This is a three-phase fight, in which Phases One and Two alternate for most of the fight. When Zakuun reaches 35% health, or when two cycles of Phases One and Two have finished, Zakuun enters Phase Three. In Phase three he uses all the abilities from the previous two phases. In addition to this, the tanks will have to contend with a special shadow realm.
Phase One is the ARMED phase. In Phase One Zakuun uses his axe to attack us. His attacks are slow but powerful. After 1.5 minutes, he’ll throw his axe to the ground and becomes DISARMED. This is Phase Two. When he’s disarmed, Zakuun attacks much caster. After 45 seconds, he’ll pick the axe up again and Phase One starts again.
The Shadow Realm. This is an alternate version of the room in which the raid is fighting the boss. Only tanks can access this realm — it happens whenever they are hit by Soul Cleave — and they return automatically after 15 seconds. When exiting the Shadow Realm, the tanks gain the “Invigorated” buff, which lasts 20 seconds.
Inside the Shadow Realm there is, initially, nothing to do. Tanks just sit there until they’re sent back. But each time they’re sent back they spawn an add called “Residual Energy” in the Shadow Realm. These are unattackable NPCs that continually cast “Wake of Destruction” and “Rings of Destruction” in all directions. These spells only affect the players inside the Shadow Realm.
* Wake of Destruction: purple waves that do heavy shadow damage and apply a debuff called Latent Energy.
* Rings of Destruction: rings that the Residual Energy adds create around them, which travel outward and deal moderate Shadow damage and apply the Latent Energy debuff. Rings of Destruction can be jumped over.
The Residual Energy adds never desapwn, which means it will become increasingly difficult to avoid the rings and waves in the Shadow Realm. If they become too numerous this will eventually kill the tanks.
PHASE ONE: ARMED. This phase lasts 1.5 minutes.
Abilities
* Latent Energy. Debuff applied on players through various means. It increases the players DPS and healing done for 1.5 minutes, and ALSO causes the players to take extra damage from a number of abilities in the encounter.
* Soul Cleave: anti-tank ability. Heavy Shadow damage + teleport to the Shadow Realm + Cloven Hoof debuff which increases damage taken.
* Rumbling Fissures: Void zones on the ground that can be absorbed by raid members. If it’s not absorbed, a Fel Crystal spawns from it. These are unattackable NPCs that deal fire damage to the raid as long as they are alive. The void zones can be absorbed by having a raid member stand in them for 5 seconds. This causes the void zone to despawn without creating a Fel Crystal, and applies “Latent Energy” to the person who soaked it. One Fel Crystal will appear regardless at a random location.
* Cavitation: The boss throws purple Wakes of Destruction toward random raid members.
* Unleashed Energy: moderate fire damage to all raid members. This happens IF a player debuffed with Latent Energy takes damage from (a) Rumbling Fissures, or (b) The Wake of Destruction. Or if © a Fel Crystal is hit by a Wake of Destruction.
* Befouled: targets a random raid member. Places a healing absorption shield on that player, which absorbs a modest amount of healing. When the player is healed enough for the shield to face, this causes a Foul Explosion, an AoE that hits everyone within 6 yards.
Strategy
This involves correctly handling the Rumbling Fissures and avoiding the Wakes of Destruction. The raid must also minimize the number of Unleashed Energy explosions that happen.
Tanks: Swap at each Soul Cleave. When in the Shadow Realm, avoid the Rings of Destruction and Wakes of Destruction. To avoid the Rings, the tank must jump over the ring’s edge as it passes under you. Wakes must be dodged. This will get progressively more difficult as the encounter goes on.
Positioning: Players spread out loosely around the room.
Mechanics:
* In general: Dodge the Wakes of Destruction.
BUT, if you are debuffed with Latent Energy: don’t get hit by the Wakes of Destruction, as that would probably kill you.
AND, if you are not debuffed with Latent Energy, and a Wake is going to hit a Crystal, stand in front of a crystal to shield it.
* Rumbling Fissures: Raid members must absorb these by standing in them for 5 seconds (to prevent more Crystals from spawning). Once a players has absorbed one, they will be debuffed with Latent Energy and can’t soak another one for 1.5 minutes.
Note: we can choose NOT to soak the last fissure, thus placing our guaranteed crystal there. If we soak them all we’ll get a crystal in a random location. We should leave the fissure closest to the door, or one of the walls. Once a crystal is up, place other crystals close to the first one.
* Heal players with the Befouled debuff. Affected player must stand 6 yards from others when the healing shield wears off.
