The Obsidian Sanctum

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Overview

The Onyx Guardian is tasked with watching over the newest additions to Deathwing's brood: the twilight drakes.

The Obsidian Sanctum is one of Wrath of the Lich King's entry-level raids. For guilds that are new to raiding, it is an ideal first foray into raiding content because it's short, relatively simple, and yields a high Emblem count.

The Sanctum is filled with wandering packs of black dragons, as well as three Twilight Drakes named Shadron, Tenebron, and Vesperon. Sartharion, the Onyx Guardian, rests in the center of the Sanctum. If the Drakes are alive when Sartharion is engaged, he will call for their aid at intervals throughout the fight. Killing Sartharion without killing these Drakes first yields additional loot, but a guild that is just starting on WotLK raiding should kill all three Drakes before engaging Sartharion, as the fight is substantially more complex when they're alive.

Gear and consumables

Like most Wrath of the Lich King raid encounters, this fight is tuned for players who are using level 80 epic gear, as well as the best flasks and food buffs available. Getting the best possible gear for your character will make this fight a whole lot easier.

In WotLK, professions can be used to craft high quality epic gear. Most raid and heroic bosses also drop an epic bind-on-equip item. These items are the easiest way to get your character geared up fast, but they're expensive to craft or buy on the AH. The easiest way to get your hands on them is to use a guide like WoW Gold Secrets, which has tips for making several thousand gold per day. This is a great way to save time and down bosses faster.

Click here to try out WoW Gold Secrets.

Trash mobs

You will encounter a few different kinds of trash mobs in this instance. For information on all of them, check this link: http://www.wowhead.com/?zone=4493#npcs

All trash mobs in the Sanctum are intended to be tanked 1-2 at a time by a tanking class, and should be faced away from the raid, because some of them have frontal AOE attacks (like Shockwave). While they all have multiple special abilities, one mob, the Onyx Blaze Mistress, poses a larger threat to your raid than the others, and should be killed as quickly as possible.

Onyx Blaze Mistress
HP (Heroic): 390,000

Conjure Flame Orb: Conjures an orb of pure fire that floats through the air toward the target while firing searing beams at enemies that come within 18 yds.

Rain of Fire: Calls down a molten rain, burning all enemies in a selected area for 2775 to 3225 Fire damage (Heroic: 3700 to 4300) every 2 sec. for 6 sec.

Raid Move away from the Flame Orbs and Rain of Fire that will appear overhead while you're fighting an Onyx Blaze Mistress, but be careful not to stumble into another trash pack. Even tanks should try to move away from the orbs and the rain.

Shadron, Tenebron, and Vesperon

The three drakes all possess similar abilities, and the strategies for defeating all three are similar.

Abilities

Shadow Breath: 15 yd range; Instant. Inflicts 6938 to 8062 (Heroic: 8788 to 10212) Fire damage to enemies in a cone in front of the caster.

Shadow Fissure: Instant; 5 second cooldown. Targets the ground under any one player. Deals 6188 to 8812 (Heroic: 9488 to 13512) Shadow damage to any enemy within the Shadow fissure after 5 sec.

Conjure Portal: The drake will conjure a portal to the twilight realm, through which players may pass. A Disciple of the drakes waits on the other side of Shadron and Vesperon's portals; whelpling eggs ready to hatch wait on the other side of Tenebron's.

Note: If you leave the drakes alive when attempting Sartharion, the complexity of the encounter increases greatly. Each drake joins the fight at a different time and will apply a debuff to all raid members.

Tenebron
30 Seconds after start
Power of Tenebron: Unlimited range; Instant. Tenebron's presence increases Shadow damage taken by all enemies by 100%.

Shadron
75 Seconds after start
Power of Shadron: Unlimited range; Instant. Shadron's presence increases Fire damage taken by all enemies by 100%.

Vesperon
120 Seconds after start
Power of Vesperon: Unlimited range; Instant. Vesperon's presence decreases the maximum health of all enemies by 25%.

Twilight Revenge: Sartharion's attacks become increasingly frenzied as twilight drakes are killed, increasing Physical damage and attack speed by 25%.

If you want to try Sartharion with drakes up, start with Tenebron as he is the easiest of the drakes to down. When ready to progress to two drakes, leave Tenebron and Vesperon up as you will get a full 90 seconds after Tenebron comes down to deal with him and his adds.

Phase One

 Main Tank Position the Twilight Drake so that it's facing away from the raid to minimize the damage done by Shadow Breath. Build threat and ignore Portals when they appear.

 Raid Stand behind the Twilight Drake in a widely spread out group. Damage it, and heal your allies. If a Shadow Fissure appears under your feet, move away quickly. When a Portal to the twilight realm appears, unless you are the Main Tank or were assigned to heal him, right-click it to pass through it.

