Raid Encounter Guides - Sinestra (Bastion of Twilight)

Sinestra, Consort of Deathwing, is the optional, Heroic-only end boss in the Bastion of Twilight. To even reach her you must kill Cho’gall on Heroic mode, which opens a trapdoor down into the deep cavern where Sinestra dwells with her eggs.

The Sinestra fight is both fun and challenging. The DPS check is extremely tight, which in turn makes the healing check fairly tight as well, as you will be hard pressed to run more than 5 or 6 healers. You will only need 2 tanks. Your healers will need to be able to dispel magic.

I’ll break this guide down into an Ability list, a simple breakdown of the phases, then a detailed look at some of the more critical aspects of the fight.

Abilities

Mana Barrier - Envelops the caster in a powerful barrier that continually replenishes any lost health, at the expense of the caster’s mana.

Flame Breath - Deals 95000 to 105000 Fire damage to all enemies in front of the caster.

Twilight Blast - Blasts an enemy for 166250 to 183750 Shadow damage

Wrack - Deals increasing Shadow damage over one minute. When dispelled bounces to two nearby allies of the afflicted player.

Twilight Slicer - Beam of concentrated twilight energy, dealing 50,000 Shadow damage every 0.3 seconds to any enemy in contact with it.

Twilight Pulse - Deals 27000 to 33000 damage every 0.5 seconds to enemies within 10 yards.

Twilight Extinction - Deals 475000 to 525000 Shadow damage to all enemies within reach.

Whelps

Twilight Spit - Spits Twilight energy at an enemy, dealing 3800 to 4200 Shadow damage and increases Shadow damage taken by 10%. Stacks.

Twilight Essence - Deals 9250 to 10750 Shadow damage to enemies within the bubbling Essence. Dropped by whelps the first time they die; revives any whelps who die within the pool.

Spitecallers

Unleash Essence - Releases a torrent of twilight energy that afflicts all nearby enemies, dealing damage equal to 10% of their maximum health every second.

Indomitable - Regains control through a surge of sheer will, becoming immune to all bonds and restraints until stopped. Deals 40000 Shadow damage to enemies within 10 yards and knocks them back.

Twilight Drake

Twilight Breath - Deals Shadow damage in a frontal cone.

Calen

Fiery Barrier - Protects nearby allies from dark magic, reducing their Shadow damage taken by 99%.

Essence of the Red - The blessing of Alexstrasza is applied to all allies nearby. Restores 5% of maximum mana per second. Grants 100% melee, ranged, and spell haste. Lasts for 3 minutes.

Pyrrhic Focus - Evelops the caster in a fiery aura that continually restores mana at the expense of the caster’s health.

Strategy

Phase 1

When you first engage Sinestra, she is afflicted by a debuff that causes her abilities to do 40% less damage and she begins the fight with 40% less HP. This first phase is primarily a DPS burn - Sinestra needs to be burned from 60% HP down to 30% as quickly as possible, ideally avoiding a third Whelp spawn and a second Wrack.

Sinestra’s primary ability is Flame Breath, a raid-wide AoE attack which she casts every 20 seconds. 

The whelps spawn every 50 seconds and should be picked up by the off-tank. Ideally you want to avoid a third whelp spawn. The whelps tend to aggro onto the healers, so it’s usually best for the OT to position near the healers.

You will get at least one Wrack during this phase. Wrack is a minute long debuff which needs to be dispelled off of afflicted targets well before this duration is up - this debuff applies increasing Shadow damage over time and will kill anyone affected long before the minute is up. When dispelled (or when the target dies, from Wrack or something else), the Wrack will jump to two other friendly targets. Careful control of Wrack dispels is crucial to avoid it getting out of control. It’s usually best to assign one person to handle dispels, with another as backup. Detailed discussion of Wrack is below.

You will also get 2-3 Twilight Slicers in this phase, so your raid needs to be positioned and prepared to deal with those. Detailed discussion of the Twilight Slicers is below.

Raid damage is pretty light in Phase 1 until the first Flame Breath, so any healers not worrying about tanks should DPS as much as they can in Phase 1, at least until that first breath goes out.

Phase 2

Phase 2 begins when Sinestra reaches 30% health. She will cast Mana Barrier on herself, healing herself to full. She will begin to cast Twilight Extinction, so it’s imperative the raid moves quickly to the back of the room to where the friendly NPC Calen has joined the fray. Calen will cast Fiery Barrier, and all raid members must ensure they are inside the barrier, as it will protect them from Twilight Extinction.

The whelps from Phase 1 should be brought to the back of the room with the rest of the raid and AoE’d down in a pile. The dead whelps will create a pool of Twilight Essence when they die the first time which will resurrect them - the respawned whelps need to be picked back up and AoE’d down again, ensuring they die outside of the pool. They will not create a puddle when they die the second time.

There are several things to deal with once the Fiery Barrier drops.

