Hellfire Citadel

Boss Description:

The hard enrage timer for this encounter is 10 minutes and 40 seconds.

 

Socrethar the Eternal is a two-phase encounter during which the two phases alternate over and over again until your raid finally kills the main boss of the encounter, the Soul of Socrethar.

 

Phase One, your raid faces a single mob, the Soulbound Construct, and the Soul of Socrethar is not active during this part of the fight. Phase One ends when the Soulbound Construct is killed.

 

Phase Two begins when the Soulbound Construct dies. The Soul of Socrethar becomes active, and a number of adds also attack your raid. During this phase, a raid member can take control of the killed Soulbound Construct (which is then revived with part of its health restored), and use it against the enemy mobs. Phase Two ends when this player-controlled Soulbound Construct dies. At this point, Phase One restarts and the Soulbound Construct is fully restored and it once again becomes hostile.

This cycle continues until the Soul of Socrethar dies or your raid wipes. Since the Soul of Socrethar can only be attacked during Phase Two, this is the only time during which your raid can finish the fight.

 

Tank Responsibilities

 

• During Phase One, perform a tank switch on the Soulbound Construct when the Shattered Defenses debuff stacks too high.

• During Phase Two, have one tank handle all of the mobs, while the other tank takes control of the Soulbound Construct when it is brought to 0 health. This tank must keep the Construct away from the Haunting Souls, and use the Construct's abilities as follows:

  • use Felblaze Charge void zones to obstruct the movement of the adds that spawn from portals;

  • use Volatile Fel Orb to damage the same adds;

  • use Fel Prisons to prevent Haunting Souls from making it to their targets;

  • spam Reverberating Blow on the Soul of Socrethar.

 

Healer Responsibilities

 

• Avoid being struck by fixating Haunting Souls, by letting a DPS intercept them for you.

• Dispel Shadow Word: Agony from the Sargerei Shadowcaller's current tank when it reaches too many stacks.

 

DPS Responsibilities

 

• During Phase One, if someone is caught in a Fel Prison, DPS down the Crystalline Fel Prison.

• During Phase Two, intercept Haunting Souls that are targeting healers.

 

Everybodies Responsibilities

 

• During Phase One

  • Avoid standing in Fel Prison void zones.

  • Avoid standing in Felblaze Charge void zones.

  • Rotate one tank and two melee DPS standing closest to the Soulbound Construct, every time Reverberating Blow is cast.

• During Phase Two

  • Interrupt Exert Dominance, Shadow Bolt Volley, and Shadow Word: Agony in that order of priority.

  • If targeted with Gift of the Man'ari, stand 8 yards away from others until the debuff expires.

 

Phase One Abilities

 

The Soulbound Construct uses a number of abilities against your raid.

 

• Reverberating Blow is a frontal cone ability that deals heavy Physical damage and applies 3 stacks of Shattered Defenses to the 3 closest targets in front of it. Both the damage and the stacks of Shattered Defenses are split evenly among these 3 targets.

  • Shattered Defenses is a stacking debuff that increases damage taken from Reverberating Blow by 200% per stack for 45 seconds. Since tanks can be affected by this debuff, this ability requires a tank switch.

• Fel Prison drops a void zone on the ground at a random location near the raid. Any raid members that come in contact with the void zone are imprisoned for 30 seconds inside a Crystalline Fel Prison. During this time, they cannot perform any actions and their damage taken is reduced by 99%. The Crystalline Fel Prison is a stationary mob with no abilities which must be destroyed for the player trapped inside to be freed. If the Crystalline Fel Prison has not been destroyed after 30 seconds, the player inside will be freed anyway.

• Volatile Fel Orb targets a player and summons an orb that chases them. If the orb reaches its target, or if it comes in contact with any other raid member, it detonates and deals moderate Fire damage in a 5-yard radius. The Fel Orb does not disappear until it hits a target.

• Felblaze Charge charges at a random raid member, leaving a void zone on the ground at that raid member's location. Players who stand in this void zone take moderate Fire damage every second, and have their movement speed reduced by 75%.

• Overwhelming Power deals moderate Fire damage to all raid members every 1 second for 3 seconds.

 

Tanking and Positioning

A tank switch must be performed a tank switch when the Soulbound Construct has applied 2-3 stacks of Shattered Defenses to its current tank.

As far as positioning is concerned, we recommend that the entire raid spreads out lightly in one side of the room. This positioning offers two advantages, namely that it concentrates all the Felblaze Charge void zones in one side of the room, and that it allows a large amount of free space for the raid members fixated on by the Volatile Fel Orbs to run in.

 

Handling the Soulbound Construct

In order to handle Reverberating Blow, we advise using 3 teams of two players each, in addition to the current tank, to soak the Reverberating Blows in an alternating fashion.

 

Each team should be comprised of one tank and 2 DPS players. Before Reverberating Blow is cast, the assigned team should move into position (in front of and closest to the Soulbound Construct) to soak it.

 

When the Soulbound Construct drops the Fel Prison void zones, it is extremely important that they are avoided, as it requires a lot of group resources to free just a single player from a prison.

 

When a raid member is targeted by the Volatile Fel Orb, they must run away from any other raid members and then allowing the orb to reach them and explode. The damage from this explosion should not damage anyone else, and the damage it deals to the target should simply be healed.

