Socrethar Nutshell Guide

[Zlinka]

The Socrethar encounter revolves around handling a special unit that can sometimes be controlled by players.  Positioning and controlling this unit correctly is the key to the fight.  There are two phases to this fight that alternate until we kill the boss, the Soul of Socrethar.  There’s a hard enrage timer of 10 minutes at 40 seconds.

During Phase One, we face one boss, the Soulbound Construct.  This phase ends when we kill the Construct, at which point Phase Two then begins.  In Phase Two the Soul of Socrethar becomes active and a number of adds attack the raid.  During this phase, a raid member can take control of the defeated Construct (which is revived with part of its health restored) and use it against the enemy mobs.  Phase Two ends which this player-controlled Construct dies.  At this point Phase One starts again, the Construct is fully restored to health and becomes hostile again.

Phase One
During Phase One, we face a single mob, the Soulbound Construct, which lasts until the Construct dies.  Phase One is identical each time.

Phase One: the Construct’s Abilities

The Soulbound Construct uses FIVE abilities against the raid:
(1) Reverberating Blow.  Frontal cone ability + stacking debuff. This looks like green lightning on the ground.  This applies three stacks of Shattered Defenses to the 3 closest targets in that cone.  Both damage and the stacks are split evenly between these three targets.  Shattered defenses is a stacking debuff that increases damage done by Reverberating Blow by 200% per stack for 45 seconds.  Since tanks can be affected, this ability requires a tank switch.
(2) Fel Prison.  Green swirling void zone that turns into a green design on the floor.  This imprisons anyone that touches it for 30 seconds inside a Crystalline Fel Prison.  They can’t perform any actions and their damage taken is reduced by 99%.  The prison can be destroyed to free the player.  (I read in one place that if the prison isn’t destroyed in 30 seconds the player inside will be freed anyway, but have not had confirmation of this).
(3) Volatile Fel Orb.  Summons an orb that fixates on a player.  If the orb reaches its target or touches any other raid member, it explodes and deals moderate fire damage in a 5 yard radius.  The Fel Orb doesn’t disappear until it hits a target.
(4) Felblaze Charge.  Charges a random raid member leaving a fiery green trail on the ground.  The green fire does damage and a slow.
(5) Overwhelming Power.  Moderate raid-wide damage for 3 seconds.

Phase One: Strategy
* Ranged should spread out lightly in one side of the room, because it concentrates the void zones in one half of the room and leaves a lot of free space for raid members who are kiting a Fel Orb.
* Tank Swap:  Tanks must swap when the current tank has 2-3 stacks of Shattered Defenses.
* We will designate teams of players to soak the Reverberating Blow.  Each team will have one tank and 2 DPS.  Before the Blow is cast, the assigned team should move into position in front of and closest to the Soulbound Construct.
* Avoid the Prison void zones
* When fixated by an orb, run away from the raid then allow the orb to reach you and explode.
* Stay out of the void zone left by Felblaze Charge.
* Heal through Overwhelming Power

Phase Two: Abilities
As soon as the Construct dies, Phase Two begins.  The Soul of Socrethar emerges and a bunch of adds appear.  Meanwhile, a player can right-click on the Construct to take control of it.  When that happens, it becomes a vehicle under the control of that player, and some of its health is restored.  The player can use the Construct’s abilities against the hostile mobs, until the Construct dies.  Its death is inevitable because its health slowly depletes over time and a couple abilities damage it too, and it can’t be healed.

Phase Two: Soul of Socrethar Abilities
The Soul of Socrethar has abilities it uses against the raid:
(1) Exert Dominance.  Interruptible ability the Soul of Socrethar casts on the Construct.  It deals instant damage equivalent to a percentage of the Construct’s health (5% in Normal).
(2) Apocalypse.  Moderate raid-wide shadow damage.

