by Anikki of Do 

Overview

To fully understand the illustrations above a few annotations are required:

(A) Nightbane always lands a few yards (10-30) to the “right” (warrior PoV during tanking) of where he started to fly. Over the course of the fight this means that the fight “travels” along the balcony and thus positions change.

(B) the axis of the fight is always nightbane. The MT has to make sure nightbane is always facing outwards so the breath and cleave dont endanger the raid. This is particularly important after Phase II when Nightbane lands.

(C) the safest position after phase II while the MT is repositioning Nightbane and getting aggro is right at the edge of the dome and minimum 30yds away from nightbane (to avoid fear that might run someone into cleave/breath).

Abilities

Nightbane has two alternating phases:

PHASE GROUND and PHASE AIR. The latter is a timerbased phase that lasts 50 seconds and is triggered every 25% at 75%, 50% and 25% health. During PHASE AIR, Nightbane will be airborn.

PHASE GROUND:

Melee: Basic melee Damage. 6-10k damage (raw, crushing).

Cleave: Typical dragon cleave, frontal arc. Hits for 7k (raw).

Smoldering Breath: Frontal AoE 3700 to 4300 fire (raw). Unlimited Range, LoS checking. Adds a DoT that deals 1688 to 1912 damage every 3 seconds for 15 seconds.

Bellowing Roar: Fear, cannot be dispelled, cooldown 30+ seconds. Resistible with Berserker Rage, Fear Ward, or Will of the Forsaken, Death Wish.

Tail Sweep: Rear AoE, 450 fire damage. Knockback. Adds a DoT for 450 fire every 3 seconds for 25 seconds.

Charred Earth: Random target AoE, dealing 2-3k fire (raw) to players in the affected area. Ticks every 3 sec. Lasts 30 seconds, 10 yard radius.

Distracting Ash: Reduces the range of spells and abilities by 50%. Can be dispelled.

PHASE AIR:

Rain of Bones: Random target debuff. Deals 352-408 physical to the target and everyone within 6 yds every second for about 15 seconds. Spawns 5 Restless Skeletons upon impact.

Restless Skeleton: 5 of these will be summoned at the beginning of PHASE AIR. Can be CC’d.

- Melee for approximately 800 (raw) physical.

- 13500 HP

Smoking Blast: 4-5k physical attack. 1sec Attack speed. Adds a DoT that deals 495 fire every 3 sec for 18 sec. Can be dispelled. Target is based on healing aggro generated from the moment Nightbane becomes airborn. (This is because he is out of range for DPS and tanks). Nightbane ceases to use this ablility 15 seconds before the end of PHASE AIR.

Fireball Barrage: Hits any player that is 40+ yds away from Nightbane for 3-3.5k fire every 1 sec. (Exploit prevention, nor relevant for a properly executed kill)

Setup

The fight requires 1 tank with 18k HP. A paladin is helpful for tanking in PHASE AIR. A Shadowpriest is good for added mana regen. Generally 3 healers are desireable, yet the fight is still doable with just 2. Direct healing is preferred over HoT.

PHASE GROUND:

Raid The raid assumes battle positions as illustrated. Note that DPS and healers should stand either at the outter wall or inner edge to the dome to make avoiding the AoE of Charred Earth easier while maintaining range.

Ranged DPS All ranged DPS and Healers should stay at maximum range (if possible) to outrange the Fear effect (30 yds range).

Melee DPS Melee DPS has to take care to always stay at Nightbanes rear legs to avoid Cleave, Breath and Tail.

Healers Use big heals. Always channeling the biggest spell. Timing is important. Often 9k or more HP have to be healed quickly. The fear can be outranged.

PHASE AIR:

Raid When Nightbane lifts off. Everyone runs to the MT and stays on top of him. Nightbane then casts “Rain of Bones” on a random player.

