Galakras nutshell guide
This is similar to the Razorscale fight in Ulduar (in which we needed to fight mobs and also use turrets to bring the drake down to the ground where we could fight him).
This is a two-phase fight. In Phase 1 we'll be defeating waves of mobs and mini-bosses, and climbing two towers in order to capture them and gain access to two air turrets, which we will use to bring Galakras down. This starts Phase 2, in which we fight Galakras on the ground.
PHASE 1
We'll need to defeat several groups of mobs, including 4 powerful mini-bosses, in order to gain access to two anti-air turrets. Using these turrets simultaneously forces Galakras to land, initiating Phase 2.
The adds will come in eight waves of different types of adds. Mini-bosses appear at predictable times and appear either on the ground, or on top of one of the two towers where the turrets are located.
A mini-boss spawns in wave 3 (on the ground), wave 4 (on the tower), wave 7 (ground), and 8 (tower).
When a mini-boss spawns on the tower the gate blocking access to that tower will open and a tower team -- half the raid, with a tank and healers -- climb up through a stairway. When this team enters the tower we'll get a Tower Control bar panel, which starts out fully read (which means we have no control over the tower). As we climb the stairs we'll be met by various types of weak adds, which we must defeat. Each add that we defeat increases our control of the tower (and pushes the Tower Control bar slightly in our favor). Killing the mini-boss on the top will cause us to gain full control of the tower, at which point we can use the turret located on the top to shoot at Galakras.
The rest of the raid will remain below killing adds.
When the second tower opens up, the tower team will have to take control of this tower as well. When both towers are under control, one raid member should enter each of the two turrets and shoot at Galakras at roughly the same time. This will cause the boss to come down.
Any adds that are still alive when we bring Galakras to the ground will not despawn and we'll have to fight them too. So we should clear the area first.
During this fight we'll receive help from three members of our faction: Lor'themar Theron, Lady Sylvanas, and Aethas Sunreaver. They have a lot of health, but if one of them is killed the raid instantly wipes. While it is possible to heal them, their large health pools makes this unfeasible to do so. It's better to protect them instead.
The mini-bosses:
Korgra the Snake: the first mini-boss. She spawns on the ground about 2 minutes into the fight as a part of the third wave, along with two Dragonmaw Ebon Stalker adds. Her abilities are:
* Poison-tipped Blades: stacking debuff applied to the tank, which does nature damage for each stack.
* Poison Clouds: void zones at her location.
* Curse of Venom: self-buff that she casts at 50% health which lasts until her death. This grands her a new ability: Venom Bolt Volley.
* Venom Bolt Volley: Standard uninterruptible raid-wide nuke. No debuffs or DoTs.
The Dragonmaw Ebon Stalkers often teleport behind random raid members and, a few seconds later, inflict fatal damage if they are still in melee range. Players must move away from the Ebon Stalkers to avoid being hit.
--> Strategy: The tank should move her away from her poison clouds. Raid members move away from Dragonmaw Ebon Stalkers. Otherwise,just attack and kill her.
Lieutenant Krugruk: the second mini-boss. He spawns on the southern tower at about 2.5 minutes, as part of the 4th wave. He has two abilities:
* Arcing Smash: frontal cone attack, knocking back any affected targets. He turns to face a random direction each time he casts this.
* Thunder Clap: damage in a large area around the boss (almost the entire top of the tower), slowing any affected players. The slow stacks.
--> Strategy: Don't get hit by Arcing Smash, because the knock-back can throw you off the tower.
High Enforcer Thranok: Spawns on the ground 4 minutes after the start of the fight as part of the 7th wave. He has three abilities:
* Shattering Strike: Cleave which hits current target and nearby targets.
* Crusher's Call: hooks a number of random raid members with chains, pulling them to him. In the 10-man he'll pull 5 players. Immediately after pulling them to him he begins channeling Skull Cracker for 2 seconds.
* Skull Cracker: deals massive physical damage to all players in a 10-yard radius of the boss.
--> Strategy: Run away from the boss as soon as he casts Crusher's Call, to avoid being hooked. NOBODY should try to survive the damage of Skull Cracker, even the tanks.
Master Cannoneer Dagryn: fourth mini-boss who appears on top of the north tower about 5 minutes after the start of the fight as part of the 8th and last wave. He uses two abilities:
* Shoot: he spams this, which does moderate physical damage to random raid members.
* Muzzle Spray: succession of several frontal cone attacks that deal damage and knock players back. He moves to the center of the tower then casts this ability. Each separate attack is oriented in a different, random direction.
--> Dance around to avoid Muzzle Spray.
