once all conductors have been infused with lightning, the phase is over and Hagara will once again be stunned and take extra damage.

Hagara the Stormbinder - Heroic
At Heroic difficulty Hagara gains two more abilities, one of them in the Frozen Tempest phase, named Frostflake. It's a debuff which Hagara places on a random player and it reduces the players movement speed by 10% every 1 sec and it lasts for 15 seconds. Once the debuff has expired, a 10 yard radius area will be covered in frost, slowing all players who try to run over it by 50%. The second ability is called Storm Pillars and is used in the Lightning Storm phase. Hagara targets a random player and throws a storm pillar on the targeted players location which will erupt after 3 seconds. The lightning itself will inflict damage to all players within 5 yards.

Tips & Tricks
• Atonement heals through Ice Tombs
• Spirit Link Totem can heal players in Ice Tombs
• Using Mana cooldowns such as Divine Plea when either Lightning Storm or Frozen Tempest starts helps. And when she's stunned.
• Using damage reduction cooldowns in the Lightning Storm phase will reward you with a medal and your healers will hug you for all eternity.
• Tanks can strafe out of Focused Assault. Moving away from Focused Attack does not work on Heroic difficulty.
• Death Knights can use Dark Simulacrum to spell copy Hagara's Shattered Ice.

Videos:

LearntoRaid: Hagara the Stormbinder 25 PTR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JNBMskOOY8&feature=related

Ultraxion - Normal & LFR

Ultraxion is the 5th boss of the Dragonsoul and is a one phase boss which consists of two major abilities; Hour of Twilight and Fading Light. Ultraxion is abit of a special fight and Healers will most certainly love it, on this fight you'll have another button for a unique ability called Heroic Will which you will be using alot during this fight. When you pull the boss he will quickly drag you into a twilight realm, and using the ability you gain on this fight, will cause you to exit the twilight realm momentarily to avoid certain abilities during the fight.

• Hour of Twilight is a channeled spell Ultraxion does once in a while and when he does it you're supposed to use the new ability mentioned above, Heroic Will, to exit the twilight realm to avoid its damage. However, one person needs to remain in the twilight realm so the aspects who assist you on this fight don't get killed. There's a few classes that can remain outside, and it's all mentioned in this bosses' Tips & Tricks below. Hour of Twilight do not kill you on LFR difficulty if you have full health.

• Fading Light is a debuff which lasts on a target for 9 seconds, when it expires it will instantly kill its target and you will have to exit the twilight realm before it kills you by using Heroic Will. Fading Light affects one random player, and his current tank on Normal mode. When a tanks gets it, the offtank will have to taunt the boss whilst the main tank is out of the twilight realm. Fading Light also resets your threat. On LFR difficulty it will only target the current tank and you will still die instantly if you fail on this ability. On Heroic difficulty it will affect two completely random players.

Protection of the Aspects (Friendly stuff!)
During this fight certain aspects will help you along the way by throwing three different healing buffs which needs to be actived and only one player can have one buff. One buff is okay for a ranged DPS aswell. The buffs only have one charge and will last through out the fight.

• Alexstrasza Aspect (Gift of Life)
Alexstrasza will grant you with her blessing by increasing your healing done by 100% when the buff is active on you.

• Ysera Aspect (Essence of Dreams)
Ysera will grant you with her by duplicating your healing spells. So, instead of casting one Flash of Light, you will now cast a Flash of Light and ontop of that you will cast another instant and mana free Flash of Light.

• Kalecgos Aspect (Source of Magic)
Kalecgos will grant you with his blessing by reducing the mana cost of your spells by 75%, and increase your spell haste by 100%.

• Nozdormu Aspect (Timeloop - Passive buff)
Nozdormu will protect the players, and because of that, any attack that would otherwise kill a player, it will bring the player back to 100% health and grant you a second chance. This can only happen once per player.

• Thrall (Last Defender of Azeroth)
Thrall the Earth Warder of Azeroth will buff your tanks and reduce the cooldown of defensive cooldowns by 50%, and increase their duration by 100%.