Spitecallers will spawn from the entry tunnel and will largely be handled by your melee DPS and the whelp tank. The Spitecallers will continuously try to cast Unleash Essence, which will very likely lead to a raid wipe if successfully cast, so a careful interrupt rotation needs to be in place. Ordinary interrupts (Kick, Mind Freeze, etc) can NOT be used though - detailed explanation on the Spitecallers is below.

Your range DPS (and possibly some melee) should head back to Sinestra and the two Pulsing Twilight Eggs on either side of Sinestra, the paths to which are no longer protected by fire. The range DPS should be DPSing Sinestra as soon as they can leave the Fiery Barrier to force her to remove the Twilight Carapace which protects the eggs to shield herself. DPS should be split evenly to kill the Eggs the second the Twilight Carapace is removed. DPS needs to be strong and fast to kill the eggs before Sinestra replaces the Twilight Carapace - if the Eggs don’t die before the Carapace is replaced, you will likely wipe. You may want to pot on the eggs to avoid Phase 2 wipes due to slow DPS. You should also try to maximize DPS time on the eggs, predotting while finishing DPS on Sinestra until she removes the Twilight Carapace from the eggs so that you can open full blast and already have DoTs ticking without losing DPS time on the eggs.

There will also be Twilight Drakes spawning in this phase which should be picked up by the Sinestra tank. These can be DPS’d after the Eggs die by the ranged DPS as the raid is getting back into position. The Drakes do a frontal cone but do not do much damage otherwise.

Spitecaller and Drake spawns are somewhat subject to RNG, and there can be a bit of luck involved in how many spawn. Fast DPS on the Eggs can also help to push past late spawns.

Healing is again light in this phase - your two tanks will need healing and a healer can also cast some heals onto Calen (who will be afflicted by Pyrrhic Focus). Unless an Unleash Essence gets off, there will be no other healing needed, so any healers with decent DPS should be assisting on Eggs or Spitecallers (Druids, Priests, and Shaman are generally best, whereas Pallies can remain on the tanks).

Phase 3 will begin when the two Eggs die.

Phase 3

Phase 3 begins when the two Pulsing Twilight Eggs are dead. Finish up any remaining Drakes and Spitecallers as she transitions and return to your Phase 1 positioning.

Phase 3 is the same as Phase 1 in terms of abilities - Sinestra will continue to cast Flame Breath, Wrack will be going out to the raid, Whelps will spawn, and there will be more Twilight Slicers to avoid.

Sinestra has healed herself to full, however, so she is back to full health and to full ability power - all of her abilities will now be hitting 40% harder than they did in Phase 1. It is imperative raid members be topped off before every Flame Breath or they will die.

To help with the increase in Sinestra’s health and damage, Calen casts Essence of the Red on the raid, granting 100% melee, ranged, and spell haste, and restoring 5% of maximum mana per second. This buff lasts for 3 minutes, and ideally you want to get Sinestra down to at least 20% health when this buff falls off.

Good handling of the whelps in this phase is important, as you will be getting many more waves than in phase 1. You will want to have members turn and kill the whelps before they get out of control to prepare for subsequent waves. It is helpful to have a Paladin as your OT for the whelps, as they can bubble off the stacks of Twilight Spit in between waves. You may also wish to have your OT and MT swap partway through phase 3 for the stacks to fall again.

Wrack must also be kept under good control. As of 4.1, Wrack avoids jumping to tanks, which is extremely helpful in controlling it (as it generally would need to be instantly dispelled off tanks in phase 3).

Wrack

It is crucial the Wrack debuff is appropriately handled throughout Phase 1 and Phase 3. It is generally best to assign one person to handle the Wrack dispels. It is useful for all healers to pick up a magic dispel to be ready as backup should the designated dispeller die or need assistance.

Wrack - Deals increasing Shadow damage over one minute. When dispelled bounces to two nearby allies of the afflicted player. If a person dies with Wrack on them, it will also bounce to two other raid members.

It’s best to keep Wrack on as few people as possible, so timing the dispels well is essential. You will need a way to see how long the Wrack debuff has been on a target for. For those who use Vuhdo, enter Wrack as a custom debuff and ensure ‘Alive Time’ is ticked. For those who use Grid, the addon GridStatusSinestra will monitor it.

The first Wrack of each set applied you ideally want to dispel at around 18 seconds. In Phase 3 especially, you will likely want to cooldown the target, with something like Guardian Spirit. For later Wracks and the Wrack jumps, you will want to dispel between roughly 10-18 seconds, dependent on Sinestra’s Flame Breath timer (particularly in Phase 3), the person’s HP, what class they are (and whether they have a personal cooldown to help mitigate it), what cooldowns are available to them, and how many Wracks are out.

It is extremely helpful to have one of your raid healers focus on healing targets with Wrack to ensure they are getting enough heals and that they are topped off before each Flame Breath.

As of 4.1, Wrack will avoid jumping onto tanks, which is incredibly helpful for managing Wrack. Should Wrack jump onto a tank in phase 3, they will likely need to be instantly dispelled, as the incoming damage will be too great to add a Wrack on top of that.

