Blackhand nutshell guide

[Tempestmoon]

Nutshell Guide:

P1:

• Tanks - move Blackhand in a slow circle clockwise around the room, moving inwards to avoid the glowy floor.
  
• Tanks - watch you direction for Smash
  
• Tanks - when the other tank is getting hit with a smash, taunt
  
• Everyone - avoid swirlies during demolition - get farther from orange swirlies than their graphic
  
• Everyone - don't get between Blackhand and the Marked For Death targets.
  
• Ranged/Healers - if Marked for Death, put a pile of Debris between you and Blackhand
  
• Healers - set up a cooldown rotation for Demolitions - don't start using your CD until after the first (or sometimes second) debris pile has landed.
  

P2:

• Tanks - Drag Blackhand in a slow circle clockwise around the room, don't let mines build up
  
• Tanks - when the other tank is getting hit with a smash, taunt
  
• Balcony Team - make sure you get in the tank smash circle when it comes up to get knocked onto the balcony, make sure you don't die from the stacking debuff while up there
  
• Everyone - avoid mines on the floor
  
• Everyone - don't stand between Blackhand and the target for Marked For Death
  
• Ranged/Healers - if Marked For Death, put a Siegemaker (Giant Tank) between you and Blackhand
  
• Ranged - Make sure Siegemakers die after the 3rd Marked For Death hits them (before they hit 100 energy)
  
• Kiters - Make sure you are the closest to a siegemaker when it enters the room, then kite the Siege Maker over the mines. If you get Marked For Death and Fixated, it's usually best to just allow yourself to be hit by the Marked For Death throw and call for healing.
  

P3:

• Bloodlust here somewhere -- probably just after we get collected along an edge, or just afte rthe group gets back together after the first Smash
  
• Tanks - Kite Blackhand in a slow circle clockwise around the room
  
• Tanks - when the current tank gets a bomb attached, off tank needs to taunt
  
• Everyone - if you are marked with a bomb, go "to the left" or counter-clockwise form the boss. Once we start moving, this will be near the bad circles. Don't stand in someone else's bomb radius when you run over there.
  
• Everyone - if you are Marked For Death, run "to the right" or clockwise and ahead of the boss direction a little. Don't go too far or you'll get knocked off the edge by the knockback it has. Use personal defensive CDs before or heals after getting hit, as you may be out of healer range.
  
• Everyone - if you aren't marked for either, stand towards the middle of th eroom in a stack right next to the boss - don't get between Blackhand and the Marked For Death targets (so edge a little to the "left" of the boss when facing outwards)
  
• Tanks - rotate the boss to face the middle of the room just before Smash and stand with the stack of everyone else
  
• Everyone - if you weren't just a bomb target stand directly behind the tank when Blackhand uses Smash, then run back towards the boss
  
• Healers - set up CD rotations for dealing with Smash damage to the raid
  

Fuller Guide:

This is a 3 Phase fight. Blackhand's main abilities carry over between phase 1 and 2, and then get more powerful in phase 3. However, they're handled differently in each phase because the environment changes dramatically.
Phase 1 - Blackhand and the Ceiling:

The floor of the room will slowly heat up as slag is poured in. This creeps in from the edges toward the middle. If we stay in P1 too long, this will leave us no room to move. In general, this should only be important to the tanks and healers - no one else should ever get close to the glowing floor around the edge of the room.

On a regular basis, Blackhand will cause the ceiling to collapse (Demolition). Small brown swirly spots will appear everywhere. Dodge these as best as you can. Large orange swirly spots will also appear directly on a ranged or healer. These are like the 3rd hit in Twin Ogron -- they deal damage to everyone no matter what, but deal more damage if you're close, so you want to get farther away from these than being just outside the swirly zone. The large orange ones will also deposit a debris pile. This does not block line of sight, but it will be important for ranged to note where these are.