FAQ:
Q: How many players does Fading Light target?
A: One random player on 10 man Normal, two random players on 10 man Heroic, three random players on 25 normal, and six random players on 25 Heroic. On Looking for Raid difficulty, it will only target Ultraxions current target (your tank).

Tips & Tricks
• Cloak of Shadows allows you to completely avoid the damage of Hour of Twilight, allowing you to continue to DPS the boss.
• Feint combined with Glyph of Feint for maximum efficiency, reduces all damage Ultraxion does in this encounter except for melee hits.
• Shadow Priests can survive Hour of Twilight with Dispersion.
• Hunters can survive Hour of Twilight by using Deterrence.
• Using damage reduction cooldowns towards the end is highly appreciated.
• Resistance aura or totem is a nicely fit for this encounter.
• Holy Radiance is epicly legendary!
• Death Knight tanks can soak every Hour of Twilight with Anti-Magic Shell aslong as you're at 100% health on 10 man Normal difficulty.

Videos:

LearntoRaid: Ultraxion 25 PTR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eRanHhygCM&feature=related

Warmaster Blackhorn - Normal & LFR

Warmaster Blackhorn is the 6th boss of the Dragonsoul, he consists of two phases and has 3 main abilities; Devastate, Disrupting Roar, and Shockwave.

Phase One
The Warmaster isn't attackable in phase one, instead, he flies above you and spawn adds and twilight dragons to attack the boat. Along with that, he try to wreck the boat by using meteors and explosives.

There are two type of meteors, minor ones, and major ones. The minor ones can be soaked by one player, but the major ones needs to be soaked by the entire raid to avoid deaths. It's very easy to see which is which as there'll be effects on the ground to identify them with. The Warmaster will also send NPCs called "Sappers" onto the boat and they carry explosive, they need to be killed off quickly before they reach the cabin - they deal a great amount of damage to the boat. Sappers do not exist in LFR difficulty.

Melee DPS should focus on killing the melee enemies, and the ranged should prioritise to kill the twilight drakes, then help the melee. This is a rinse and repeat phase until phase two starts.

Phase Two
When phase two starts the Warmaster will board the boat and attack.

• Devastate deals 120% weapon damage and reducing the player's armor by 20% for 30 seconds and this effect stacks, I strongly suggest you to tank swap at max 2 stacks to play it safe.

• Disrupting Roar is a roar which deals phyical damage to the entire raid and it will interrupt anyone who's currently casting a spell within 10 yards for 8 seconds. Do not stand close to him.

• Shockwave is almost like Devastating Slam in Zul'Gurub. The Warmaster will target a random player and cast a shockwave (yes I said cast), you have to be quick to get out of its frontal cone. This ability is critical and will most likely kill you if hit.

• Vengeance is something the Warmaster gains during the encounter, he will inflict 1% more damage for each percentage of his missing health. Pain Supression and Hand of Sacrifice will be sweet towards the end.

F.A.Q:
Q: How many tanks do you need for this fight?
A: You require two tanks.

Tips & Tricks
• The Warmasters roars are physical damage and it deals alot of damage. Don't be afraid to use a cooldown.
• Feint works to reduce the damage of meteors.
• Shadow Priests can soak major meteors alone with Dispersion
• Fire Mages can soak major meteors alone with Cauterize.
• If you're a Unholy Death Knight, your time to shine is when huge meteors are incoming by using Anti-Magic Zone.
• If you're a Priest and you just love to annoy people with Leap of Faith, this encounter is no good for you. Players who aren't paying attention to the Warmasters shockwave will appreciate a grip to survive.

Videos:

LearntoRaid: Warmaster Blackhorn 25 PTR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG9WgCADKKQ&feature=related

Spine of Deathwing - Normal & LFR

Spine of Deathwing is the 7th boss of the Dragonsoul and is a one phase fight. He has one main ability which is Barrel Roll. Remaining abilities are add spawns.

• Barrel Roll will be triggered if the majority of your group are standing on one side. It's a real group killer if you're not focused enough to see where your're going and all of the sudden a barrel roll is triggered and because of that you wipe. Make sure you stand in the middle of his spine unless other directions have been given.

One of the first things you will notice when you land on Deathwing is several tentacles. When one of these are killed, an add called Hideous Amalgamation will spawn, and you require these to blow off Deathwings armor.

