by Arphir of Axis [Dark Iron]

Overview

Once the arrogant Lord of Outland, Magtheridon now stands captive beneath Hellfire Citadel, victim to Illidan’s designs.

Magtheridon is a three phase encounter in which players must first defeat the five Hellfire Channelers which keep him banished and immobile, then defeat Magtheridon himself once he breaks free. Phase 1 consists of killing as many Channelers as possible. Phase 2 begins two minutes after the fight starts: Magtheridon breaks free, and it consists of dealing with his abilities while finishing off the Channelers and damaging him. Phase 3 begins when Magtheridon is at 30% health and ends when he is dead; this phase is similar to phase 2, but Magtheridon gains a few additional abilities.

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Abilities

Hellfire Channeler (x5)

HP: 240,000 each

Shadow Volley: AOE shadowbolt with a 1 second cast time. Hits all players within 30 yards for about 1800 dmg. Can be Kicked/Counterspelled/Earth Shocked.

Dark Mending: Single target heal that heals a Channeler for 69,375-80,625. 2 second cast time, 30 yard range. The Channelers will only use this on a target that has less than 50% HP (including themselves). Interruptible.

Summon Burning Abyssal: Causes an infernal to appear, damaging anyone in its vicinity for 2,625-3,375. The infernal will run around casting a 20 yard Fire Blast for 3300 damage and melee’ing for around 3,000 on cloth. Each Channeler may summon up to two Abyssals at once, and when a Channeler is killed, the infernals he summoned eventually despawn. Burning Abyssals are suspectible to all forms of crowd control that work on Demons.

Soul Transfer: Stacking, undispellable buff that increases the Channeler’s damage and casting speed by 30%. Every time you kill one Hellfire Channeler, all of the others gain this buff; for example, the last Channeler you kill will have an additional 120% damage and cast speed.

Magtheridon

HP: 4,750,000

Quake: Shakes the room, interrupting all spell casts and causing players to bounce around for about 7 seconds. Only instant abilities can be used during this time. First occurs 40 seconds after Magtheridon unbanishes, and about every 50 seconds after that. A Quake will not occur while Magtheridon is casting Blast Nova.

Conflagration: Magtheridon will occasionally shoot a fireball at a random area in his room. A patch of fire will remain wherever the fireball landed for several minutes. Entering these flames will disorient the player for about 7 seconds, and cause about 3,000 damage over time, so players should avoid walking over these areas.

Blast Nova: Deals 2,500 damage every 2 seconds for 10 seconds to all players. First occurs 1 minute after Magtheridon unbanishes, and occurs every 60 seconds. Blast Nova may be interrupted if five players use the Manticron Cubes positioned at the Channelers’ locations while Magtheridon is casting, but any player who uses a Cube will be granted a debuff (Mind Exhaustion) which prevents then from using the Cube again in the next 90 seconds. Channeling a Manticron Cube additionally deals 800 damage per second to the player.

Manticron Vulnerability: When all 5 Manticron Cubes are used on Magtheridon simultaneously, he takes 300% damage.

Phase 3 Transition: When Magtheridon reaches 30% health and Phase 3 begins, he will shatter the walls and roof of his lair! All players will take 5,250-6,750 damage and be stunned for 2 seconds. Any actions in progress will be cancelled.

Cave In: During Phase 3, Magtheridon will frequently cause the ceiling to cave in on the locations of random players. The Cave In is preceded by an animation consisting of dust, rocks, and shaking ground and small amounts of damage, but if you remain inside it, it will eventually cause more than 100,000 damage.

Cleave: Deals physical damage to everyone in front of Magtheridon. Hits for about 8,000 on plate.

Melee: About 6,000-7,000 on plate.

Preparation

Raid composition

5 tanks (warriors are strongly preferred for their ability to interrupt Dark Mending with Shield Bash, but only 2-3 of them need Main Tank quality gear)

8 healers

3 warlocks

12 DPS

Positioning

See the accompanying diagram for initial raid positioning.

Raid Leader Assign the five tanks to different Channelers. One of your strongest tanks should be on the 4 o’clock Channeler, and the other should be on the 8 o’clock Channeler. The 8 o’clock tank will establish aggro on Magtheridon when he unbanishes. It is advisable to assign any druid tanks to the 6 o’clock or 8 o’clock Channelers so that their rogue partners can join the main DPS train ASAP (see below).

Also assign two teams of five people each. These are your “Clicker Teams,” which will be responsible for channeling the Manticron Cubes in Phase 2. The teams will trade off responding to Blast Nova casts, so make sure to specify which team will use the Cubes first. A great way to sort this out is to use Orion Magtheridon Assistant.

Assign each warlock in the raid a section of Magtheridon’s room (like “North,” “West,” or “East”). The warlock will be responsible for applying Curse of Tongues to the Channelers in this area, and Banishing or Fearing any nearby infernals.

Finally, if you have any druid tanks, they cannot interrupt spells. Assign a rogue to each one, who will assist them by Kicking every time that tank’s Channeler casts Dark Mending. These rogues should continue to interrupt the Dark Mendings until their Channeler is dead, at which point they can assist the DPS train.

Tanks Position yourself next to your assigned channeler.

Ranged DPS Position yourself in between the 6 o’clock and 8 o’clock Channelers.

Melee DPS Position yourself next to the 6 o’clock Channeler.

Healers Position yourself nearby your assigned target(s).