Blackhand drops mines that arm after a few seconds. Tanks will need to keep moving so these don't build up on melee, and melee need to be quick to avoid detonating one. If they land in the glowing floor, they detonate immediately, so Blackhand needs to be in far enough from the edge that this doesn't cause problems.

Blackhand will regularly smash the current aggro target (hopefully a tank), and anyone near him (hopefully no one). This is a stun, a threat drop, and a major knockback. Tanks should move themselves when this is coming up to get knocked across the middle of the room, so they spend as little time in the glowing floor as possible, and also as little time away from healers as possible. If we had a Priest, Leap of Faith can be used to pull the tank down. An anti-stun CD+charge might also work. In any case, tanks should be topped off, shielded, and have HoTs running so they can survive some time in the glowing floor zone. Use of a defensive tank CD for this is also probably a good idea.

Blackhand will regularly mark a few ranged or healer targets for death. This attack will hit whomever or whatever it encounters first in a line from Blackhand. This looks like the Hunter's Mark arrow on your head. You need to hide behind the debris piles. Use the same pile if possible, or we'll risk running out of debris.

Strategy: Tanks kite the boss slowly around the room, clockwise. Ranged and Healers stack up on the edge of the middle ring. Run together during demolition so we know where the orange smashes are, and to ease group healing. Use Aspect of the Fox or Hand of Protection to enable Tranq-on-the-Run or Bubble-Tranq from Druids. Ranged then groups up behind a debris pile and continue to hit the boss, so no one needs to run for the first Marked For Death. Then we can move the entire stack of ranged, or just trust the two people that get Marked to run to the next pile together. There should only be 2 Demolition phases. During the second one, there will be a Marked For Death - those people need to hide either behind the freshly-dropped first debris pile from the second demolition, or behind the third (and only remaining) pile from the first demolition. When we do enough damage, Blackhand runs to the center of the room and breaks the floor.

Transition: Use personal defensives to reduce damage from his hit that breaks the floor if you can. If you have a slow-fall effect, try to be to the right-side of the room when facing it from the entrance (left-edge of the minimap). Use, then cancel slowfall while falling down to get on the balcony early and kill the first wave of adds.

Phase 2 - Balconies and Siegemakers:

This room has 4 gates and some balconies. It's not that interesting otherwise...

Snipers show up regularly on the balconies surrounding the room. You can't shoot them from the floor, you need to be on the balcony. If you are on the balcony, you get a stacking debuff that does more damage each time it is applied. You can only get to the balcony if you are knocked up there by Blackhand's Smash.

Sniper Shots are AE-blasts, so ranged on the floor need to spread out as best as they can to avoid spreading damage.

Siegemakers regularly appear from one of the 4 gates around the room (I believe always on the side furthest from Blackhand). They fixate on whomever is closest a few seconds after they enter, and then slowly chase that person. Anyone in front of them will take damage and get knocked back. They will detonate and take damage from Mines, and block the Marked For Death attack from Blackhand. They do not have collision boxes, and you can usually safely run through their back-half if needed. If they reach 100 energy, they launch a flame mortar which will slowly cover the room in fire if allowed to be fired. Try to ensure they die before this.

Blackhand drops mines that arm after a few seconds. Tanks will need to keep moving so these don't build up on melee, and melee need to be quick to avoid detonating one. Siegemakers should be kited over these to help kill them and also to help clear the room.

Blackhand will regularly mark a few ranged or healer targets for death. This attack will hit whomever or whatever it encounters first in a line from Blackhand. When Marked For Death, you should run to place the Siegemaker between you and Blackhand, so the Siegemaker absorbs the hit.

Blackhand will regularly smash the current aggro target (hopefully a tank), and anyone near him (the balcony team). This is a stun, a threat drop, and a major knockback. Tanks should try to stand still when this comes up so the balcony team can get into position near them. Those knocked back (including the tank) should then clear the balconies of as many snipers as they can.