PHASE TWO: DISARMED. This lasts 45 seconds.
Abilities
* Fel Explosions: For the first 30 seconds Zakuun’s axe channels Fel Explosions. These do heavy fire damage to the entire raid every second.
* Heavy Handed: Self-buff that causes his anti-tank melee attacks to hit everyone within 5 yards. If nobody besides the tank is in range, he will hit the tank twice.
* Seed of Destruction: Chooses 5 random raid members and causes them to release 8 Wakes of Destruction after 5 seconds.
Strategy
Avoid damage from the Seed of Destruction. Players affected by Seed of Destruction should go stand in separate corners of the room. Raid members who are NOT affected by Latent Energy should try to intercept sone of these Wakes to keep them from touching Fel Crystals or other players affected by Latent Energy.
The second tank should stand on top of the first tank to handle Heavy Handed.
Stack up in the middle of the room as we’ll need to blow cooldowns to survive Fel Explosions.
Phase Three: Enraged
At 35% health, or when two cycles of Phases One and Two have cycled, Zakuun becomes Enraged.
Abilities: He uses all the abilities from the previous two phases, except for Soul Cleave (so the tanks are no longer sent to the shadow realm). Seed of Destruction has a 3-second duration instead of a 5-second one.
Strategy: Intense and chaotic phase. Perform most of the previous tasks while killing Zakuun as quickly as possible. Fissures must be soaked, Wakes must be avoided and intercepted.
Bloodlust
We’ll use Bloodlust in Phase Three.
Legenday rings: DPS use them on cooldown, but save one for Phase Three. Healers use theirs each time Fel Explosions is cast, and save it for Phase Three. Tanks use theirs to deal with Heavy Handed.
Summary
Tanks
* Swap at Soul Cleave
* Avoid all avoidable damage within the Shadow Realm for 15 seconds. Move out of Wakes of Destruction and jump over Ringsn of Destruction.
* In Phases Two and Three, tanks stand close together to take the damage from Heavy Handed and Heavily Armed equally.
Healers
* Use cooldowns on Fel Explosions during Phase Two and Three
DPS
* Kill the boss (duh)
Everyone
* Avoid taking damage from Wakes of Destruction twice within 1.5 minutes at all costs, as you will explode.
* Absorb Rumbling Fissures (if you don’t have the Latent Energy debuff)
* When targeted by Seed of Destruction, move as far from everyone as possible, preferable to a corner of the room.
Phase One is the ARMED phase. In Phase One Zakuun uses his axe to attack us. His attacks are slow but powerful. After 1.5 minutes, he’ll throw his axe to the ground and becomes DISARMED. This is Phase Two. When he’s disarmed, Zakuun attacks much caster. After 45 seconds, he’ll pick the axe up again and Phase One starts again.
The Shadow Realm. This is an alternate version of the room in which the raid is fighting the boss. Only tanks can access this realm — it happens whenever they are hit by Soul Cleave — and they return automatically after 15 seconds. When exiting the Shadow Realm, the tanks gain the “Invigorated” buff, which lasts 20 seconds.
Inside the Shadow Realm there is, initially, nothing to do. Tanks just sit there until they’re sent back. But each time they’re sent back they spawn an add called “Residual Energy” in the Shadow Realm. These are unattackable NPCs that continually cast “Wake of Destruction” and “Rings of Destruction” in all directions. These spells only affect the players inside the Shadow Realm.
* Wake of Destruction: purple waves that do heavy shadow damage and apply a debuff called Latent Energy.
* Rings of Destruction: rings that the Residual Energy adds create around them, which travel outward and deal moderate Shadow damage and apply the Latent Energy debuff. Rings of Destruction can be jumped over.
The Residual Energy adds never desapwn, which means it will become increasingly difficult to avoid the rings and waves in the Shadow Realm. If they become too numerous this will eventually kill the tanks.
PHASE ONE: ARMED. This phase lasts 1.5 minutes.
Abilities
* Latent Energy. Debuff applied on players through various means. It increases the players DPS and healing done for 1.5 minutes, and ALSO causes the players to take extra damage from a number of abilities in the encounter.
* Soul Cleave: anti-tank ability. Heavy Shadow damage + teleport to the Shadow Realm + Cloven Hoof debuff which increases damage taken.
* Rumbling Fissures: Void zones on the ground that can be absorbed by raid members. If it’s not absorbed, a Fel Crystal spawns from it. These are unattackable NPCs that deal fire damage to the raid as long as they are alive. The void zones can be absorbed by having a raid member stand in them for 5 seconds. This causes the void zone to despawn without creating a Fel Crystal, and applies “Latent Energy” to the person who soaked it. One Fel Crystal will appear regardless at a random location.
