by Arphir of Axis [Dark Iron]

Overview

One of Lady Vashj’s most powerful lieutenants, Fathom-Lord Karathress is charged with ensuring that Seer Olum remains her captive.

This fight is straightforward in execution, but is something of a gear check for your raid until a few of the Fathom-Guards have been killed. The primary challenge of this fight is usually healing all the damage that is being dealt to a large number of targets in the raid at the same time. Like High King Maulgar, the fight becomes easier each time an add is killed; however, unlike Maulgar, Karathress will gain the abilities of his minions when they die, making him more powerful.

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Abilities

Karathress

HP: 1,700,000

Melee: Hits for about 3,000 on a tank.

Cataclysm Bolt: Damages a random player for an amount equal to half the player’s maximum HP. Karathress will use this ability once every ten seconds.

The Beast Within: Karathress gains this buff when Fathom-Guard Sharkiss dies, increasing his melee damage dramatically.

Spitfire Totem: Karathress gains this ability when Fathom-Guard Tidalvess dies. Behaves identically to Tidalvess’ ability of the same name.

Tidal Surge: Karathress gains this ability when Fathom-Guard Charibdis dies. Behaves identically to Charibdis’ ability of the same name.

Enrage: Ten minutes after entering combat, Karathress’ damage and movement speed will increase exponentially and he will slaughter the raid.

Fathom-Guard Sharkiss

HP: 855,000

Melee: Hits a tank for moderate damage.

Multishot: Deals 2,000-3,000 damage each to three players near Sharkiss.

Leeching Throw: Targets a single mana-using player and afflicts them with a debuff that drains 525 mana every 2 seconds for 12 seconds. Also damages the player for an amount equal to the amount of mana drained.

Summon Pet: Occurs once, not long after Sharkiss enters combat. Sharkiss summons either an elemental or a Serpentshrine Sporebat (beast) that hits a tank for moderate damage and possesses no special abilities. The pet cannot be crowd controlled.

The Beast Within: Sharkiss and his pet go into a rage, increasing Sharkiss’ damage by 30% and his pet’s damage by 50% for 18 seconds.

Fathom-Guard Tidalvess

HP: 840,000

Melee: Hits a tank for high amounts of damage. Tidalvess possesses a Windfury weapon imbue and can deal large amounts of damage unexpectedly.

Frost Shock: Similar to the shaman ability of the same name, Frost Shock deals 6,000 frost damage to and is used on Tidalvess’ aggro target.

Spitfire Totem: Tidalvess will frequently summon a Spitfire Totem which attacks five targets in the raid repeatedly for about 3,000 fire damage each. The totem has about 25,000 health.

Earthbind Totem: Similar to the shaman totem of the same name, it temporarily reduces the movement speed of Tidalvess’ nearby enemies by 50%.

Poison Cleansing Totem: Removes a poison effect from Tidalvess once every five seconds.

Fathom-Guard Caribdis

HP: 885,000

Melee: Hits a tank for light damage.

Water Bolt Volley: Caribdis will periodically attack all players within 45 yards with a volley of water bolts, hitting them for 2,700-3,250 damage each.

Heal: Heals one of Caribdis’ allies for 30% of their HP. Heal has a 1 second cast time, unlimited range, and does not obey line of sight. It can be interrupted, as well as slowed by abilities like Curse of Tongues.

Tidal Surge: Every 15-20 seconds, Caribdis will encase anybody within 10 yards in an ice block for 3 seconds. While encased, players cannot attack or move, but they can still take damage.

Tornado: At the start of the fight, Caribdis summons a tornado which will meander about the room. The Tornado deals no damage, but any player caught within it will be tossed into the air for a few seconds, interrupting spell casts and immobilizing the player. The Tornado disappears when Caribdis dies.

Preparation

Raid Composition

4 Tanks (no more than 2 should be Protection spec’ed Warriors)

8 Healers

13 DPS

1 Shaman

1 Warlock

2 Hunters

While tanking assignments are flexible on this fight, a Druid tends to be best for tanking Sharkkis and his pet due to the ease with which druids tank two targets at once. A Warrior is highly preferable for tanking Caribdis, since he will be able to assist with interrupting her heals.

Assignments

Use the following macro to assign the roles in your raid.

/rw — INC KARATHRESS ASSIGNMENTS –

/raid Karathress Tank: [1 Tank] – Heals: [1 Healer]

/raid Tidalvess Tank: [1 Tank] – Heals: [3 Healers]

/raid Caribdis Tank: [1 Warrior] – Heals: [1 Healer]

/raid Sharkkis Tank: [1 Tank] – Heals: [2 Healers]

/raid Raid/Tidalvess Healers Healer: [1 Healer]

/raid Caribdis interrupts: [1 Shaman, 1 Warlock]

The shaman assigned to interrupt Caribdis should be placed in the same party as the tank on Tidalvess (you’ll probably want to put the warlock in this party, too, so he can place his imp near that tank for Blood Pact). If the shaman is Restoration spec’ed, it’s possible for him to solo heal this corner while interrupting Caribdis and providing Grounding Totems for Tidalvess, but extremely challenging and inadvisable.

On the pull

The accompanying diagram illustrates initial positioning, the locations to which the mobs should be pulled, and the raid’s movement throughout the fight. The pull will be accomplished by the Hunters and tanks in the raid. Note that several seconds after entering combat, Fathom-Guard Sharkkis will summon his pet, which must also be tanked.