Spitecallers

The Spitecallers in Phase 2 are tricky adds to deal with. It’s crucial their cast, Unleash Essence, doesn’t get off. Normal interrupts and stuns do NOT work on the adds - if you try to interrupt with Kick, Mind Freeze, Pummel, or stun with a Hammer of Justice, Charge, Death Coil, etc, the Spitecaller will gain Indomitable - Regains control through a surge of sheer will, becoming immune to all bonds and restraints until stopped. Deals 40000 Shadow damage to enemies within 10 yards and knocks them back.

If the Spitecaller gains Indomitable, it will almost certainly get off a cast of Unleash Essence, which will lead to a lot of unnecessary raid damage and very likely lead to the whelp tank’s death (as the stacks of Twilight Spit could lead to a one-shot).

Instead, you need to use controls which break on damage to interrupt the cast. Some you can use are Gouge (Glyph of Gouge is extremely helpful), Blind, Death Grip, Hibernate, etc. (I don't particularly recommend Hibernate, as it has a cast time which is the same length as the Unleash Essence cast).

Gouge is most reliable for the interrupt used. Death Grips can be helpful as the adds spawn - it can whip the Spitecaller away from the entrance point, helping to make the next add spawned easier to target should the first Spitecaller still be up when the new one spawns.

Whelps

Whelps spawn every 50 seconds in Phase 1 and 3. Their main attack is Twilight Spit as well as melee hits, which in itself are not very hard, however the Twilight Spit causes a stacking debuff which increases Shadow damage taken by 10%. As more of these adds are up, the tank handling the whelps will take increasing damage. A paladin tank is very helpful on the whelps as they can bubble off the stacks.

When the whelps first die, they create pools of Twilight Essence, which deals Shadow damage to raid members standing in them and will resurrect any whelps dead in them. The pools are only created the first time the whelps die, so when they resurrect they should be moved outside of the pool to be killed a second time.

The whelps from phase 1 which are killed at the phase 2 transition should ideally be killed in the back as out of the way as possible to ensure the pool is out of the way. In phase 3 the whelp deaths need to also be controlled, ideally the first waves dying towards the back of the room and away from the raid. Generally ranged should be able to turn and kill the whelps when called for it. 

How you kill the whelps (AoE’d down at once or dropped in singles) and after how many waves each time comes down to your raid’s strategy, but ultimately it’s crucial the pools are kept as small and out of the way as possible.

Twilight Orbs/Slicers

Welcome to Cutters 4.0! 

Throughout Phase 1 and 3 Twilight Orbs will spawn and target random raid members. It is extremely important to note: The Twilight Orbs do NOT place a debuff on their targets! The orbs affix to their targets with a thin purple tether. The Twilight Orbs will spawn and within a few seconds tether to their target, then a large Twilight Slicer will connect between the two Orbs and the Orbs will chase their target. 

The two Orbs need to be kited away from the raid such that the Twilight Slicer doesn’t lop anyone’s head off (including the kiters). The two kiters will need to find a way to loop around each other so that they avoid killing each other and get back to their original position quickly to maximize DPS time. 

The Orbs themselves do Twilight Pulse, which deals 27000 to 33000 Shadow damage every 0.5 seconds to enemies within 10 yards, so both raid members and kiters need to get clear of the Orbs. They do not begin pulsing until about 5 seconds after they spawn.

If the tethered person dies for any reason - the Orb will retarget onto a high aggro target, usually a healer. The purple tether will not reappear - the Orb will simply drift towards its aggro target. The raid must be prepared should the original tether dies (though ideally they will not).

Positioning in Phase 1 and 3 can be the same and should be set up to maximize the space for the kiters. An L-shape is often successful or other various lines to allow raiders to move out and away before looping back to their original position.

Spatial awareness is critical for the Slicers as there is no debuff or other marker on Orb targets. The thin, purple tether to the targeted player is all there is to notify which is the Orb’s target, so players need to notice when and where the orbs are spawning, spot the tether, and adjust to avoid the orbs or to kite as necessary.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Tips and Tricks for the First Tier of Cata Raiding

There are a lot of useful little tips and tricks for the different bosses and encounters in the first set of Cataclysm raids, not all of which are too obvious, so I thought I'd share those that have helped me and my guildies out so far this tier! 

I'll start with some general tips before moving on to specific encounters.

Mirror of Broken Images - This trinket (attained from Tol Barad vendors for 125 TB Commendations at Exalted) is an amazingly helpful trinket for any fight this tier, normal or heroic mode (though especially heroic). Although Mastery isn't always useful for every class and spec, it can be Reforged into a more useful stat. While you may not use the trinket for every fight, it's great to have at the ready for when you need it, especially when working on a new and difficult encounter.

The biggest gain of this trinket is its /use - Increases Arcane, Fire, Frost, Nature, and Shadow resistances by 400 for 10 seconds, on a 1 minute cooldown. I highly recommend every raider pick one of these trinkets up to have ready in your bag, especially if you're looking to do heroic modes. The trinket can save your life in a fight and, for druids in particular, can be nice to alternate with Barkskin on fights with repeated large damage that occurs more frequently than every minute (e.g. Nefarian's Electrocute every 10%).