The adds:
These adds will come in waves of different compositions.
* Dragonmaw Bonecrushers charge a faction leader and cast Fracture on them, dealing 10% of the target's health in damage every second. Very bad! They must be interrupted and killed.
* Dragonmaw Tidal Shamans cast interruptible heal spells on their allies, and create Healing Tide Totems which can be killed (and have low health). They must be interrupted and killed.
* Dragonmaw Flameslingers: shoot fire-tipped arrows at random raid members, dealing damage and leaving small fiery void zones.
* Dragonmaw Grunts: heavy melee damage and occasional ranged attacks
* Dragonmaw Wind Reavers arrive on the backs of flying proto-drakes called Dragonmaw Proto-Drakes. The fly around in the air and damage random raid members. They can be attacked from the tops of the towers but it's more efficient to damage them using the turrets.
* Dragonmaw Flagbearers: put down banners that buff other enemies. The banners can be destroyed (and have low health).
* Kor'kron Demolishers enter the fight one at a time and begin firing projectiles at the tower we're currently trying to take control of, dealing heavy damage to any raid members inside the tower.
Strategy for Phase 1
We'll be faced with such an overwhelming number of adds with different abilities that careful strategizing is not possible. We'll have to react instinctively to the mechanics we face, while keeping a few broad guildelines in place:
* Always kill the Healing Tide Totems and the banners dropped by the Dragonmaw Flabearers right away.
* Kill the Kor'kron Demolishers as soon as they appear
* Be wary of the Drawonmaw Ebon Stalkers and move away as soon as they teleport behind you
* Kill Dragonmaw Bonecrushers as soon as they appear, and interrupt their attacks, because they deal heavy damage to our friendly NPC faction leaders.
* Dragonmaw Bonecrushers / Dragonmaw Tidal Shamans (which won't appear in the same waves) can be AoE'd along with any smaller adds that join the fight with them. They should be interrupted and killed.
* Hit the Proto-Drakes with the first turret we capture.
PHASE 2
In this phase we fight Galakras, a large proto-drake. The boss has only three abilities in this phase, and a soft enrage mechanic, so this is a DPS race.
Abilities:
* Stacking DoT applied to the current target. Deals fire damage and requires a tank switch.
* Flames of Galakrond: Main attack. Boss shoots a large ball of fire at a random player, which travels slowly through the air. Each player that intercepts the ball of fire receives a moderately damaging 15-sec fire DoT stacked on them, but also causes the ball to lose potency, causing it to deal less damage to subsequent players. When it reaches its final destination, the location of the targeted player, it lands, exploding and dealing a large amount of raid-wide damage. The amount of damage the explosion does is reduced by each player that has intercepted the ball while it was flying.
* Pulsing Flames: Raid-wide damaging aura that ticks throughout this phase. Deals moderate fire damage to all players. Each tick stacks a buff on Galakras that increases his fire damage done by 2% per stack.
Strategy for Galakras
* Tanks perform a tank switch to handle the stacking DoT.
* To handle the fireball, the melee will stack in a group behind the boss. Ranged should stand grouped about 30 yards behind the melee. This way, every ball of fire will pass through the melee group, reducing its damage, and will further lose potency as it passes through ranged raid members on the way to its target. As a result to explosion will deal little damage and the raid can remain stationary. Most of the raid will soak it, though, resulting in fire DoTs on them. This may not be a problem if he dies fast, but if the fight lasts a very long time those with the higest stacks can move out until their stacks drop off.
* Healers will have to deal with Galakras' stacking buff. So save healing cooldowns for later in the fight when raid damage will be higher.
We'll use bloodlust in phase 2, at 40% health or so, as we'll have to deal with more damage.
SUMMARY
Tanks
* Tank all mobs that enter the fight. Move Kogra around to avoid her void zones. Face Thranok away.
* Tank Galakras in phase 2, and perform a tank switch.
Healers
* Beware of many sources of damage
* In phase 2 beware of increasing raid-wide damage caused by pulsing flames, and beware of flames of Galakrond explosions.
DPS
* DPS adds based on their priority.
Everyone
* Avoid the ground-based attacks (arcing Smash, Muzzle Spray etc.)
* Move away from the the Drawonmaw Ebon Stalkers if they are behind you
* Move away from Thranok when he casts Skull Cracker
* Dispatch part of the raid to deal with the mini-bosses on top of the towers. We will construct a tower team and will tweak/re-balance it as needed.