• The Tenctacles will occasionly grip and stun a random target, and it can be interrupted by doing enough damage on the tentacle. The tentacles will also place a healing debuff on a random target, absorbing 200,000 healing. The healing debuff and the stun does not exist in LFR difficulty.

When tentacles have been killed and a Hideous Amalgamation have spawned, Corrupted Blood will shortly spawn after. These Corrupted Bloods have to be killed near an Hideous Amalgamation (upon death, they'll leave blood on Deathwings spine, and you can drag the Hideous Amalgamation over it instead), and the Amalgamation will receive a buff which stacks to 9. Once enough bloods have been killed near the Amalgamation and it reaches 9 stacks, the Hideous Amalgamation will start to cast a Nuclear Blast which is meant to blow off a piece of Deathwings armor - Nuclear Blast also deals AoE damage. Make sure the Amalgamation is near Deathwings armor when this happens, and quickly run out of range before he finishes his cast. Now when the Amalgamation have exploded, a add called Burning Tendons will spawn under Deathwings armor and you need to kill it quickly, and a piece of his armor will come off. This needs to be done three times in order to defeat the spine of Deathwing. If you fail with dpsing the add, you simply have to get another Amalgamation and get another Nuclear Blast, and then continue to DPS the add again, its HP does not reset - just make sure you position the new Amalgamation at the same side where the previous one exploded. Sides matter, so if you explode one Amalgamation on the left side but fail to DPS the Burning Tendon add down, and then explode a add to the right, then a new add will spawn with full health and you won't be able to continue on the low health add. Corrupted Blood spawns out of the holes on Deathwings back, which is where the tentacles are in, and the holes will be visible once a tentacle have been killed. The more tentacles you kill, the more holes will there be, and Corrupted Blood will spawn faster because of that.

I'd suggest to use a raid cooldown when the Amalgamation is casting his Nuclear Blast, the damage tends to get abit rough at that point and it's better to play it safe by using an Aura Mastery, Barrier, Tranquility, or even a Spirit Link. From that point forward, it's just a rinse and repeat fight.

Tips & Tricks
• Using Spirit Link Totem to remove healing debuffs works quite nicely, especially when stacked for a Barrel Roll.

Sadly, there isn't any real tips on this fight. A personal suggestion is to use your own cooldowns on the first Burning Tendon, Heroism/Time Warp/Bloodlust on the second, and then your personal cooldowns on the third one again.

Videos:

LearntoRaid: Spine of Deathwing 25 PTR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq20v7wZLRY&feature=related

Madness of Deathwing - Normal & LFR

Madness of Deathwing is the final boss in the Dragonsoul and the Cataclysm expansion. It's a two phase fight and Deathwing himself have four main abilities; Elementium Bolt, Hemorrhage, Limb Tentacle, and Mutated Corruption.

Phase One
Phase one starts right away after his epic intro and are followed by above mentioned abilities.
• Elementium Bolt is spawned by Deathwing and it's flying towards the platform the raid is currently standing on, it needs to be killed by the DPS before it reaches the platform. Otherwise, a very large amount of damage will be dealt to the raid and you will continuously take a damage over time until the bolt has been killed (it will continue doing damage when landed, but the initial damage when it lands is the painful part). The elementium bolt has a specific location where it will land, and the further away you stand from that location, the less damage will you take when it lands.

• Hemorrhage spawns several adds called Regenerative Blood. These needs to be killed fairly quickly as they will gain 10 energy every 1 second, and once they reach full energy, it will heal back to full health. Along with that, they put up a damage over time on the raid and it stacks which will hurt quite abit in the end. Raid wise heals will be lovely here.

• Limp Tentacle are Deathwing himself holding on to the platform and the tentacle uses a ability called Burning Blood, which deals Fire damage every two second and it increases as the tentacles health gets lower. The tentacle also spawns adds on the tentacle called Blistering Tentacle, this occurs every 25% of the tentacles health (75, 50 and 25%). These adds are immune to AoE abilities and requires to be killed normally when Alexstrasza is nolonger giving you her buff. The Blistering Tentacles deals Fire damage every 2 second and increases its damage by 5% every 3 second, and this effect stacks so you want to kill them fairly quickly.