Raid Leader Assign each Hunter in the raid to Misdirect a different target to its intended tank. The top priority for Misdirect is to bring Sharkkis’ pet, which will spawn a few seconds after the pull, to the player tanking Sharkkis. This player will double tank both the pet and Sharkkis. If a second hunter is available, assign him to Misdirect Tidalvess to his tank. If a third hunter is available, assign him to Misdirect Sharkkis; additional hunters may be assigned to Caribdis, then Karathress.

Hunter Choose one Hunter to coordinate the pull by counting down in voice chat (“5… 4… 3… 2… 1… pull!”). Misdirect your assigned target to its tank, then join the DPS train. If you were assigned to Misdirect Sharkiss’ pet to the Sharkiss tank, be aware that ther emay be a delay before the pet appears.

Tanks If the raid leader assigned a Hunter to Misdirect your target to you, you can simply stand at the location where you’ll tank it, or meet it halfway. Otherwise, when the pull is ordered on voice chat, you’ll need to participate — either running in and attacking the mob to get aggro, or using ranged pulling abilities like Moonfire and Faerie Fire. Despite being Misdirected, Sharkkis may not immediately move to his tank, instead pausing to cast Leeching Throw; in this event the tank should body pull him to prevent a healer from gaining aggro. Finally, the tank tanking Tidalvess needs to get him into position quickly; otherwise he’ll drop his Spitfire Totem in the middle of the room, causing trouble and forcing the DPS to kill it before killing Sharkkis.

Phase 1

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Raid The kill order is Sharkkis –> Sharkiss’ pet –> Tidalvess –> Caribdis –> Karathress. As a general rule, when you’re DPS’ing one Fathom-Guard, don’t get too close to the others. Wait until Sharkkis is in position and his pet has spawned and been brought under control before beginning any DPS.

At all times during the fight, be aware that Karathress’ Cataclysm Bolt could kill you instantly if you drop below 50% HP. For this reason, you should use bandages, healthstones, and healing potions very liberally on this fight. This is especially important at the beginning of the fight, when half the raid is taking damage and the healers are very busy. If you’ve hovered under 50% for a few seconds and the healers haven’t got around to you, heal yourself. Karathress will sometimes attack the same target with Cataclysm Bolt two or three times in a row.

While DPS’ing Tidalvess, he will frequently drop a Spitfire Totem. Ranged DPS should switch targets and kill the totem every time it appears.

While DPS’ing Karathress, he will also drop the Spitfire Totem. Ranged DPS should kill this as well; however, if Karathress is within one minute or so of enraging, the raid leader should consider ordering all DPS to ignore Spitfire Totems and focus solely on killing Karathress before it’s too late.

Shaman Instead of participating in general raid DPS or healing, one Shaman must be appointed to interrupt Caribdis’ heals with Earth Shock. Stand about 12 yards away from Caribdis for the entire fight; simply keep her targeted and use Earth Shock whenever she casts Heal. Heal is a very fast spell, so you need to react quickly.

Whenever Caribdis casts a Heal, quickly run over and drop a Grounding Totem near Tidalvess; this will neutralize Tidalvess’ Frost Shock. Interrupting Heals is your primary duty, so make sure to return to Caribdis as quickly as possible.

As you become more comfortable with the fight you may also DPS Caribdis or assist with healing in that corner of the room. Once Caribdis dies, you can join the raid in killing Karathress.

Warlock Instead of participating in general raid DPS, one Warlock must be appointed to keep Curse of Tongues on Caribdis. Stand about 12 yards away from Caribdis and ensure that this curse always stays up. You can also DPS Caribdis. Once she dies, join the raid in killing Karathress.

Tanks The tanking of all mobs is stationary and relatively straightforward in this fight. Sharkkis’ tank should make sure that he retains aggro on both Sharkkis and his pet at all times. Tidalvess’ tank needs to keep Tidalvess as far back in the corner as possible, so that the rest of the raid can outrange the Spitfire Totem’s attack. Caribdis’ tank should use Shield Bash or Pummel to interrupt Heal as often as possible. Karathress’ tank simply needs to be aware that Karathress will deal more and more damage as the fight progresses; he will have a long time to build aggro before the raid arrives, so focus on keeping survival debuffs like Demoralizing Shout and Thunderclap up.

Healers Healing this fight can be very challenging. In the beginning, there will be four tanks taking damage. Any member of the raid may be damaged by a Cataclysm Bolt. All of the players in Caribdis’ and Tidalvess’ corners of the room will be taking damage. As the Fathom-Guards are killed, the number of players taking damage will decrease, but the damage taken by Karathress’ tank will increase. At all times during the fight, all players must be kept above 50% health.

The macro in the Preparation section describes initial healing assignments. At first, most healers are assigned to tanks; one healer is assigned to ensuring that the healers near Tidalvess stay alive when being attacked by Spitfire Totem. When Sharkkis dies, one of his healers should go assist in healing the Karathress tank; the other should follow the raid to Tidalvess, and raid heal. When Tidalvess dies, two of his healers should go assist in healing the Karathress tank; the third, and the “Tidalvess Healers’ Healer,” should follow the raid to Caribdis and raid heal. When Caribdis dies, the Caribdis healer should go assist in healing Karathress’ tank.

Continue damaging Karathress until he is dead. Congratulations!