Strategy: Tanks pick up Blackhand. Move him to one side of the room and begin slowly moving him in a clockwise circle as mines drop. Hunters (preferably) should get to the opposite side of the room and be near the gates so they can get fixated by the Siegemakers. A group (usually a few melee, or Moonkin, sometimes also a healer) shoudl get ready for the first Smash so they can clear the balconies and then jump back down. Once the Siegemaker is in, everyone slowly rotates clockwise so the Siegemaker hits the mines left by the boss in one arc, the ranged is in the other arc behind the Siegmaker and ahead of the boss, the healers are in the middle. After 2 Marked For Death, the Siegemaker should be nearly dead. If not, ranged need to turn and burn it down to low health (we need to figure out exactly how low, but 40% should be sufficient), such that the 3rd Marked For Death will kill it. Repeat. When we do enough damage to Blackhand, he again breaks the floor, only you have less warning since he won't run to the middle this time.

Transition: Use personal defensives to reduce damage from his hit that breaks the floor if you can.
Phase 3 - Blackhand and the Burning Floor:

We are fighting in a giant crucible. That's like a pot filled with burning badness. There's also no walls to catch you when you get knocked back, so if you get hit in the wrong direction, you will die and we won't be able to reach you for a Battle-Rez. We will be taking constant ticking damage from the floor here.

Blackhand now attaches bombs instead of dropping mines. These explode and leave a debuff that increases damage taken for a short while. Try not to get hit by anything else until the debuff wears off.

Blackhands Marked For Death now pierces, and there's nothing to hide behind. You will get hit, knocked back, and have a DoT applied.

Blackhand's Smash is now more powerful, and must hit multiple people or his energy will recharge and he'll just do it again immediately.

Spots where the Bombs detonated and Smash hit will become Void Zones (even more fire damage if you are near them), so we need to move away. After 5 Smashes or so, we'll probably run out of normal burning floor and only have major burning floor left. Try to make sure the Boss is dead before that.

Strategy: Bring Blackhand out to the edge of the room. When you get a bomb attached t you, run slight counter-clockwise form th eboss and deposit your explosion near the edge of the room or the current bad-stuff zone. Don't be near the other people with bombs to reduce damage taken. If you're Marked For Death, move slightly clock-wise from the group, and spread out so you only get hit by one of the piecing shots. If you're neither of those, stack up next to Blackhand, standing between Blackhand and the middle of the room. When Massive Smash comes up, the current tank will move to be just in front of the stack so we're all in the blast ring. Healers will need to use damage reduction CDs just before this hits, and healing CDs just after we land and are running back. Druids can either get Aspect of the Fox to Tranq-on-the-Run, or use Displacer Beast to blink immediately back to the boss and start casting Tranq as everyone else runs in. Holy Priests (if we ever have any) will need Aspect of the Fox for Divine Hymn. Shaman get to be Cheater McCheatypants and drop a totem, and Monks use an instant raid-wide heal, the jerks. No, I'm not bitter, thanks for asking. Move the boss clockwise as we run back in so we're just a bit outside the big ring that appear around the last Smash point and repeat until he dies or we do.

[Zlinka]

Blackhand is the final boss of Blackrock Foundry.  This is a three phase fight during which the raid will have to handle several different environmental challenges as well as a number of adds.

OVERVIEW

Phase One:  Lasts until Blackhand reaches 70% health.  During this phase, we’ll face only Blackhand.
Phase Two:  Starts at 70% health, lasts until 30%.  This phase takes place in a different room from Phase One, and we’ll have to deal with Blackhand and two types of adds.
Phase Three:  Starts at 30# health and lasts until he dies.  This phase takes place in yet another room.  We only face Blackhand during this phase.

The Environment

Each phase takes place in a different room, but the rooms are very similar.  At the end of Phase One, Blackhand collapses the floor of the room and he and the raid fall a long way to another room below, where Phase Two takes place.  At the end of Phase Two he collapses the floor again, causing himself and the raid to fall to the final platform where Phase Three takes place.

All three rooms are circular, and each has some specific environmental challenges.