Drums of Forgotten Kings - Note: It appears this may have been hotfixed to no longer work (24 March Hotfixes) This is an interesting one. Using the Drums instead of Mark of the Wild or Blessing of Kings essentially gives you a trade-off of 1% less stats (4% rather than 5%) but will get you to a solid 247 Resists across the board - Arcane, Frost, Fire, Nature, and Shadow (including other relevant raid buffs ie Shadow Protection, Nature Resist, etc) as opposed to a normal 195 resist. 
ETA: Several have asked about this, I grabbed a couple of screenshots in our last raid to show this... click: Mark/Kings with 195 Resist ; Drums of Kings with 247 Resist. Both SSs also have Resist Aura (Pally), Shadow Protection (Priest), and Nature Resist (Shaman).

Range Checker - Most Boss Mods will have a Range checker window which are immensely helpful for fights that require you to spread out or get away from other raid members.

Power Auras Classic - This is a great Addon (one I use in my normal UI setup, visible here) which allows you to put in custom Debuff alerts. This is great for setting up additional alerts for debuffs in boss fights to help warn you - they are completely customizable and can be made with various icons, colours, and even animations and sounds. I will list debuffs which are helpful to make Power Auras alerts for each boss.

Atramedes - This is an addon which measures and displays in simple percentages the amount of Sound (Atramedes) or Corrupted Blood (Cho’gall) of everyone in your raid.

Bastion of Twilight

Halfus

Quick Drake Guide

Time Warden: Grants the Proto-Behemoth the Fireball Barrage ability. Releasing slows the fireballs from the Proto-Behemoth.

Stormrider: Gives Halfus the ability to cast Shadow Nova. Releasing slows Halfus’ Shadow Nova cast time.

Nether Scion: Applies a +100% Attack Speed buff to Halfus. Releasing slows Halfus’ attack speed and reduces his damage done.

Slate Dragon: Gives Halfus Malevolent Strikes, a stacking healing debuff. Releasing occasionally paralyzes for 12 seconds. 

Whelps: Gives the Proto-Behemoth the Scorching Breath ability. Releasing reduces the Proto-Behemoth’s damage done.

As each drake dies, it causes Halfus to take 100% increased damage from all sources. Stacks.

It is generally easier to never release the Slate Dragon, as the paralysis affects everyone and the healing debuff can be handled through simple tank taunt swaps.

Furious Roar (cast by Halfus when he is sub-50% HP) is Physical damage, so Blessing of Protection will protect the target from the damage and knockdown. Useful on a healer such as a druid or priest for Tranquility / Divine Hymn in this phase.

Valiona and Theralion

Twilight Blast - If you focus Theralion, you can easily see if he’s targeting you for a Twilight Blast while he is in the air, giving you more time to move out of the way. Spread out some while he’s in the air so the Blasts don’t hit multiple people.

Hunters can Deterrence Twilight Meteorite.

Power Auras Debuffs: Twilight Meteorite, Engulfing Magic, Blackout.

Important debuffs for healer’s raid frames: Blackout.

Ascendant Council

In Phase 1, the person with the Heart of Ice debuff should be near the group attacking Ignacious and the Burning Blood debuff near the group attacking Feludius for a buff to damage done before the debuffs are dispelled.

In Phase 2, the AE ability order is always Quake, Thundershock, Quake, Thundershock, so you know to alternate the tornado’s Swirling Winds buff and the Grounded buff. You can survive Thundershock without being grounded if you have a cooldown available (Barkskin, an external like Guardian Spirit, etc) but you will not survive Quake without the Swirling Winds buff.

Power Auras Debuffs: Lightning Rod. Heroic mode: Frost Beacon, Static Overload.

Important debuffs for healer’s raid frames: Gravity Crush in phase 3.

Cho’gall

Simple notes for healers: When Cho’gall summons the Fire Elemental, there will be damage focussed on the tanks. When Cho’gall summons the Shadow Lord, there will be more damage on the raid.

The Blood of the Old God (the small, oozey adds) can be stunned, slowed, and knocked back.

Good interrupts of the Worshipping channel is key in this fight. AE abilities like a Priest’s Psychic Scream, a Prot Warrior’s Shockwave, Destro Lock’s Shadowfury, etc can be extremely useful for quick interrupts while the raid is grouped up. 

Some guildies provided an excellent macro for reliable individual stuns players can use to interrupt the Worshipping channel. This macro will clear your current target (eg Cho’gall), target the nearest enemy player (a Mind Controlled raid member), cast the interrupt, then return you to your previous target (eg Cho’gall).

#showtooltip

/cleartarget

/targetenemyplayer

/cast (Name of Interrupt)

/targetlasttarget

For a cat, you could put in /cast Skull Bash(Cat Form) into the /cast line of that macro.

Displaying enemy nameplates can also help you immediately identify when players are mind controlled.