 

When the Soulbound Construct uses Felblaze Charge, raid members must avoid standing in the void zone it leaves behind.

Finally, Overwhelming Power must simply be healed through.

 

Phase Two Abilities

 

Soul of Socrethar

The Soul of Socrethar uses the following abilities against your raid.

• Exert Dominance is an interruptible ability that deals instant damage equivalent to a percentage of the Soulbound Construct's health (5% in Normal mode and 10% in Heroic mode).

• Apocalypse deals moderate Shadow damage to all raid members every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.

 

Adds

Throughout Phase Two, adds spawn from portals that appear at random locations along the outside of the room.

• Sargerei Dominators

  • Fel Barrier is a passive ability that is active while the Sargerei Dominator is alive. It is an immunity shield that prevents all damage done to the Soul of Socrethar, and which also makes it uninterruptible. The Fel Barrier fades as soon as the Dominator is killed.

  • Gift of the Man'ari is a debuff that deals heavy Fire damage every 3 seconds for 2 minutes to the targeted raid member and to all raid members within 10 yards of that target.

• Sargerei Shadowcallers

  • Shadow Word: Agony is an interruptible, dispellable, and stacking debuff that deals low Shadow damage every 2 seconds for 20 seconds, but it stacks quickly, meaning that its damage ramps up.

  • Shadow Bolt Volley is an interruptible ability that deals moderate Shadow damage to all raid members.

• Haunting Souls fixate on random raid members as soon as they spawn, chasing them. If a Haunting Soul reaches its target, it explodes, dies, and applies Virulent Haunt to everyone in an 8-yard radius.

  • Virulent Haunt is a ticking Shadow-damage debuff. It deals moderate Shadow damage every second for 8 seconds, fearing the target for the same duration.

  • Soul Dispersion causes the Haunting Soul to deal massive damage to the Soulbound Construct, if it comes within 5 yards of it.

 

Soulbound Construct

During Phase Two, the Soulbound Construct can be controlled by a raid member (by right-clicking it), turning it into a vehicle. The player controlling the Construct has access to 4 of the abilities that the Construct uses in Phase One ( Reverberating Blow, Fel Prison, Volatile Fel Orb, and Felblaze Charge). These abilities work in exactly the same way as during Phase One, except that they affect the enemy mobs, and not raid members.

 

It is worth noting that you cannot in any way heal the player-controlled Soulbound Construct.

 

Strategy

The strategy for Phase Two revolves around correct management of the Soulbound Construct. A raid member should take control of it as soon as possible; we advise the tank with the lowest damage done to perform this task (since two tanks are not needed during Phase Two).

 

Managing the Soulbound Construct

Below, we list the tasks that must be performed by the player controlling the Soulbound Construct, in order of priority.

1. Place Felblaze Charges in front of the portals from which adds spawn, in order to significantly slow down their movement towards the raid. This applies in particular to Haunting Souls.

2. Cast Volatile Fel Orb on new adds that spawn. Since the adds all spawn in a movement speed reduction void zone if there is a Felblaze Charge near the portals, a single Volatile Fel Orb deals damage to them all at once. Thus, the player controlling the Soulbound Construct can deal a massive amount of damage to these adds.

3. Cast Fel Prisons on escaped targets, Haunting Souls in particular. Keep in mind that targets take almost no damage while trapped by the Fel Prison, so use it sparsely.

4. Spam Reverberating Blow on the Soul of Socrethar.

Additionally, the player controlling the Soulbound Construct must be careful not to let Haunting Souls get too close to the construct, as they deal massive damage to it with their Soul Dispersion.

 

Overall Strategy

The rest of your raid will spend Phase Two doing as much damage to the Soul of Socrethar as possible, all while handling the various abilities used against them.

 

As far as handling the Soul of Socrethar is concerned, there are two things to mention. Its casts of Exert Dominance must be interrupted without exception, since your raid's goal is to keep the Soulbound Construct alive for as long as possible, in order to prolong the phase.

 

The Soul of Socrethar also casts Apocalypse, which must simply be healed through.

 

Your raid will have to quickly kill the Sargerei Dominators, in order to remove the Fel Barrier from the Soul of Socrethar, since your raid cannot interrupt the Soul of Socrethar during this time, otherwise. This allows him to cast Exert Dominance freely, damaging the Soulbound Construct and shortening Phase Two.

When raid members are targeted by Gift of the Man'ari they must move away from other raid members to avoid splashing the damage onto them. This must be done for the entire 2-minute duration of the debuff.

 

For Shadow Word: Agony, we recommend not interrupting it unless you have got an abundance of interrupts available. Instead, it should be dispelled when it reaches an uncomfortable number of stacks. The exact amount of stacks depends on your tank's and healers' prowess.

 

We also recommend interrupting Shadow Bolt Volley as much as possible, but without letting Exert Dominance casts go through in the meantime (if needed, Shadow Bolt Volley can go through).

 

When fixated on by the Haunting Soul, raid members should run away from their allies. If a DPS player is targeted, they should allow themselves to be struck once they have gotten comfortably far from other players. If a healer is targeted, a DPS player should try to intercept the chasing Soul by standing in front of it, in order to prevent it from reaching the healer, which would render them useless for 8 seconds (due to the fear component of a player being hit by the Haunting Soul.