PHASE ONE

Molten Slag:  Molten Slag slowly flows into the circular room, gradually covering the floor starting at the edge of the room and gradually moving toward the center, dealing a small amount of fire damage to players standing in it.  The damage it does increases by 50% every 0.5 seconds.  This will gradually restrict the raid’s space and acts as a soft enrage for Phase One (Molten Slag will kill everyone after about 2 minutes).

==> Obviously, don’t stand in the Slag.

Blackhand’s abilities

* Shattering Smash:  5-yard radius attack in front of him that splits damage between all players within the radius.  Players who are hit are knocked back, their threat is cleared, and they’re stunned for three seconds.  This ability requires a tank switch.

==> when Blackhand casts Shattering Smash on his tank, the other tank must taunt.  Make sure the knocked-back tank won’t be knocked back into the Molten Slag (early on, this means positioning so the tank is knocked across the room, but later this is no longer viable).

==> Don’t face the boss into melee.

* Demolition:  Regular ability.  Causes debris to fall from the ceiling at locations of random raid members.  The locations are marked a few seconds in advance.  When debris lands, does damage to players within a 12 yard radius (damage is lower the further away you are from the impact point).  In addition, a few large pieces will fall during this time (“Massive Demolition”) which deal very high raid-wide Physical damage, with damage lower the further you are away.  These large pieces leave behind Debris Piles, which persist until they are destroyed (either by the Molten Slag reaching them OR by being hit by Impaling Throw).

==> Avoid the small and large impacts.

* Marked for Death & Impaling Throw:  Marked for Death marks a random raid member, then 5 seconds later casts Impaling Throw at that player.  While marked, the player’s movement speed is INCREASED by 30%.  Impaling Throw throws a projectile at the marked player, which impacts the player, dealing very high Physical damage (which ignores armor) and knocks them back, and causes them to bleed every 3 sec for 45 seconds, OR if the player is behind a Debris Pile, impacts the Debris pile instead, destroying it and inflicting no damage.

==> If you get Marked for Death, run behind a Debris Pile.

* Throw Slag Bombs:  regular ability.  He throws bombs random locations on the floor around himself, which arm themselves after 3 seconds. The bombs persist until they are triggered, either by contact with a raid member or by contact from Molten Slag.  When a bomb is triggered, it deals high Fire damage in a 10-yard radius, debuffing affected players with Slag, which increases damage taken by 100% for 15 seconds.


PHASE ONE STRATEGY

* Tank Blackhand close to the outside of the room (near the Molten Slag).  This will cause the slag bombs to spawn close to the molten slag and be detonated by it.

* Whenever Blackhand casts Shattering Smash on his tank, the other tank must taunt the boss.

* Players must avoid the falling debris from Demolition.  There’s a lot of debris, so we’ll be taking damage — make sure to avoid the chunks of massive debris.  Later in the phase healing gets more intense as space gets more restricted.

* Players targeted by Marked for Death should go behind a Debris Pile.  They have 5 seconds to do so.

* Obviously, don’t stand in the Molten Slag.

We have about 2 minutes to push Blackhand to 70%, before the Molten Slag expands too much.  After 2 minutes the safe area in the center of the room is so small that we can’t avoid the mechanics any more. 


PHASE TWO

When Blackhand reaches 70%, he and the raid will fall through the floor into the Phase Two room.  It’s a long fall: players will take about 50% of their health in fall damage.

The Phase Two room is circular, but there’s also a ledge that goes all around the outside of the room, about half-way up the wall.  There is no way to get onto that ledge under normal circumstances, but it’s possible to be knocked back onto it by Blackhand’s Shattering Smash.

Blackhand’s Abilities

These are largely the same as Phase One:

* Marked for Death & Impaling Throw.  It’s the same, but Debris Piles are no longer present.  Instead, the Impaling Throw can hit the Siegemaker adds.

* Throw Slag Bombs:  it’s the same, but there is no Molten Slag to trigger the bombs.  Instead, bombs are triggered by contact with a Siegemaker (or by players).