Blackwing Descent

Omnotron Defense System

Magmatron’s ability Acquiring Target can be removed by a Paladin’s Divine Shield, Rogue’s Cloak of Shadows, and a Mage’s Iceblock.

Do not do anything to drop threat on Toxitron’s adds if you are Fixated - it will cause them to find a new target and could lead to them blowing up someone in melee range. The adds can be slowed.

Position the bosses so that they pass through Toxitron’s green Chemical Cloud - the cloud causes everything to take additional damage, including the boss. Toxitron’s adds will also take additional damage if you are able to kite them through the cloud.

Stand in the Power Generator pools left by Arcanotron - they will boost your damage and mana regen!

Power Auras Debuffs: Lightning Conductor, Fixate, Acquiring Target. Heroic: Shadow Infusion, Encasing Shadows.

Important debuffs for healer’s raid frames: Acquiring Target, Lightning Conductor.

Magmaw

Disable Projected Textures! Disabling Projected Textures removes the appearance of the bright green and white circles from the Druid and Priest AE healing spells, but it does not diminish the graphics for Pillar of Flame and Meteor (Heroic). This makes it immensely easier to see the fire and Pillar of Flame target spots, especially while in melee.

To disable, go to Options > Video > Projected Textures > Disabled.

I recommend turning it back on afterwards, as other fights have effects which need to be shown!

Resto Druids: Plant your Wild Mushrooms by the spike - when Magmaw is impaled, Detonate them for some nice damage!

Chimaeron

Assigning or claiming spots before the start of the fight helps ensure everyone remains spread out when they need to be and that no one crashes into each other when spreading back out after Feud.

For Boomkins: When afflicted by the Caustic Slime hit-reducing debuff, use Wild Mushrooms - they won’t miss.


A DPS can technically tank the Break attacks while the Bile-o-Tron is online; as long as they're above 10k health they won't die. The Double-Attack tank (and Feud tanks on Heroic) must be proper Tanks. (See Chimaeron Raid Guide).

Heroic: In Phase 2, Nefarian begans casting Mocking Shadows, dealing 2,000 shadow damage every second to all enemies. It is important to ensure the raid is fully topped off before Phase 2 begins in Heroic in order to help keep everyone alive to DPS the last 20%. Abilities like Power Word: Shield, Power Word: Barrier, and Aura Mastery can be helpful in mitigating or absorbing much of this damage.

Important debuffs for healer’s raid frames: Low Health, Break.

Maloriak

The Flash Freeze ability in the blue phases causes initial damage and also damages the frozen player when the freeze is broken. Be careful not to DPS the tombs too quickly before the target is healed. Druids can pop Barkskin if hit by Flash Freeze for extra protection.

Abilities like Hunter traps, Frost DK’s Howling Blast (with Chilblains), and Mage’s Ring of Frost can be helpful in slowing and stopping the adds managed by the kite tank.

Prime Subjects in the final phase fixate on a target and are immune to taunt. Blessing of Protection and other abilities are helpful on raid members targeted (especially healers or squishy DPS).

Power Auras Debuffs: Consuming Flames, Biting Chill, Dark Sludge (Heroic).

Important debuffs for healer’s raid frames: Flash Freeze, Engulfing Darkness (Heroic).

Atramedes

Melee - Atramedes has a huge hitbox, stand as far out from him as you can to give yourself more time to avoid the Sonar Pulse discs.

In air phases, the second target Atramedes chases will be whomever hits a shield/gong in the air phase. Assigning a class or player with some sort of sprint-like ability to hit the shields can be helpful as they’ll have the speed boost to kite Atramedes.

Nefarian

Disable ‘Water Collision’ effects - this effect is what causes your camera to dip below and above the surface of water/lava in the game. Turning it off will allow you to just see your character from above the surface of the lava, making it much easier to see where your pillar is and get on.

To turn it off go to Options > Interface > Camera > Un-tick ‘Water Collision’.

Do not try to lifegrip (Leap of Faith) players onto the platforms - it doesn’t work and may get them caught on the lip of the pillars.

Do not jump in and out of the lava when sitting in it (especially on Heroic mode when you need to go into it for Explosive Cinders) - it will stack the Magma debuff faster. If you need to leave the platform, simply strafe off and strafe back, saving the only jump used for getting back onto the platform.

Note: As of the 16 March Hotfixes, toggling run/walk no longer works to slow down your movement speed when Mind Controlled (Dominion). To slow players in order to give them more time to stack up the power buff, try dropping slowing abilities such as Frost Traps and Earthbind Totems. For heroic mode in Phase 1 and Phase 3, have your Toggle Walk/Run keybound and toggle the walk on for the Mind Controls (Dominion). If you are mind controlled, this slows your movement towards the portals, giving you more time to stack up the power buff before you need to release yourself from the mind control. 

If you are Mind Controlled, you will get a new bar - press 1 to release yourself from the MC, press 2 to build stacks of the Siphon Power buff.

