03-03-2015, 11:24 AM
Beastlord Darmac is the first boss in the Iron Assembly wing of Blackrock Foundry, and the recommended third boss.
There are many phases in this fight: the boss will mount different beasts and use them against the raid, and will retain the abilities of each defeated beast as the fight goes on. So the fight will increase in difficulty. There does not appear to be a hard enrage timer or any soft enrage mechanics.
Overview
There are seven phases to this fight. He starts on foot, then mounts one of three beasts, gaining new abilities. We have to kill the beast, then he goes back to being on foot, then he mounts another beast.
100 to 85% health: Darmac On Foot.
He mounts the closest beast at:
85% health
65% health
45% health
Each time he mounts a beast, gains new abilities, and becomes unattackable. We have to kill the beast, forcing him to dismount. He retains the new abilities and becomes attackable again, until he is damaged down to the next mount phase.
We can decide in what order Darmac will mount the beasts. Icy Veins recommends Cruelfang —> Ironcrusher —> Dreadwing.
Darmac’s Abilities
He has two abilities that he uses throughout the fight:
* Pin Down: Targets the location of 2 or 3 clustered raid members and throws a spear at them. The landing location is marked and the spear lands about 2 seconds later. The spears deal moderate physical damage to any players within 25 yards, and pin down any players within 3 yards doing a lot more damage to them. Pinned players are disabled until the spear (called “Heavy Spear) is killed.
* Call the Pack: he uses this ability every 20 seconds. This summons a large number of adds called Pack Beasts. The Pack Beasts enter the room from the same location each time, a small grated gate opposite from the place Darmac is standing before he’s pulled. These adds are tanked normally, damaged, and killed. They have only one ability, Blood Scent, which is a stacking buff that increases their movement speed and damage.
Strategy
Pretty straightforward. Avoid getting hit by the spears. If anybody gets pinned, focus the spear down and kill it.
As a lower priority, kill off the regular Heavy Spears too, using DoTs, as they’ll deal damage to the raid later in the fight if they’re left up, but this is not a high priority and they can be DPSd slowly.
Tank Darmac close to the gate where the Pack Beasts enter the fight. Pick up all the beasts when they come out, and the raid AoEs then down. If left alive for too long their damage can overwhelm the tanks so it’s important to focus on AoEing them down.
Cruelfang
We will have Darmac mount Cruelfang first. When he’s mounted on Cruelfang, he gains two abilities:
* Rend and Tear: Boss leaps to a random ranged raid member and applies a 30 second bleed to all players within a 7 yard radius, also debuffing them to take additional damage. Then the boss leaps back to the tank, applying the same effect to all players in a 7 yard radius. As this ability will always debuff the tank, it requires a tank switch.
—> Darmac will retain this ability to the end of the fight.
* Savage Howl: Deals moderate physical damage in a small radius and buffs the boss and nearby Pack Beasts. This is an enrage effect.
Strategy
Ranged should be spread out to reduce the Rend and Tear effect. Melee should also spread out when he’s casting this ability so they don’t get it when he jumps back.
The current off-tank must be careful NOT to stand close to the current tank to avoid getting hit with Rend and Tear when he leaps back.
Tanks should swap when Rend and Tear damage gets too high.
To deal with Savage Howl, we can either move Cruelfang away from Pack Beasts when it’s about to be cast, so they don’t get buffed, but this can be tricky in practice. The second way is to simply tank everything together and do AoE to the Pack Beasts, and remove the enrage effect as quickly as possible. Hunters, Rogues and Druids must remove the enrages from the boss and Pack Beasts.
The On Foot phase after Cruelfang is the same as the first one, except that he has Rend and Tear too.
Ironcrusher
When mounted on Ironcrusher, gains three more abilities:
* Crush Armor: stacking debuff applied to the current tank, which reduces their armor for 15 seconds. Requires a tank swap.
* Tantrum: raid-wide physical damage every 5 seconds for 20 seconds.
—> Darmac retains this ability to the end of the fight.
* Stampede: charges the location of a random ranged player, deals high physical damage to the players in a small radius, and knocks them back.
Strategy
Tanks must perform a tank swap to deal with Crush Armor. Since they’re already swapping for Rend and Tear, nothing changes really.
Ranged should spread out to minimize damage from Stampede. As ranged is already spread out for Rend and Tear, nothing changes really.
Be prepared for high raid-wide damage from Tantrum. Rotate healing cooldowns for this, since there are no other instances of dangerous raid damage during this encounter.
And we’ll still need to keep killing the Pack Beasts and avoid and kill the Heavy Spears.