Phase Two:  Adds
Adds will spawn from portals that appear at random locations around the outside of the room.  There are three types of adds:
(1) Sargerei Dominators.  These come out of the RED portal.  They cast (a) Fel Barrier, an immunity shield, on Soul of Socrethar.  The barrier fades when the Dominator is killed.  They also apply (b) Gift of the Man’ari, a debuff applied to a random raid member which deals heavy fire damage for TWO MINUTES to the targeted raid member and everyone within 10 yards.
(2) Sargerei Shadowcallers.  These spawn out of a PURPLE portal in one of the room’s corners.  These cast (a) Shadow Word: Agony which is an interruptible, dispellable, stacking debuff on the Shadowcaller’s tank.  It deals low damage but stacks quickly.  They also cast (b) Shadow Bolt Volley, which does raid-wide damage and is interruptible.
(3) Haunting Souls fixate on random raid members.  If it reaches its target it explodes, dies, and applies Virulent Haunt to everyone in an 8 yard radius.  This is a shadow-damage debuff and a fear.  The Haunting Souls also cast Soul Dispersion which does massive damage to the Soulbound Construct if they come within 5 yards of it.

Phase Two: The Soulbound Construct
The player controlling the Construct has access to FOUR of the Construct’s abilities:  Reverberating Blow (the frontal cone and stacking debuff), Fel Prison (void zone that turns into prisons), Volatile Fel Orb (the fixating exploding orbs), and Felblaze Charge (which leaves void zones).  These abilities work in exactly the same way EXCEPT that they affect enemy mobs and NOT raid members.

Phase Two:  Strategy
For the player controlling the Construct:  This phase revolves around correct management of the Soulbound Construct.  The person controlling it should probably be a tank as we only need one tank in this phase.  Here’s what the player controlling the Construct has to do:
* Felblaze Charge:  When you first get the Construct, place a Felblaze line between the white portal and the red portal (the raid will be at red) to slow the Haunting Souls down.
* Volatile Fel Orb:  cast this on new adds that spawn, especially Haunting Souls.  Since these will be spawning in a movement-slowing void zone, the orb will reach them and damage them all at once.
* Fel Prisons:  cast these on escaped targets, particularly Haunting Souls.  Use it sparingly though because the targets take almost no damage while in the prison.
* Reverberating Blow:  Use this on the Soul of Socrethar and any nearby Dominators and Shadowcallers.
Lastly, don’t let the Haunting Souls bet too close to the construct, as they’ll do massive damage to it.

For the rest of the raid:
* The raid (plus the boss) will stack on the RED portal to intercept the Sargerei Dominator that spawns there.  We will kill him as quickly as possible to remove the shield on the boss.  Anyone with Gift of the Man'ari must run away from the raid for the duration of the 2 minute debuff (perhaps up the stairs).
* The Soul of Socrethar's Exert Dominance MUST be interrupted every time, to keep the Construct alive for as long as possible.
* Heal through the Soul of Socrethar's Apocalypse.

* The Shadowcaller, which will emerge from the purple portal, should be ranged-interrupted to bring him to the raid.  Interrupt their Shadow Bolt Volleys (and their Shadow Word Agony if we have interrupts to spare).  Dispel the Shadow Word Agony when it reaches a high number of stacks.
 * When fixated by a Haunting Soul, let it run through the slowing flames and take damage.  If you are DPS, run out and allow yourself to be struck once you are far away from others.  If you are a healer, a DPS should try to intercept the Soul and kill it to avoid the healer being feared for 8 seconds.
* When the Construct dies, clean up the remaining adds before DPSing it down again.

Bloodlust:  Use at the start of the fight.

Learning the fight:  The key to this fight is for the assigned player to control the Soulbound Construct properly.  Doing so will increase boss damage and add control, which makes the fight much easier.  If the Construct is not properly controlled, the fight is almost impossible as it’s easy to get overwhelmed with adds.  It’s worth it to allow the tank to have several successive attempts inside the Construct to master its abilities.

[Zlinka]

Here is a link to Line of Sight's two-minute boss guide on Socrethar:  I highly recommend watching this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNJ5-nAeYoY

[Zlinka]

Quick conversational overview

This is a two phase fight.  The phases alternate one after the other until the boss dies.  During Phase One, we face ONE boss, the Soulbound Construct.  It has a number of abilities we’ll need to deal with.  When it is defeated, the Soul of Socrethar emerges and a bunch of adds start spawning from portals around the room.  The defeated Construct becomes a clickable vehicle that a player can control.  Much of the fight depends on the player controlling the Construct correctly.

The Construct can’t be healed, and its health decreases over time, and several abilities damage it too.  When it dies, we return to Phase One in which the Soul of Socrethar goes back into the Construct and we have to DPS it down again.