The adds in Phase 2 which need to be interrupted are called Chromatic Prototype. These adds do not melee and do not require a tank, they just need to be interrupted while killed. On Heroic, these adds need to die at about the same time, as Nef will begin to land as soon as the first one dies.

Important debuffs for healer’s raid frames: Magma (lava), Heroic Mode: Explosive Cinders, Dominion.

Power Auras Debuffs: Explosive Cinders.

Throne of the Four Winds

Conclave of Wind

If you ever have to go to the East Platform with Rohash, I highly suggest setting him as your focus in order to see if and when he is casting Wind Blast (cutters). 

Also for East Platform, in preparation for cutters it is best to hover carefully in melee range (avoiding tornadoes) before each Wind Blast. This will position you best for moving aside from the Wind Blast. If you are too far at range, you may be unable to move out of the way in time. Zooming your camera out is also helpful as it will give you a full view of Rohash and help you see which way he is facing. If you are still having trouble seeing where he is facing (especially if you are in melee range), watch people’s pets - pets will always position themselves behind their target. 

Wind Blast always rotates in the same direction (clockwise). 

If you are on the North Platform (Nezir/frost), try to avoid standing in the centre of the platform. The raid needs to stack up there to soak the damage during the Specials, and you don’t want a Frost Patch laid down in the centre just before a Special occurs.

Al’akir

The Squall Lines (tornadoes) have a graphic when they begin to spawn, they start as gold and white swirls which pulse a couple of times before the actual tornadoes form. This allows you to see where they’re spawning and can also help you spot where the gap will be.

People can be lifegripped (Leap of Faith) out of the Squall Lines.

Be sure to have your Sit ability keybound - Phase 3 has everyone ‘swimming’ in the air and you will need to move up and down - using the ‘Sit’ / down binding makes it very easy to move straight down.

Power Auras Debuffs: Lightning Rod.

Hope some of these tips are helpful! Be sure to leave a comment with any additional tips, tricks, or ideas you've found helpful in this tier.

Raid Encounter Guides - Cho'gall (Bastion of Twilight)

Apologies for the delay in updates and getting these updated guides up - preparing for a move, so I've been very busy! Again, much of the information from the Beta Raid Previews I wrote up is still relevant for the fights which have not had a new guide posted yet.

Let's take a look at the end-boss of the Bastion of Twilight - Cho'gall.

Cho'gall


This is one of the easier end-bosses, however, it does still require raid members to have good awareness and target swaps when needed. Avoiding unnecessary damage is particularly key due to the fight mechanic Corrupted Blood.

Abilities (source)


Corrupted Blood - Your blood is corrupted! Increases damage taken from Corruption of the Old God by 3%. Stacks to 100.

Throughout the fight you will have a graphic on the lower centre of your screen symbolising the amount of Corrupted Blood you have. As your Corrupted Blood increases (and the graphic fills up), you will gain the following additional debuffs:

Corruption: Accelerated - 25% Corrupted Blood. Your Corrupted Blood has gone to your heart and is accelerating, causing 2 stacks of Corrupted Blood for one minute. Magic dispellable.
Corruption: Sickness - 50% Corrupted Blood. Your Corrupted Blood has made you sick, causing you to vomit and inflict 39000 - 41000 Shadow damage to friends in a 5 yard frontal cone. Also causes Corrupted Blood.
Corruption: Malformation - 75% Corrupted Blood. A Malformation has grown out of your back which casts Shadow Bolts at nearby friendly players.
Corruption: Absolute - 100% Corrupted Blood. You are transformed into a Faceless One, receiving 100% less healing but inflicting 100% additional damage and all your spells become instant casts.

The following abilities in the fight all cause Corrupted Blood (amount caused in parenthesis).
-Dark Sickness (5)
-Accelerated Corruption (2 every second)
-Spilled Blood of the Old God (+5 every second while in it)
-Sprayed Corruption (5 every 2 seconds)
-Congealed Blood of the Old God (2 each melee hit)
-Corrupting Crash (10)
-Depravity (10)
-Festering Blood (5)
-Debilitating Beam (2 every second)
-Corruption of the Old God (1 every tick)

Phase 1 (100%-25%)
Fury of Cho'gall - Cho'gall blasts the target, inflicting 30,000 Shadow and 30,000 Physical damage and increasing Physical and Shadow damage taken by 20%. Cast on primary aggro target. Last 45 seconds, stacks.
Conversion - Cho'gall causes a target to channel Worshipping onto Cho'gall, causing him to gain Twisted Devotion every 3 seconds. Can be interrupted.
Twisted Devotion - Worshipping increases Cho'gall's damage done by 10% for 20 seconds. Stacks.
Flame's Orders - Cho'gall calls the Flames to his aid, adding 20,000 Fire damage to each melee swing and spawning fire patches.
Shadow's Orders - Cho'gall calls the Shadow to his aid, causing Shadow AoE damage to the raid.
Fester Blood - Cho'gall festers the blood of Corrupting Adherents, causing the Blood of the Old God to form from the congealed blood of the slain Adherents. Cause Corrupted Blood on melee swings; cannot be tanked but can be rooted, snared, and slowed.