* Shattering Smash:  it’s the same, with a very slightly increased radius (6 yards instead of 5).


ADDS

During this phase we’ll face Blackhand AND two types of adds:  Iron Soldiers and Siegemakers.

* Iron Soldiers will spawn on the ledge that goes around the room.  They have only one ability: Explosive Round.  This is an interruptible spell that targets a random raid member and deals a small amount of fire damage in a 6 yard radius.  The Iron Soldiers don’t come down from the ledge, they don’t need to be tanked, and their health is low.

* A Siegemaker will be summoned 15 seconds into the fight, and every 50 seconds after that.  The Siegemaker is a large cannon that appears on the floor of the room.  It does not melee and does not need to be tanked.  Instead, it fixates on the player that was closest to it when it spawns.  It has an energy bar that starts out empty and charges on its own over 40 seconds.  It has 3 abilities:

-- Mortar:  It uses this ability at 100 energy.  This fires a projectile at the location of a random raid member, which creates a path of fire at that location.  The fire spreads on its own until it covers a large area of the room, where it persists for a very long time.  Any players who stand in the fire take damage.  Using the Mortar resets the siege maker’s energy to 0.

— Blackiron Plating.  Passive ability that each Siegemaker spawns with.  Reduces damage taken by 90%.  There are two ways to remove it:  (1) have the Siegemaker hit by Blackhand’s Impaling Throw, or (2) have the Siegemaker run over and detonate a Slag Bomb.

— Battering Ram.  Constantly-used ability.  Deals high physical damage and a knock-back in a cone in front of it.


PHASE TWO STRATEGY

* Tank Blackhand in the center of the room when Shattering Smash is about to be cast.  Face him away from melee.

* Perform the tank swap as in Phase One (taunt whenever a tank is knocked back by Shattering Smash).

* Several DPS should get into the Shattering Smash radius each time, so they can get knocked back onto the ledge of the room where they can clear out the Iron Soldiers before jumping back down.  The rest of the melee will be behind Blackhand.  Backhand must be in the center of the room for the knockback to throw people onto the ledge.  Too far and you’ll fall short, too close and you’ll end up under it.  While up on the ledge, DPS should attack and interrupt the Iron Soldiers up there.  The tank must make sure to get down in tome to taunt the boss for the next Shattering Smash.

* The DPS to go up onto the ledge will take damage from the Iron Soldiers.  Plate wearers are good as they’ll take less damage from Shattering Smash and are already close to the boss for the knockback.  How many players we send up depends on the raid: how much DPS to take off the boss, how much damage form the Iron Soldiers the healers can manage below, etc.  It is not necessary to send healers up.

* The entire raid should spread out to minimize damage from Explosive Rounds.

* The Siegemakers should be kited.  We will assign people to kite the Siegemaker, which fixates on whoever is closest to it when it spawns.  It does a frontal cone attack constantly so make sure not to let it get close, and don’t drag it into melee.  Drag it over any existing bombs:  it’s important to clear these out.

* Players targeted by Marked for Death must move so the impaling throw hits a Siegemaker that still has its Blackiron Plating buff.

* When a Siegemaker loss its Blackiron Plating buff, it should be killed quickly.

The fire created by the Siegemakers’ Mortar ability acts as a soft enrage, eventually constricting the raid’s space to the point that it causes a wipe.


PHASE THREE

At 30% health Blackhand will collapse the floor again and we’ll fall into the Phase Three room.  We’ll take 50% of our health in fall damage.

Blackhand’s Abilities

We’ll face only Blackhand in Phase Three.

* Overheaated:  passive ability that causes him to deal increasing raid-wide fire damage.

* Marked for Death:  similar to before, but it now hits all targets in a line, not just the first one.  Damage is not reduce with people standing in the line.  There are no more obstacles present that can be used to stop it.