That’s the basic shape of the fight.

So, for Phase One, we’ll be fighting JUST the Construct.  It has FIVE abilities:
* Reverberating Blow is a frontal cone attack (looks like green lightning on the ground) that shares damage and a debuff between the three closest people in the cone.  We will have teams of two DPS come up to help soak the Reverberating Blows with the tank.  Once the tank has 2 or 3 stacks (TBD) the tanks will swap.
* Fel Prison:  green swirly void zone that turns into a pattern on the floor and imprisons people.  DPS them out.
* Volatile Fel Orb:  spawns a green orb that fixates on a person and explodes when it reaches them.
* Felblaze Charge:  Charge + trail of green fire that does damage and a slow.
* Overwhelming Power:  Raid-wide damage.

So, those are his five abilities:  frontal cone that needs to be soaked by 3 people, a void zone prison thing, a fixating orb, a charge and fire trail, and raid wide damage.

To handle this, we’ll tank the boss in the middle of the room with the ranged spread loosely in an arc to one side of the room.  This ensures that the charges will only fill that half of the room, and we’ll have the other half in which to run with the orbs.  Melee stands behind the boss (or to the same side as ranged).  For Reverberating Blow, the teams of two DPS (probably melee because they’ll be close already) will run forward to soak them, then run back to their position.  Tanks will swap when the boss has 2-3 stacks of the debuff.

If you get targeted by an orb, run out of the group and let it hit you.  Avoid the green swirls that turn into prisons, and if someone does get imprisoned, DPS them out.

Phase Two begins when the Construct dies.  The Soul of Socrethar comes out of the Construct and a bunch of adds start spawning from portals around the room.  We’ll have a tank pick up the Construct — I’ll get to that in a moment.

The WORST adds spawn from the RED portal.  These are the Sargerei Dominators.  They cast a shield on the boss, and they apply a nasty debuff called Gift of the Man’ari on random players.  It lasts for 2 minutes and does a lot of damage in a 10-yard radius.  When Phase Two begins the raid will move to the red portal and stay there.  We’ll intercept the Dominator as it comes out and kill it as fast as possible.  If you get the Gift of the Man’ari, run out for the 2 minute duration (maybe up the stairs).

Once the shield is down we DPS the boss.  He’ll cast a spell called Exert Dominance.  This does damage to the Construct, which means shortening Phase Two, and it MUST be interrupted.  He also does Apocalypse which does raid-wide damage.

The second kind of add, the Sargerei Shadowcallers, spawn from the PURPLE portals.  These should be ranged-interrupted to bring them to the raid.  They cast two interruptible spells:  Shadow Bolt Volley which does damage to the whole raid, and Shadow Word: Agony which is an interruptible, stackable debuff on the Shadowcaller’s tank.  These should be interrupted as much as possible, but never at the expense of the Soul of Socrethar’s Exert Dominance.

The third kind of add, the Haunting Souls, spawn from the WHITE portal.  These fixate on raid members and if they reach them, the explode and do an 8-yard fear. And they do massive damage to the Soulbound Construct if they get close to it.  If a DPS is targeted, you should should run away from others and allow yourself to be struck when you’re in a safe place.  If a healer is targeted, the DPS should intercept it an kill it to avoid having an 8 second fear on the healer.

Now, for the player controlling the Soulbound Construct.  This will be one of our tanks.

Inside the Construct, you have access to FOUR of the Construct’s abilities:  the frontal cone and stacking debuff (Reverberating Blow), the void zone that turns into a prison (Fel Prison), the fixating exploding orbs (Volatile Fel Orb), and the charge + trail of fire (Felblaze Charge).  You will need to use these abilities against the adds and the boss.  These abilities will damage the mobs, but not the players.
* When you first get the construct, lay a trail of fire between the white portal (where the haunting souls spawn) and the red one (where the raid will be).  This will slow and damage the Haunting Souls.
* Cast Fel Orb on the Haunting Souls.  They’ll be bunched together and slowed so the Orb will damage them all when it explodes.
* Cast Fel prison on escaped Haunting Souls.  But do this sparingly as they take almost no damage inside the prison.
* Use Reverberating Blows on the boss, and on any nearby Dominators and Shadowcallers.
* Lastly, don’t let the Haunting Souls get too close to you as they’ll do massive damage to the Construct.