Assignments

You can use the following macros to help assign the roles in this fight:

/rw — ASSIGNMENTS INC –

/raid 6PM Tank: [1 Tank] – Heals: [1 Healer]

/raid 8PM Tank: [MT] – Heals: [2 Healers]

/raid 10PM Tank: [1 Tank] – Heals: [2 Healers]

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

/raid 4PM Tank: [1 Tank] – Heals: [1 Healer]

/raid As Channelers die – spot heal the raid and 2PM, 4PM, Magtheridon tanks

/raid When 6PM dies – healer go heal 4PM tank

On the pull

Tanks All tanks should initiate aggro on their targets at the same time. Channelers will not aggro unless one of them is attacked; then they will all become active. An easy way to do this is to have one tank count down “5… 4… 3… 2… 1… PULL!” in voice chat. If your Channeler runs off, go get it and bring it back into position!

DPS As soon as the 6 o’clock tank has aggro, DPS his Channeler.

Hunter As soon as the Channelers are active, use all available Misdirects to increase the 6 o’clock tank’s threat on his Channeler.

Phase 1

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Tanks Maintain aggro on your Channeler. When he casts Dark Mending, interrupt it with Shield Bash (or, if necessary, Pummel). Keep in mind that Dark Mending has a 30 yard range, and the starting locations of the Channelers are about 25 yards apart. If you can move your Channeler a little further away from the others, they won’t be able to cast Dark Mending on him while he’s been damaged (but he’ll still try to cast it on himself).

Main Tank You were assigned to the 8 o’clock Channeler, who should die relatively quickly. Make sure that before Phase 2 begins, you have positioned yourself in front of Magtheridon and inside his hitbox so that you can establish aggro immediately when he unbanishes.

DPS Kill the Channelers in the following order: 6 o’clock, 8 o’clock, 10 o’clock, 2 o’clock, 4 o’clock. Use any spell interruption ability you have (Counterspell, Kick, Pummel, etc.) whenever your current target casts a spell. You are trying to interrupt as many Shadow Volleys as possible, and providing backup to the tank in case he tries to Shield Bash a Dark Mending but misses. It’s absolutely critical to stop all Dark Mendings. Once all five Channelers are dead, DPS Magtheridon. If you were assigned to assist a Druid tank, your job is to DPS his Channeler while Kicking every time it casts Dark Mending. Once this Channeler is dead, join the main DPS train.

Rogue If you were assigned to assist a Druid tank, your job is to DPS his Channeler while Kicking every time it casts Dark Mending. Once this Channeler is dead, join the main DPS train.

Warlock The raid leader has assigned you a section of Magtheridon’s room. Stay near this area of the room. Use Banish, Fear, and Howl of Terror immediately on any Burning Abyssals that spawn in this area; keep them crowd controlled. Also make sure to keep Curse of Tongues up at all times on any Channelers in this area. If you have a few spare seconds, you can help out the other warlocks (Abyssals especially tend to congregate near the raid or near groups of healers), you can DoT the Channelers in your area, or you can assist the main DPS train, but crowd control is your primary role here.

Healers If you were assigned to heal the Main Tank in Phase 2, make sure you are within range of him and ready to heal as soon as Magtheridon unbanishes.

Phase 2

This phase begins two minutes after the Channelers aggro, regardless of whether they are still alive. There will usually be at least one Channeler alive when Magtheridon unbanishes; if there are three or more, this phase will be very difficult.

The accompanying diagram displays the positions of the tank and Clicker Teams during this phase.

Tanks Build threat on Magtheridon once he unbanishes, and position him as shown in the dragram. Magtheridon’s threat table does not seem to become active until a second or two after he unbanishes and becomes attackable, so attack him immediately, but wait for a moment before using cooldowns like Shield Slam.

Cube Clicker Teams The raid leader has assigned you to be the first or second individual responsible for channeling a Manticron Cube when Magtheridon casts Blast Nova. The first Blast Nova occurs 1 minute after Magtheridon unbanishes. When your turn to channel is coming up, make sure you’ve moved to your assigned Cube with plenty of time to spare; keep in mind that a Quake may cause you to lose control of your character and throw you around a bit for 7 seconds.

When Magtheridon begins to cast Blast Nova, it’s time for you to click your Cube. Do not click it before this time, or else it may be interrupted by a Quake. The Blast Nova will be accompanied by an emote, and you will see it in Magtheridon’s cast bar–you must enable cast bars in your UI if you’re not using an addon which displays them. Right-click your Cube once, and don’t move. Moving will break the channeling action; don’t do this unless you are low on HP or you see that Magtheridon has been banished and someone else has already broken their channeling action. When all 5 members of your team are channeling, Magtheridon will take 300% damage!

DPS Bring Magtheridon’s health to 32%, then pause your DPS until after the next Blast Nova is cancelled. Bringing Magtheridon to 30% will trigger Phase 3, momentarily stunning everybody and damaging them, so doing this just before a Blast Nova can cause a wipe.

Healers DPS will pause when Magtheridon reaches 32% until the next Blast Nova has been cancelled. At this time, they will roll Magtheridon over to 30%, beginning Phase 3 and causing the entire raid to take about 6,000 damage. You must make sure that all raid members are at full health when this happens, and that as many HoTs as possible have been placed on the Main Tank, since all healers will be stunned for 2 seconds at the beginning of Phase 3!

Phase 3

Raid Use Healthstones, healing potions, and bandages immediately after being damaged and stunned. The remained of this Phase is identical to Phase 2, except that Magtheridon now gains the Cave In ability (see the Abilities section for more information). Do not stand directly on a Manticron Cube during this phase, as doing so may cause a Cave In to appear on top of it, making it very difficult for the Cube Clicker Teams to continue doing their job!

Continue to damage Magtheridon until he is dead. Congratulations on completing the final Tier 4 raid encounter!