* Attach Slag Bombs:  similar to before, but the bombs are no longer thrown on the ground — they’re thrown onto several nearby players.  The bombs attach themselves to these players, exploding 3 seconds later for a log of fire damage in a 10 yard radius and debuting all players with Slagged, AND creating a Slag Hole at the location of the explosion.  A Slag Hole is a visual hole that doesn’t do anything, but has an important interaction with Slag Eruption.

* Slag Eruption:  Regular ability.  Causes all Slag Holes to ignite, throwing fireballs on the ground in a small area around themselves.  Once a Slag Hole has been ignited it stays ignited for the rest of the fight.

* Massive Shattering Smash:  stronger version of Shattering Smash.  Instead of dealing massive physical damage to players within a radius, it deals twice as much fire damage, also split between players, and a 12-second fire damage DoT.  Players are still knocked back, but it no longer clear threat.  Finally, Massive Shattering Smash creates a Slag Crater at its location.  Slag Craters are basically already-ignited Slag Holes.  It looks like a larger ignited Slag Hole.


PHASE THREE STRATEGY

* Tanks should perform the same tank swap.  Due to the increased damage, tanks will have to use defensive cooldowns for each smash.  If necessary, the tanks can load each Massive Shattering Smash together, since it no longer clears threat.

* Tank him close to the edge of the platform, so that the center remains crater-free.

* Drag the boss away from his most recent Slag Crater, either clockwise or counter clockwise.  Doing this correctly means we should not run out of space.

* Players affected by the bombs will have to move to an edge of the platform before their bombs go off, so that the Slag Holes are away from the raid.  Try to place them near other craters to save space.  We’ll be moving either clockwise or counterclockwise.

* Players targeted by Marked for Death must make sure that there are no other raid members in front of or behind them, relative to Blackhand, in order to minimize damage taken from Impaling Throw.

* The entire raid should make good use of space on the platform, moving progressively to stay away from the areas affected by Slag Holes and Slag Craters.  Players should never be in range of these.

* Healers must deal with increasing raid-wide damage from Overheated.

* We’ll use Bloodlust in Phase Three, preferably during the last 40 seconds.


SUMMARY

Tanks

* Face the boss away from other players.
* During Phase One and Two, the off-tank should taunt Blackhand when Shattering Smash knocks back his tank.
* During Phase One, tank him close to the Molten Slag
* During Phase Two, the tank should aim to be knocked up onto a ledge, where the tank should damage and kill some of the Iron Soldiers
* During Phase Three, tank Blackhand close to the edge of the platform and kite him away from his most recent Slag Crater

Healers

* Beware of high damage on the tanks from Shattering Smash (phases one and two) and Massive Shattering Smash (phase three)
* During Phase One, watch for raid damage from Demolition (the debris falling from the ceiling)
* During Phase Two, beware of raid damage from Iron Soldiers
* During Phase Three, beware of increasing raid damage from Overheated, and save some cooldowns for the end of the phase when the damage is highest.

DPS

* During Phase One:  DPS Blackhand
* During Phase Two:  ranged players should prioritize killing the Siegemakers once their Blackiron Plating buff is removed; a few melee players should enter the Shattering Smash radius and get knocked up onto the ledge where they should kill Iron Soldiers.
* During Phase Three:  DPS Blackhand

Everyone

* During Phase One:
- move behind a Debris Pile if targeted by Marked for Death
- avoid the bombs
- avoid the Molten Slag
- move away from the locations of the falling debris

During Phase Two:
- spread out at least 6 yards apart to minimize the damage from Explosive Round (from the Iron Soldiers above)
- move behind a Siegemaker if targeted by Marked for Death
- avoid the bombs
- If assigned to kiting the Siegemaker, kite it over the bombs

During Phase Three:
- If targeted by Attach Slag Bombs, move out of the raid, ideally close to the edge of the platform
- stay away from Slag Holes or Slag Craters
- if targeted by Marked for Death, move so that no other players are in front or behind you relative to Blackhand
- we’ll be moving either clockwise or counterclockwise in order to efficiently place craters around the edge of the room.

[Zlinka]

Did my write-up as well