* Cavitation: The boss throws purple Wakes of Destruction toward random raid members.
* Unleashed Energy: moderate fire damage to all raid members. This happens IF a player debuffed with Latent Energy takes damage from (a) Rumbling Fissures, or (b) The Wake of Destruction. Or if © a Fel Crystal is hit by a Wake of Destruction.
* Befouled: targets a random raid member. Places a healing absorption shield on that player, which absorbs a modest amount of healing. When the player is healed enough for the shield to face, this causes a Foul Explosion, an AoE that hits everyone within 6 yards.
Strategy
This involves correctly handling the Rumbling Fissures and avoiding the Wakes of Destruction. The raid must also minimize the number of Unleashed Energy explosions that happen.
Tanks: Swap at each Soul Cleave. When in the Shadow Realm, avoid the Rings of Destruction and Wakes of Destruction. To avoid the Rings, the tank must jump over the ring’s edge as it passes under you. Wakes must be dodged. This will get progressively more difficult as the encounter goes on.
Positioning: Players spread out loosely around the room.
Mechanics:
* In general: Dodge the Wakes of Destruction.
BUT, if you are debuffed with Latent Energy: don’t get hit by the Wakes of Destruction, as that would probably kill you.
AND, if you are not debuffed with Latent Energy, and a Wake is going to hit a Crystal, stand in front of a crystal to shield it.
* Rumbling Fissures: Raid members must absorb these by standing in them for 5 seconds (to prevent more Crystals from spawning). Once a players has absorbed one, they will be debuffed with Latent Energy and can’t soak another one for 1.5 minutes.
Note: we can choose NOT to soak the last fissure, thus placing our guaranteed crystal there. If we soak them all we’ll get a crystal in a random location. We should leave the fissure closest to the door, or one of the walls. Once a crystal is up, place other crystals close to the first one.
* Heal players with the Befouled debuff. Affected player must stand 6 yards from others when the healing shield wears off.
PHASE TWO: DISARMED. This lasts 45 seconds.
Abilities
* Fel Explosions: For the first 30 seconds Zakuun’s axe channels Fel Explosions. These do heavy fire damage to the entire raid every second.
* Heavy Handed: Self-buff that causes his anti-tank melee attacks to hit everyone within 5 yards. If nobody besides the tank is in range, he will hit the tank twice.
* Seed of Destruction: Chooses 5 random raid members and causes them to release 8 Wakes of Destruction after 5 seconds.
Strategy
Avoid damage from the Seed of Destruction. Players affected by Seed of Destruction should go stand in separate corners of the room. Raid members who are NOT affected by Latent Energy should try to intercept sone of these Wakes to keep them from touching Fel Crystals or other players affected by Latent Energy.
The second tank should stand on top of the first tank to handle Heavy Handed.
Stack up in the middle of the room as we’ll need to blow cooldowns to survive Fel Explosions.
Phase Three: Enraged
At 35% health, or when two cycles of Phases One and Two have cycled, Zakuun becomes Enraged.
Abilities: He uses all the abilities from the previous two phases, except for Soul Cleave (so the tanks are no longer sent to the shadow realm). Seed of Destruction has a 3-second duration instead of a 5-second one.
Strategy: Intense and chaotic phase. Perform most of the previous tasks while killing Zakuun as quickly as possible. Fissures must be soaked, Wakes must be avoided and intercepted.
Bloodlust
We’ll use Bloodlust in Phase Three.
Legenday rings: DPS use them on cooldown, but save one for Phase Three. Healers use theirs each time Fel Explosions is cast, and save it for Phase Three. Tanks use theirs to deal with Heavy Handed.
Summary
Tanks
* Swap at Soul Cleave
* Avoid all avoidable damage within the Shadow Realm for 15 seconds. Move out of Wakes of Destruction and jump over Ringsn of Destruction.
* In Phases Two and Three, tanks stand close together to take the damage from Heavy Handed and Heavily Armed equally.
Healers
* Use cooldowns on Fel Explosions during Phase Two and Three
DPS
* Kill the boss (duh)
Everyone
* Avoid taking damage from Wakes of Destruction twice within 1.5 minutes at all costs, as you will explode.
* Absorb Rumbling Fissures (if you don’t have the Latent Energy debuff)
* When targeted by Seed of Destruction, move as far from everyone as possible, preferable to a corner of the room.