Hellfire Citadel

Boss Description:

 

Three-phase, single-target encounter.

 

Phases One and Two alternate for most of the fight. During this time, the raid has to deal with Zakuun using a variety of abilities.

When Zakuun reaches 35% health, or when two cycles of Phase One and Two have finished, which ever happens first, Zakuun enters Phase Three, at which point he uses all abilities from the previous two phases, becoming much more dangerous. This phase lasts until the end of the fight.

 

Tanks will have to contend with a special Shadow Realm, an alternate version of the room where your raid is fighting Zakuun.

 

Tank Responsibilities

 

• Perform a tank switch when Fel Lord Zakuun uses Soul Cleave.

• Avoid all avoidable damage within the Shadow Realm for 15 seconds. Move out of the patches of Wakes of Destruction and jump over Rings of Destruction.

• In Phases Two and Three, have both tanks stand close together to take the damage from Heavy Handed and Heavily Armed equally.

 

Healer Responsibilities

 

• Save healing cooldowns for Fel Explosions during Phase Two and Three.

 

DPS Responsibilities

 

• DPS Zakuun.

 

Everybodies Responsibilities

 

• Avoid taking damage from Wakes of Destruction twice within 1.5 minutes at all costs, to avoid triggering unnecessary Foul Explosions.

• Absorb Rumbling Fissures by standing them for 5 seconds.

• When targeted by Seed of Destruction, move as far away from everyone else as possible, preferably in a corner of the room.

 

The Shadow Realm and Latent Energy

This is an alternate version of the room in which the raid fights the boss. Only tanks can access this realm throughout the fight (whenever they are hit by Soul Cleave, one of Zakuun's abilities).

Tanks who are sent to the Shadow Realm return to the normal room automatically after 15 seconds. When exiting the Shadow Realm, the tank gains Invigorated, increasing their Mastery, Versatility, and Haste by 30% for 20 seconds.

Inside the Shadow Realm, there is nothing do to, initially. Tanks sit in an empty room and wait to be sent back. Each time a tank leaves the Shadow Realm, they spawn an add called Residual Energy in the Shadow Realm.

Residual Energy adds are unattackable NPCs that constantly cast Wake of Destruction and Rings of Destruction in all directions. Both of these spells only affect players inside the Shadow Realm.

• Wake of Destruction sends out a number of purple waves that deal heavy Shadow damage to anyone they come in contact with, debuffing them with Latent Energy. Zakuun also uses this same ability during Phase One.

• Rings of Destruction are rings that the Residual Energy adds create around them, which travel outward fairly quickly, dealing moderate Shadow damage to anyone struck by them, and applying the Latent Energy debuff. Rings of Destruction can be avoided by jumping over them.

Residual Energy adds never despawn, which means that it will become increasingly difficult to avoid the rings and waves in the Shadow Realm and that more and more adds will spawn, eventually killing the tanks.

 

Phases of the Fight

At the beginning of the fight, Zakuun is Armed and will be using his axe to attack your raid. When using the axe, Zakuun's melee attacks are slow, but powerful.

After roughly 1.5 minutes, Zakuun enters Phase Two. He throws his axe on the ground and becomes Disarmed. While disarmed, Zakuun attacks 30% faster. After another 45 seconds, Zakuun picks up his axe and begins the initial Phase One once again.

This cycle repeats until Zakuun reaches 35% health, or when two cycles of Phase One and Two have finished, which ever happens first. At this time, the boss enters Phase Three, during which he uses his abilities from both previous phases. This lasts until he dies or until the raid wipes.

 

Phase One

 

Phase One lasts 1.5 minutes, after which time Zakuun will enter Phase Two.

 

Abilities

• Latent Energy is a debuff that a number of abilities in the encounter can apply on players. It increases the affected player's damage and healing done by 30% for 1.5 minutes, and also causes players to take extra damage from a number of abilities in the encounter.

• Unleashed Energy deals moderate Fire damage to all raid members if a player debuffed with Latent Energy takes damage from Rumbling Fissures or Wake of Destruction, or if a Fel Crystal is hit by Wakes of Destruction (all of these are described below).

• Soul Cleave is an ability that Zakuun occasionally uses on his current tank. It deals heavy Shadow damage in a single hit, and teleports the tank to the Shadow Realm. Additionally, the tank gains the Cloven Soul debuff, which increases their Shadow damage taken by 100% for 1.5 minutes.

• Rumbling Fissures spawns a number of void zones on the ground that persist for a short time, or until absorbed by raid members. If a Rumbling Fissure is not absorbed for some time a Fel Crystals spawns from it. These are stationary NPCs that do not attack, but which deal low Fire damage to the raid every second while they are alive. They cannot be damaged or killed. Rumbling Fissures can be absorbed by having a raid member stand in them for 5 seconds. Doing so causes the fissure to despawn without creating a Fel Crystal, and affects the raid member with the Latent Energy debuff. Note that one Fel Crystal will always spawn each time Rumbling Fissures are created, even if they are all soaked. If all are soaked, then the Crystal will appear at the location of a random fissure.

  • If a player debuffed with Latent Energy stands in a Rumbling Fissure, they trigger a Unleashed Energy.