* In phase 2, intercept the ball of fire caused by Flames of Galakrond
(guide based on advice from Icy Veins -- see their site for more)
This is similar to the Razorscale fight in Ulduar (in which we needed to fight mobs and also use turrets to bring the drake down to the ground where we could fight him).
This is a two-phase fight. In Phase 1 we'll be defeating waves of mobs and mini-bosses, and climbing two towers in order to capture them and gain access to two air turrets, which we will use to bring Galakras down. This starts Phase 2, in which we fight Galakras on the ground.
PHASE 1
We'll need to defeat several groups of mobs, including 4 powerful mini-bosses, in order to gain access to two anti-air turrets. Using these turrets simultaneously forces Galakras to land, initiating Phase 2.
The adds will come in eight waves of different types of adds. Mini-bosses appear at predictable times and appear either on the ground, or on top of one of the two towers where the turrets are located.
A mini-boss spawns in wave 3 (on the ground), wave 4 (on the tower), wave 7 (ground), and 8 (tower).
When a mini-boss spawns on the tower the gate blocking access to that tower will open and a tower team -- half the raid, with a tank and healers -- climb up through a stairway. When this team enters the tower we'll get a Tower Control bar panel, which starts out fully read (which means we have no control over the tower). As we climb the stairs we'll be met by various types of weak adds, which we must defeat. Each add that we defeat increases our control of the tower (and pushes the Tower Control bar slightly in our favor). Killing the mini-boss on the top will cause us to gain full control of the tower, at which point we can use the turret located on the top to shoot at Galakras.
The rest of the raid will remain below killing adds.
When the second tower opens up, the tower team will have to take control of this tower as well. When both towers are under control, one raid member should enter each of the two turrets and shoot at Galakras at roughly the same time. This will cause the boss to come down.
Any adds that are still alive when we bring Galakras to the ground will not despawn and we'll have to fight them too. So we should clear the area first.
During this fight we'll receive help from three members of our faction: Lor'themar Theron, Lady Sylvanas, and Aethas Sunreaver. They have a lot of health, but if one of them is killed the raid instantly wipes. While it is possible to heal them, their large health pools makes this unfeasible to do so. It's better to protect them instead.
The mini-bosses:
Korgra the Snake: the first mini-boss. She spawns on the ground about 2 minutes into the fight as a part of the third wave, along with two Dragonmaw Ebon Stalker adds. Her abilities are:
* Poison-tipped Blades: stacking debuff applied to the tank, which does nature damage for each stack.
* Poison Clouds: void zones at her location.
* Curse of Venom: self-buff that she casts at 50% health which lasts until her death. This grands her a new ability: Venom Bolt Volley.
* Venom Bolt Volley: Standard uninterruptible raid-wide nuke. No debuffs or DoTs.
The Dragonmaw Ebon Stalkers often teleport behind random raid members and, a few seconds later, inflict fatal damage if they are still in melee range. Players must move away from the Ebon Stalkers to avoid being hit.
--> Strategy: The tank should move her away from her poison clouds. Raid members move away from Dragonmaw Ebon Stalkers. Otherwise,just attack and kill her.
Lieutenant Krugruk: the second mini-boss. He spawns on the southern tower at about 2.5 minutes, as part of the 4th wave. He has two abilities:
* Arcing Smash: frontal cone attack, knocking back any affected targets. He turns to face a random direction each time he casts this.
* Thunder Clap: damage in a large area around the boss (almost the entire top of the tower), slowing any affected players. The slow stacks.
--> Strategy: Don't get hit by Arcing Smash, because the knock-back can throw you off the tower.
High Enforcer Thranok: Spawns on the ground 4 minutes after the start of the fight as part of the 7th wave. He has three abilities:
* Shattering Strike: Cleave which hits current target and nearby targets.
* Crusher's Call: hooks a number of random raid members with chains, pulling them to him. In the 10-man he'll pull 5 players. Immediately after pulling them to him he begins channeling Skull Cracker for 2 seconds.
* Skull Cracker: deals massive physical damage to all players in a 10-yard radius of the boss.
--> Strategy: Run away from the boss as soon as he casts Crusher's Call, to avoid being hooked. NOBODY should try to survive the damage of Skull Cracker, even the tanks.
Master Cannoneer Dagryn: fourth mini-boss who appears on top of the north tower about 5 minutes after the start of the fight as part of the 8th and last wave. He uses two abilities:
* Shoot: he spams this, which does moderate physical damage to random raid members.
* Muzzle Spray: succession of several frontal cone attacks that deal damage and knock players back. He moves to the center of the tower then casts this ability. Each separate attack is oriented in a different, random direction.
--> Dance around to avoid Muzzle Spray.