When Darmac returns to being on foot after this, he retains Tantrum but not Stampede or Crush Armor.
Dreadwing
While mounted on Dreading Darmac gains three abilities:
* Searing Fangs: Anti-tank fire attack + fire damage debuff (Seared Flesh). Requires a tank swap.
* Inferno Breath: Frontal cone + debuff. The debuff can be dispelled and the breath avoided.
* Conflagration: Dispellable 6 second Fire damage DoT on random raid members, which also cause them to more around erratically. When affected, players will spread this effect to any allies within 8 yards.
When Dreading is defeated, Darmac gains:
* Superheated Shrapnel, which is the same as Inferno Breath, but it also leaves fiery void zones on the ground.
* Flame Infusion, which causes the corpses of the Pack Beasts to deal fire damage to anyone standing on them.
* Seeking Embers: causes Heavy Spears to deal small amounts of fire damage to random raid members.
Strategy
Tanks must perform a tank swap to deal with Seared Flesh, but as they’re already switching it won’t change much.
Ranged will have to stay spread out to Conflagration doesn’t spread. Dispel Conflagrations as quickly as possible.
Avoid getting hit by Inferno Breath. Dispel anyone who gets hit and receives the DoT.
Still need to kill the Pack Beasts, avoid and kill the Heavy Spears, spread out to avoid Rend and Tear and be prepared for damage from Tantrum.
Final On Foot Phase
Final test of all the tasks we’ve been performing up until now. Typical burn phase. Use any cooldowns left. Use Bloodlust here.
SUMMARY
Tanks:
* Perform a tank switch throughout the fight, except for the first 15%, to deal with Rend and Tear, Crush Armor, and Seared Flesh.
* Tank the boss near where the Pack Beasts come out. Pick up and tank the Pack Beasts.
Healers:
* Watch for raid-wide damage from Tantrum starting at Ironcrusher. Use healing cooldowns if needed.
* Dispel players affected by Conflagration, Inferno Breath, and Superheated Shrapnel
DPS:
* AoE the Pack Beasts
* Focus DPS on Heavy Spears that are pinning raid members down. Multi-DoT Heavy Spears that aren’t.
* Remove the enrage effect of Cruelfang.
Everyone:
* Ranged spread out except for the first 15% of the fight.
* Melee spread out temporarily when Rend and Tear is being cast
* Avoid: Pin Down, Inferno Breath, and Superheated Shrapnel, and avoid standing in the void zones.
There are many phases in this fight: the boss will mount different beasts and use them against the raid, and will retain the abilities of each defeated beast as the fight goes on. So the fight will increase in difficulty. There does not appear to be a hard enrage timer or any soft enrage mechanics.
Overview
There are seven phases to this fight. He starts on foot, then mounts one of three beasts, gaining new abilities. We have to kill the beast, then he goes back to being on foot, then he mounts another beast.
100 to 85% health: Darmac On Foot.
He mounts the closest beast at:
85% health
65% health
45% health
Each time he mounts a beast, gains new abilities, and becomes unattackable. We have to kill the beast, forcing him to dismount. He retains the new abilities and becomes attackable again, until he is damaged down to the next mount phase.
We can decide in what order Darmac will mount the beasts. Icy Veins recommends Cruelfang —> Ironcrusher —> Dreadwing.
Darmac’s Abilities
He has two abilities that he uses throughout the fight:
* Pin Down: Targets the location of 2 or 3 clustered raid members and throws a spear at them. The landing location is marked and the spear lands about 2 seconds later. The spears deal moderate physical damage to any players within 25 yards, and pin down any players within 3 yards doing a lot more damage to them. Pinned players are disabled until the spear (called “Heavy Spear) is killed.
* Call the Pack: he uses this ability every 20 seconds. This summons a large number of adds called Pack Beasts. The Pack Beasts enter the room from the same location each time, a small grated gate opposite from the place Darmac is standing before he’s pulled. These adds are tanked normally, damaged, and killed. They have only one ability, Blood Scent, which is a stacking buff that increases their movement speed and damage.
Strategy
Pretty straightforward. Avoid getting hit by the spears. If anybody gets pinned, focus the spear down and kill it.
As a lower priority, kill off the regular Heavy Spears too, using DoTs, as they’ll deal damage to the raid later in the fight if they’re left up, but this is not a high priority and they can be DPSd slowly.
Tank Darmac close to the gate where the Pack Beasts enter the fight. Pick up all the beasts when they come out, and the raid AoEs then down. If left alive for too long their damage can overwhelm the tanks so it’s important to focus on AoEing them down.