• Cavitation throws purple Wakes of Destruction waves towards random raid members, which deal heavy Shadow damage. Players hit by this ability when they are already debuffed with latent Energy trigger Unleashed Energy. The same Unleashed Energy is triggered if a Wake of Destruction comes in contact with a Fel Crystal.

• Befouled places a healing absorption shield on the target, which absorbs a modest amount of healing. When the affected raid member has received enough healing for the shield to fade, a Foul Explosion is triggered.

 

Tanking Concerns

A tank switch must be performed for each Soul Cleave, as the tank who is struck is sent to the Shadow Realm. It does not matter which tank enters the Shadow Realm first, as there will be nothing to do that time, as no Residual Energy will have spawned.

Eventually, Residual Energy adds will spawn inside the Shadow Realm, caused by tanks returning to the normal realm. From here on, the objective is to avoid Rings of Destruction and Wakes of Destruction, continuously cast by the Residual Energy. In order to avoid Rings of Destruction, the tank must jump over the ring's edge as it passes under them to avoid taking damage. Wakes of Destruction must simply be dodged.

As the fight goes on and tanks spawn more adds, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to survive their 15-second trial in the Shadow Realm.

 

Positioning

For Phase One, we recommend having a loose spread of 6 yards around the room. This will ensure that no additional players are hit by Foul Explosions, and it will also minimize the chance of multiple players being struck by Wakes of Destruction.

 

Handling the Mechanics

For Cavitation, avoid being struck by the Wakes of Destruction. Being struck when already affected by the Latent Energy debuff almost certainly results in death, so do not get hit more than once. Avoiding the Wakes of Destruction is up to the ability of individual raid members. That said, raid members who are not affected by Latent Energy will have to protect Fel Crystals from being hit by Wakes of Destruction, since this also triggers an explosion.

 

Raid members must absorb Rumbling Fissures by standing in them for 5 seconds in order to prevent any Fel Crystals from spawning. Reliable players that are sure not to get themselves killed by being struck with Wakes of Destruction, or further Rumbling Fissures, are the best choice for this. Due to their spawn rate, however, it is likely that everyone will have to absorb at least one Rumbling Fissure throughout the fight.

 

Once a player has absorbed a Rumbling Fissure, they must avoid re-entering a Rumbling Fissure before 1.5 minutes. Doing so will trigger Unleashed Energy because they are affected by Latent Energy.

 

All but one of the Rumbling Fissures that spawn each time must be soaked — as stated earlier, even if all the fissures are soaked, one Fel Crystal will still spawn. Therefore, it is recommended to simply not soak the fissure that is closest to the entrance, causing a Fel Crystal to spawn there (since, as we said, if all the fissures are soaked, then the Crystal will spawn at the location of a random one).

 

Finally, as far as Befouled is concerned, players who are affected by this debuff will simply have to be healed up until the healing absorption shield disappears. This will unavoidably trigger a Foul Explosion, so these players must make sure to be at least 6 yards away from other raid members.

 

Phase Two:

 

Phase Two lasts for 45 seconds, after which Zakuun returns to Phase One.

 

Abilities

During Phase Two, Fel Lord Zakuun stops using any abilities from Phase One, and instead has a very limited number of new abilities.

 

For the first 30 seconds of the phase, his axe (which he has thrown to the ground) channels Fel Explosions. This deals heavy Fire damage to the entire raid every second.

 

Heavy Handed is a buff that Zakuun has throughout Phase Two. It causes all of his melee attacks to strike the closest player to him within 5 yards for the same amount of damage dealt to the tank. If there is no other player within 5 yards, then the tank is hit twice.

Seed of Destruction is an ability that Zakuun frequently uses. He chooses 5 random raid members, and causes them to unleash 8 Wakes of Destruction all around them after 5 seconds. Wakes of Destruction is the same as in Phase One.

 

Zakuun also gains 30% haste during Phase Two.

 

Strategy

The main challenge of this phase is avoiding damage from Seed of Destruction. When this ability is cast, the targeted players should attempt to stand in separate corners of the room, as this will cause most of the Wakes of Destruction that they create to harmlessly flow away outside the room, as opposed to towards its center. Raid members who are not affected by Latent Energy should try to intercept some of these Wakes of Destruction, in order to prevent them from touching Fel Crystals or other players affected by Latent Energy.

 

During this phase, Zakuun does not use Soul Cleave. However, since his melee attacks all strike the tank and the closest target to Zakuun, we recommend that that second tank stand on top of the first tank, as close to Zakuun as possible.

 

As far as positioning is concerned, we recommend stacking up at a central spot in the room, as heavy raid cooldowns will be needed to survive Fel Explosions.

 

Phase Three

 

When Zakuun reaches 35% health, or when two cycles of Phase One and Two have finished, which ever happens first, Zakuun becomes Enraged. This phase lasts until the end of the fight.

 

Abilities

During this phase, Zakuun uses all abilities from the previous two phases, except for Soul Cleave, meaning that tanks are no longer sent to the Shadow Realm. The only other change is that Seed of Destruction has a 3-second duration, instead of a 5-second one.

 

Strategy

This is an extremely intense and chaotic phase, during which the raid will have to perform most of the previous tasks while finishing Zakuun off as quickly as possible. Most notably, Rumbling Fissures must be soaked, and Wakes of Destruction must be avoided and intercepted (to prevent them from hitting Fel Crystals), as the case may be.