Summon Corrupting Adherent - Cho'gall summons Corrupting Adherents to aid him. Adherents have the following abilities:
-Depravity - Inflicts Shadow damage to enemies within 50,000 yards and causes Corrupted Blood. 1.5 second cast, can be interrupted.
-Sprayed Corruption - Inflicts ~30,000 Shadow damage in a frontal cone and applies Corrupted Blood.
-Corrupting Crash - Fires a shadow missile at a target, dealing Shadow damage to all enemies near impact. Causes Corrupted Blood to those struck.
-Spilled Blood of the Old God - The slain Adherent spills corrupted blood, inflicting Shadow damage to enemies standing in it and causes Corrupted Blood.
If Corrupting Adherents are not killed before Cho'gall casts Fester Blood, the adds will spray Corruption everywhere, dealing ~40,000 Shadow damage every 2 seconds and causes Corrupted Blood.

Phase 2 (25% to 0%)
Fury of Cho'gall - Cho'gall blasts the target, inflicting 30,000 Shadow and 30,000 Physical damage and increasing Physical and Shadow damage taken by 20%. Cast on primary aggro target. Last 45 seconds, stacks.
Corruption of the Old God - Cho'gall inflicts 4000-5000 Shadow damage every 2 seconds to everyone in the room.
Darkened Creations - Cho'gall sumons 4/10 Darkened Creations to aid him which have the following ability:
Debilitating Beam - Reduces healing and damage done by 75%. Inflicts 4875-5125 Shadow damage every 1 second and causes Corrupted Blood every second. Lasts 10 seconds. Can be interrupted.


Tactics
There are two crucial keys to this fight: Avoiding incoming damage to keep your Corrupted Blood levels low, and quick interrupts on Corrupting Adherents and Darkened Creations and on those raid members channeling Worship.


Raid Composition:
Your usual raid composition will likely suffice for this fight, though it is key you have reliable interruptors in your group. Classes with AoE interrupts or stuns can be useful for mass interrupts of raid members channeling Worship. You will also need interrupts on the Corrupting Adherents and Darkened Creations in phases 1 and 2.


Two tanks will suffice for this fight - your tanks will need to taunt Cho'gall in order to get rid of the Fury of Cho'gall debuff. If timed right, you should be able to do a tank swap on Cho'gall as each Corrupting Adherent spawns, freeing a tank to pick up the add and allowing him to clear his debuff. In 25 man you could also run three tanks, leaving a tank free to focus solely on adds.

Strategy:
Positioning for your raid can vary based on your group and their strengths, however, you may find it easiest to keep your raid stacked together for the majority of the fight. The primary strength in this is it allows for greater ease in dealing with Conversion on raid members. Two raid members will be mind controlled with Conversion in 10 man and three in 25 man.

If the raid is stacked up, it's very easy to use an AoE stun in order to interrupt every raid member channeling Worship. You could do this with a priest's Psychic Scream, a warrior's Intimidating Shout or Shockwave, a Destro warlock's Shadowfury, etc!

Rotating abilities like these for each Conversion provides a quick means for interrupts, which is crucial for keeping tank and raid damage down - Twisted Devotion can stack up quickly and will increase Cho'gall's damage significantly. It is good to have back-up interruptors as well for any raid members who may be outside of the group and begin channeling Worship, whether they be hunters (who may need to stand back just outside the main group) or simply when raiders invariably need to become a bit more spread when each adherent is summoned.

Phase 1 (100%-25%)
Phase 1 will have the raid alternating between DPSing Cho'gall and the adds and interrupting the raid members mind controlled with Conversion.

Cho'gall will summon one Corrupting Adherent at a time and you will face two Adherents before Cho'gall casts Fester Blood. If you tank Cho'gall in about the centre of the room, you will easily be able to bring each Adherent to the steps in the entrance of the room. When the Adherent dies, it spills a dark pool of corrupted blood, which is what will spawn the congealed Blood of the Old God adds when Cho'gall casts Fester Blood. By positioning each Adherent's death in that narrowed space at the entrance steps, you can force the congealed adds to funnel in a specific region as they travel towards the raid. This can help immensely with positioning snares such as Frost Traps and Earthbind Totems to slow the adds. You may also find a knockback such as Typhoon may be helpful on these congealed blood adds to prevent them from reaching and meleeing raid members.

It is crucial to have interrupts on the Adherents and to kill them quickly. Depending on your DPS, you may find it effective to either have all of the DPS turn to kill the add or to assign some to remain on the boss at all times.

Melee DPS need to be particularly careful when the Adherents die and may wish to move out just before they die so as not to get caught in the spilled pools of corrupted blood.

The raid should also spread out just enough when adds spawn in order to help them see the crash points of the Corrupting Crash launched by the Adherents. The target location is marked by a purple swirling patch on the ground.