Cruelfang
We will have Darmac mount Cruelfang first. When he’s mounted on Cruelfang, he gains two abilities:
* Rend and Tear: Boss leaps to a random ranged raid member and applies a 30 second bleed to all players within a 7 yard radius, also debuffing them to take additional damage. Then the boss leaps back to the tank, applying the same effect to all players in a 7 yard radius. As this ability will always debuff the tank, it requires a tank switch.
—> Darmac will retain this ability to the end of the fight.
* Savage Howl: Deals moderate physical damage in a small radius and buffs the boss and nearby Pack Beasts. This is an enrage effect.
Strategy
Ranged should be spread out to reduce the Rend and Tear effect. Melee should also spread out when he’s casting this ability so they don’t get it when he jumps back.
The current off-tank must be careful NOT to stand close to the current tank to avoid getting hit with Rend and Tear when he leaps back.
Tanks should swap when Rend and Tear damage gets too high.
To deal with Savage Howl, we can either move Cruelfang away from Pack Beasts when it’s about to be cast, so they don’t get buffed, but this can be tricky in practice. The second way is to simply tank everything together and do AoE to the Pack Beasts, and remove the enrage effect as quickly as possible. Hunters, Rogues and Druids must remove the enrages from the boss and Pack Beasts.
The On Foot phase after Cruelfang is the same as the first one, except that he has Rend and Tear too.
Ironcrusher
When mounted on Ironcrusher, gains three more abilities:
* Crush Armor: stacking debuff applied to the current tank, which reduces their armor for 15 seconds. Requires a tank swap.
* Tantrum: raid-wide physical damage every 5 seconds for 20 seconds.
—> Darmac retains this ability to the end of the fight.
* Stampede: charges the location of a random ranged player, deals high physical damage to the players in a small radius, and knocks them back.
Strategy
Tanks must perform a tank swap to deal with Crush Armor. Since they’re already swapping for Rend and Tear, nothing changes really.
Ranged should spread out to minimize damage from Stampede. As ranged is already spread out for Rend and Tear, nothing changes really.
Be prepared for high raid-wide damage from Tantrum. Rotate healing cooldowns for this, since there are no other instances of dangerous raid damage during this encounter.
And we’ll still need to keep killing the Pack Beasts and avoid and kill the Heavy Spears.
When Darmac returns to being on foot after this, he retains Tantrum but not Stampede or Crush Armor.
Dreadwing
While mounted on Dreading Darmac gains three abilities:
* Searing Fangs: Anti-tank fire attack + fire damage debuff (Seared Flesh). Requires a tank swap.
* Inferno Breath: Frontal cone + debuff. The debuff can be dispelled and the breath avoided.
* Conflagration: Dispellable 6 second Fire damage DoT on random raid members, which also cause them to more around erratically. When affected, players will spread this effect to any allies within 8 yards.
When Dreading is defeated, Darmac gains:
* Superheated Shrapnel, which is the same as Inferno Breath, but it also leaves fiery void zones on the ground.
* Flame Infusion, which causes the corpses of the Pack Beasts to deal fire damage to anyone standing on them.
* Seeking Embers: causes Heavy Spears to deal small amounts of fire damage to random raid members.
Strategy
Tanks must perform a tank swap to deal with Seared Flesh, but as they’re already switching it won’t change much.
Ranged will have to stay spread out to Conflagration doesn’t spread. Dispel Conflagrations as quickly as possible.
Avoid getting hit by Inferno Breath. Dispel anyone who gets hit and receives the DoT.
Still need to kill the Pack Beasts, avoid and kill the Heavy Spears, spread out to avoid Rend and Tear and be prepared for damage from Tantrum.
Final On Foot Phase
Final test of all the tasks we’ve been performing up until now. Typical burn phase. Use any cooldowns left. Use Bloodlust here.
SUMMARY
Tanks:
* Perform a tank switch throughout the fight, except for the first 15%, to deal with Rend and Tear, Crush Armor, and Seared Flesh.
* Tank the boss near where the Pack Beasts come out. Pick up and tank the Pack Beasts.
Healers:
* Watch for raid-wide damage from Tantrum starting at Ironcrusher. Use healing cooldowns if needed.
* Dispel players affected by Conflagration, Inferno Breath, and Superheated Shrapnel
DPS:
* AoE the Pack Beasts
* Focus DPS on Heavy Spears that are pinning raid members down. Multi-DoT Heavy Spears that aren’t.
* Remove the enrage effect of Cruelfang.
Everyone:
* Ranged spread out except for the first 15% of the fight.
* Melee spread out temporarily when Rend and Tear is being cast
* Avoid: Pin Down, Inferno Breath, and Superheated Shrapnel, and avoid standing in the void zones.