Immediately everyone escapes the “Rain of Bones” AoE in the illustrated direction (to the healer position from PHASE GROUND). The player debuffed by “Rain of Bones” remains stationary or escapes in the opposite direction. NOTE: Rain of Bones has 6yds range only. So don’t run off too far.

Once the Rain of Bones is dealt with (about 3-4 sec into PHASE AIR), everyone should be spread, Skeletons under control and dying fast.

Healers Rain of Bones will require some healing on the debuffed player. 7-10k HP. Cast something instant on the debuffed player (mending, renew, shield etc.) and get range asap. Followup with a direct heal.

Ranged DPS Make sure you get away quick to not require healing. Use focused fire to bring the adds down 1 by 1 quick.

Main Tank The main tank immediately gets aggro of all the spawned Adds and prevents them from running all over the place.

Hunter, Mage Slow and Freeze the Adds.

Healers Immediately after Rain of Bones, players (healers) will get targeted by Smoking Blast. Those players will need immediate healing attention. Watch for the debuff icon and aggro markers to heal (really) fast where needed. Dont forget to heal yourself if you get targetted.

Paladin It is possible for Paladins to generate more aggro from healing in PHASE AIR than anyone else by use of Righteous Fury. This makes it possible to control all Damage from Smoking Blast onto the Paladin, who can mitigate most of its damage (has more armor than a druid or priest) and make healing much easier. Whenever possible this should be leveraged. If this tactic is used, inform the healers so they can focus their healing on the Paladin.

PHASE TRANSITIONS

The most difficult part of the fight is the transition from PHASE AIR to PHASE GROUND. That is because of the Aggro wipe 10 seconds before the actual end of PHASE AIR. Meaning: Since aggro in PHASE AIR is derived ONLY from healing, any healing going on in the last 10 seconds of PHASE AIR will be carried over to PHASE GROUND. This means Nightbane will land in an unpredictable position and kill at least 1 player (the one with healing aggro).

To prevent this from happening, all healing has to stop 10+ seconds before PHASE AIR ends. No HoTs, no Direct Heals, nothing. Fade and Pala Bubble can save a player, yet this not always works and timing the fade / bubble right is very tricky.

10 Seconds before the end of PHASE AIR all adds should be dead.

Main Tank 10 sec before the end of the fight the MT walks over to the supposed landing position of Nightbane in order to grab and position him immediately when PHASE GROUND begins.

Healers Follow the MT when he moves into position. Many wipes result from our of range problems during the transition. Try to keep out of the fear range, but dont overdo it. Keep an eye on your bubble/bearform/fade and use it ASAP when you get aggro. Else you die.

DPS DPS make sure they are a good distance away from the MT when Nightbane lands to avoid getting hit by the breath / cleave or get feared into them.

Hunter Use missdirection on the Main Tank to help him get aggro immediately. This can also save the life of a healer who had to heal in the last 10 sec of PHASE AIR.

THE EDGE OF THE DOME (inner side of the balcony) IS EXPONENTIALLY SAFER THAN THE OUTTER WALL.

Once Nightbane is properly positioned, DPS move back to their side (walking along the edge of the dome to not get cleaved). Ideally wait for a fear to take place before running to further prevent accidents.

Notes

Threat

- PHASE GROUND threat works as usual.

- PHASE AIR threat is generated ONLY from healing (since he is out of range for DPS and Tanks)

- When Nightbane becomes airborn all threat from PHASE GROUND is wiped.

- 10 sec before PHASE AIR ends, all threat is wiped again.

- In order to not get aggro when Nightbane lands. Healers must stop healing (incl. HoT) 10 or more seconds before the end of PHASE AIR.

Staying Alive

DPS / Healers: Loose your aggro, use fade, vanish, FD, iceblock, and so on. Mind the cleave, breath and tail zones. Stick to the inner side of the balcony when Nightbane lands, its safer there. Healers stay in range of the Tank. Healers stay out of the fear range. Use bandages and healing potions. Get a health stone. Avoid the Charred Earth AoE.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.