After two Corrupting Adherents spawn, Cho'gall will cast Fester Blood. Congealed Blood of the Old God adds will spawn from each blood pool left by the dead Adherents and travel towards the raid. These adds only cause Corrupted Blood on melee attacks so slows, snares, and knockbacks help immensely in keeping them out of the raid as they are DPS'd down.

All adds must be killed - if Adherents are alive when Cho'gall casts Fester Blood, they will deal AoE damage to the entire raid which will likely lead to a wipe.

Flame's Orders will increase the incoming tank damage and Shadow's Orders will increase raid-wide damage. Both can be increased by Twisted Devotion.

Phase 2 (25%-0%)
When Cho'gall reaches 25% health he will push into phase 2. In this phase he will deal constant AoE damage to the raid with Corruption of the Old God and tanks will need to continue taunting off each other as Cho'gall will still be applying Fury of Cho'gall.


The key part to this phase is once again the adds and interrupts - Cho'gall will summon Darkened Creations (4 in 10 man, 10 in 25 man). These adds look like eyestalks and channel Debilitating Beam. This beam reduces all healing and damage done by 75%. This must be interrupted and the adds killed as quickly as possible. There is no 'ignore the adds, DPS the boss' part in this fight - the adds MUST die. If you attempt to leave them up you will either hit the enrage or your healers will be overwhelmed. It may be helpful to assign DPS to begin DPSing the Creations in certain areas first - i.e. group 1 targets North Creations first, group 2 targets South Creations first, etc.


Some raid members may have Corruption: Sickness by this point in the fight; if they do, it is extremely helpful that they face themselves away from other raid members to avoid vomiting on them and dealing more damage to the raid. Healers may find it easiest to simply face themselves out of the raid on transition to phase 2.

Summation
While the fight may sound a bit confusing when seeing all of the different abilities, it is a pretty straightforward fight in practice. Overall, the fight follows a simple cycle of DPS boss, DPS adds, DPS boss again, DPS adds again, etc. The simplest way to think about the Corrupted Blood is simply avoid damage to avoid increasing the corruption. Almost every ability that causes damage to raid members will increase Corrupted Blood levels, so avoiding the Shadow crashes, the blood pools, etc, will keep your corruption levels down.

Apart from avoiding unnecessary damage, quick interrupts on adds and mind controlled raid members are crucial, as are efficient killing of adds. If you can succeed on this, you will win the fight!

Good luck and have fun!

Killing the Whale Shark!

We did it! We killed the Whale Shark! Clearly, the biggest achievement a guild can accomplish, and I do mean biggest. There were many corpse runs and, amazingly, one of our tanks who had joined in the kill survived a hit (through Shield Wall plus a block) - only one hit, though. He didn't make it through the next hit.

For those of you looking to get your kill (and achievement - From Hell's Heart I Stab at Thee), here's how to do it!

While you could solo it, you'll likely have best luck doing it in a group (it won't take as long, at least). You'll definitely need to kite him, staying between 5 and 20 yards the entire time. 5 yards will keep you from getting eaten, but if you go beyond 20 yards he'll disengage and evade away. Conveniently for your DPS, swimming 20 yards away should reset threat as you'll drop combat. For your kiter, an addon that shows range would be very useful to ensure you remain in that range. There are specific addons that will check range, and others that have it as a built-in option (IceHUD has one). Have a look around Curse or WoWInterface for some of the range check addons. To kite him, simply swim backwards, keeping him in that range.

For DPS, you can swim alongside him and pew pew, but keep a close eye on your threat - if he turns to bite you, you're done! You won't need any healers for this as anyone who gets nommed on will be dead. You will find you have some Line of Sight issues as well, so you need to position yourself at the right height alongside or in front of him. The line seemed to be about in line with his mouth.

Good luck!

In other news, we got our first heroic kill last night, Halfus Wyrmbreaker! The most difficult part seemed to be Halfus' last 50%, as he does a Roar every 30 seconds which does a knockdown to the raid which is both annoying and difficult to heal through. I think I preferred his bonestorm-esque whirlwinding from Beta! It seems they've taken that out completely, though. We ended up BoPing myself, our other druid, and then a priest for each stun to pop Tranq/Tranq/Hymn, which helped us get the raid through that phase, and also rotated cooldowns on the tanks (who were still tanking Halfus and the dragons through the knockdowns).

The screenshot above was only remembered after we had started to clear the trash on the way to Theralion and Valiona, so no corpse there, but here's a little achievement shot to go along with it.

We managed to get Nefarian and Al'akir down on 10s as well to keep our progression up through the holiday attendance lull (all other kills on 25 though), so I think this week we may try some more hardmodes and also finish up those two kills on 25 to round that out. Some good progression so far, which should pick up even more once the holiday season wraps up!

In fun news, the bug with the stone drake models is actually pretty excellent with the Sandstone Drake, as it looks like you're carrying your prey off to your lair! Works especially well with gnomes (as above).

Still digging for my Tyrande's Favourite Doll trinket, 119 Night Elf artifacts (and 6/7 rares) solved and still no luck! Just have to keep telling myself 'It'll be the next one...'

Back to digging!