• Mutated Corruption is a add Deathwings spawns at the beginning of each platform to the very south of it and it needs to be killed. This tentacle randomly attacks the raid with a crush ability which deals damage to all players it hits, so make sure you're spread out and not holding hands. The tentacle will also use a ability called Impale which deals a great deal of damage to the tank and it leaves a debuff which causes the tank to take 100% additional damage of the next impale, this is the moment where your offtank should take over and soak the next impale. If you have good DPS and a good geared tank, you should be able to kill it before a second impale, or very well use cooldowns on the tank to mitigate its damage.

Phase Two
When all of Deathwings tentacles have been defeated he's at 20% health, this is when phase two starts. He will slam his head into the ground between two platforms, allowing you to freely DPS him down to his death. During this phase, he spawns smaller tentacles on your current platform which needs to die quickly, they use a very lethal ability called Shrapnel - this ability will one shot you and it cannot be resisted, if they don't die quickly enough, a cooldown on the targeted players is highly advised. Players targeted by them will receive a debuff. After the smaller tentacles have been killed, two additional adds will spawn and these two have to be tanked by a main tank and your off tank, healers should really focus on healing their tanks because they're about to take alot of spike damage until the adds are dead. If Deathwing is at low health when they spawn, you may aswell continue to kill Deathwing rather than killing the two adds. During this phase Corrupted Blood gushes from Deathwing, inflicting Fire damage every 2 seconds, and its damage increases as Deathwing's health lowers. All of the aspects will assist you in this phase again.

The Aspects (Friendly)
Just as on Ultraxion, the Aspects are here to assist you against the battle against Deathwing by giving you temporarily buffs. Each leader of its aspect is flying above each platform, and when you kill the tentacle on that specific platform, you will lose the buff of its aspect, meaning if you kill the tentacle where Alexstrasza is flying, you will lose her buff. So you have to find a tactic that's best to your setup to manage the fight.

Alexstrazsa - the Life Binder
Alexstrazsa gives you a passive buff which increases your maximum health by 20%. Alexstrazsa also kills the Blistering Tentacles for you when her tentacle is still alive, and she reduces the damage inflicted by Corrupted Blood.

Nozdormu - Aspect of Time
Nozdormu gives you a passive buff which increases your haste by 20%, Nozdormu also creates a time zone when he's active. The time zone decreases the movement speed of the Elementium Bolt dramatically, and it reduces all enemy creatures attack speed by 50% when standing in it.

Ysera - The Dreamer
Ysera gives you a passive buff which increases your healing done by 20%, she also grants you an additional ability similar to the one on Ultraxion, but this one reduces all damage taken by 50% for 2.5 seconds. This ability is perfect to use against the small tentacles in phase two if you're targeted by Shrapnel, and on Elementium Bolt.

Kalecgos - Aspect of Magic
Kalecgos gives you a passive buff which increases your damage done by 20%, Kalecgos also grants you the ability called Spellweaving. Spellweaving allows your attacks and abilities to deal additional Arcane damage to enemies within 6 yards, excluding your main target.

Thrall the Earth Warder
Thrall is just there to look cool, and he grants you the ability to soar between each platform.

Tips & Tricks
• Use mana cooldowns such as Divine Plea to regain mana when changing platforms, there's nothing to heal at that moment so you may aswell regain some of your mana.
• Don't be afraid to use raid cooldowns when the Elementium Bolt is about to hit the ground, it will most certainly help the raid and it will reduce the chances of causing a wipe.
• Feint, Cloak of Shadows, Anti-Magic Zone and Anti-Magic Shell works to mitigate the Elementium Bolts damage.
• Deterrance will completely deflect the Elementium Bolt's damage.

Videos:

LearntoRaid: Madness of Deathwing 25 PTR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAHerYoc7Yc

Reserved for future use.

An excellent post Gontier ( As always )

Reporting for sticky and linking on my Guild Forum

Well done.

Marcuss, what have you done to your poor keyboard!

Awesome guide / tips / tricks! :D

Excellent guide Marcuss/Gontier =)