The adds:
These adds will come in waves of different compositions.
* Dragonmaw Bonecrushers charge a faction leader and cast Fracture on them, dealing 10% of the target's health in damage every second. Very bad! They must be interrupted and killed.
* Dragonmaw Tidal Shamans cast interruptible heal spells on their allies, and create Healing Tide Totems which can be killed (and have low health). They must be interrupted and killed.
* Dragonmaw Flameslingers: shoot fire-tipped arrows at random raid members, dealing damage and leaving small fiery void zones.
* Dragonmaw Grunts: heavy melee damage and occasional ranged attacks
* Dragonmaw Wind Reavers arrive on the backs of flying proto-drakes called Dragonmaw Proto-Drakes. The fly around in the air and damage random raid members. They can be attacked from the tops of the towers but it's more efficient to damage them using the turrets.
* Dragonmaw Flagbearers: put down banners that buff other enemies. The banners can be destroyed (and have low health).
* Kor'kron Demolishers enter the fight one at a time and begin firing projectiles at the tower we're currently trying to take control of, dealing heavy damage to any raid members inside the tower.
Strategy for Phase 1
We'll be faced with such an overwhelming number of adds with different abilities that careful strategizing is not possible. We'll have to react instinctively to the mechanics we face, while keeping a few broad guildelines in place:
* Always kill the Healing Tide Totems and the banners dropped by the Dragonmaw Flabearers right away.
* Kill the Kor'kron Demolishers as soon as they appear
* Be wary of the Drawonmaw Ebon Stalkers and move away as soon as they teleport behind you
* Kill Dragonmaw Bonecrushers as soon as they appear, and interrupt their attacks, because they deal heavy damage to our friendly NPC faction leaders.
* Dragonmaw Bonecrushers / Dragonmaw Tidal Shamans (which won't appear in the same waves) can be AoE'd along with any smaller adds that join the fight with them. They should be interrupted and killed.
* Hit the Proto-Drakes with the first turret we capture.
PHASE 2
In this phase we fight Galakras, a large proto-drake. The boss has only three abilities in this phase, and a soft enrage mechanic, so this is a DPS race.
Abilities:
* Stacking DoT applied to the current target. Deals fire damage and requires a tank switch.
* Flames of Galakrond: Main attack. Boss shoots a large ball of fire at a random player, which travels slowly through the air. Each player that intercepts the ball of fire receives a moderately damaging 15-sec fire DoT stacked on them, but also causes the ball to lose potency, causing it to deal less damage to subsequent players. When it reaches its final destination, the location of the targeted player, it lands, exploding and dealing a large amount of raid-wide damage. The amount of damage the explosion does is reduced by each player that has intercepted the ball while it was flying.
* Pulsing Flames: Raid-wide damaging aura that ticks throughout this phase. Deals moderate fire damage to all players. Each tick stacks a buff on Galakras that increases his fire damage done by 2% per stack.
Strategy for Galakras
* Tanks perform a tank switch to handle the stacking DoT.
* To handle the fireball, the melee will stack in a group behind the boss. Ranged should stand grouped about 30 yards behind the melee. This way, every ball of fire will pass through the melee group, reducing its damage, and will further lose potency as it passes through ranged raid members on the way to its target. As a result to explosion will deal little damage and the raid can remain stationary. Most of the raid will soak it, though, resulting in fire DoTs on them. This may not be a problem if he dies fast, but if the fight lasts a very long time those with the higest stacks can move out until their stacks drop off.
* Healers will have to deal with Galakras' stacking buff. So save healing cooldowns for later in the fight when raid damage will be higher.
We'll use bloodlust in phase 2, at 40% health or so, as we'll have to deal with more damage.
SUMMARY
Tanks
* Tank all mobs that enter the fight. Move Kogra around to avoid her void zones. Face Thranok away.
* Tank Galakras in phase 2, and perform a tank switch.
Healers
* Beware of many sources of damage
* In phase 2 beware of increasing raid-wide damage caused by pulsing flames, and beware of flames of Galakrond explosions.
DPS
* DPS adds based on their priority.
Everyone
* Avoid the ground-based attacks (arcing Smash, Muzzle Spray etc.)
* Move away from the the Drawonmaw Ebon Stalkers if they are behind you
* Move away from Thranok when he casts Skull Cracker
* Dispatch part of the raid to deal with the mini-bosses on top of the towers. We will construct a tower team and will tweak/re-balance it as needed.
* In phase 2, intercept the ball of fire caused by Flames of Galakrond
(guide based on advice from Icy Veins -- see their site for more)