Shadron/Vesperon 
Everyone but the Main Tank and the healers assigned to him should take the portal. An Offtank should tank the Disciple so that the raid can kill it. When it dies, you will be returned to the material world.

 Healers When Portals appear, at least one healer (Heroic: 2-3) must always remain behind to heal the Main Tank. The rest of the healers are tasked with healing up damage caused by Shadow Fissures, and on Tenebron, Whelps.

Sartharion, the Onyx Guardian

Abilities

HP: 2,510,000 (Heroic: 7,670,000)

Cleave: 5 yds; Instant. Inflicts 35% weapon damage to an enemy and its nearest allies, affecting up to 10 targets.

Flame Breath: 45 yd range; 2 sec cast. Inflicts 8750 to 11250 (Heroic: 10938 to 14062) Fire damage to enemies in a cone in front of Sartharion.

Tail Lash: 30 yd range; Instant. A sweeping tail strike hits all enemies behind Sartharion, inflicting 3063 to 3937 (Heroic: 4375 to 5625) damage and stunning them for 2 sec.

Lava Wave: Sartharion will periodically summon multiple enormous waves of lava from the pool around his island. The waves pass either from east to west or from west to east, and deal heavy damage to anyone caught in them, but move very slowly.

Summon Lava Blaze: Sartharion will periodically summon Lava Blazes, small fire elementals which attack the raid and melee for light damage. If a Lava Blaze is ever touched by a passing Lava Wave, the Blaze will berserk, growing in size and doubling its HP and melee damage.

Note: Rogues can use Anesthetic Poison and Hunters can Tranquilizing Shot the Enraged Lava Blazes. Ideally, you will want a rogue to put it on both weapons and spam Fan of Knives to deal with multiple Enraged Lava Blazes

Fire Tornado: A strange, fiery tornado whirls about the island, hurling bolts of fire at random. The bolts of fire do light to moderate fire damage and may summon Lava Blazes where they land.

Will of Sartharion: Sartharion's presence bolsters the resolve of the Twilight Drakes, increasing their total health by 25%. This effect also increases Sartharion's health by 25%. Applicable only if Twilight Drakes are left alive when Sartharion is engaged.

Berserk: Ten minutes after Sartharion is engaged, this ability will increase his attack speed by 150% and all damage he deals by 500%, making him unstoppable.

Preparation

On the Pull

Click To Enlarge

 Raid As you enter the sanctum you will face Sartharion directly. Coss the lava and stand on the same island Sartharion is standing on. You should be positioned to the right of Sartharion and along the front edge. Once the pull is initiated, run along the right side of the island and then cut into the middle and position yourself in the center of the island.

DPS should be light at this point to allow the tank to build up threat. If you are adding drakes, your focus should be solely on positioning for Tenebron's landing.

 Main Tank Like the raid, you will cross the lava and position yourself on the same island as Sartharion. You will be to the left of the raid and in a straight line to Sartharion. You can pull yourself, but having a hunter misdirect to you is preferred. Once Sartharion has come into range to hit you, pull him to the left-front corner of the island.

Your primary goal is to pull him back and turn him sideways to the raid.

Phase One

 Main Tank Once in your final position the encounter is basically a tank and spank except for one major mechanic, the Lava Waves.

 Offtank Sartharion will periodically spawn Lava Blazes (it seems to happen when players are hit by a Lava Wave, but at other times as well; the exact mechanic is not known). Pick them up and tank them with the raid. Moving the Lava Blazes out of the path of the Lava Walls is vital to success. Should they get hit they will enrage, increasing their life and damage. As mentioned above, have a Rogue or Hunter use their anti-enrage abilities if some happen to get hit by a wave.

 DPS Damage Sartharion from his side (like most dragons, his breath and tail weapons are capable of inflicting nasty AOE damage) while keeping a look out for Lava Walls.

Lava Blazes will appear every now and then. Switch your DPS onto the Blazes and follow the raid's Main Assist to kill them as quickly as possible. If the Offtank accumulates several Blazes, use AOE to bring them down faster. Be careful not to pull aggro, since it will increase the likelihood that a Blaze stumbles into a Lava Wave and enrages.

 Healers In theory the raid does not take much damage during this fight. In practice, it does. There is a lot of potential AOE damage that can happen if the raid isn't paying attention. Damage is usually heaviest right after a Lava Wave, when Blazes can spawn all over the place. Usually your Main Tank will need two dedicated healers (Heroic: 3-4).

Lava Waves

The most challenging part of this encounter are the Lava Waves. Everyone will need to be constantly watching the sides and making sure they are not in the waves path.

The waves can come from the North or the South. You will need to watch which way they are moving as they cover different parts of the island depending on their origin.

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

If you are hit by the waves, you will take a very large amount of fire damage and likely die without sufficient heals. It is imperative that these waves are avoided for a successful encounter.

Once you master the Lava Waves, you will have Sartharion down in no time!

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