Hello, and welcome to TankSpot's written guide to the Deathbringer Saurfang encounter. My name is Spiritus and I will be offering specific details on the encounter, as well as working strategies to deal with certain mechanics.
BIG NOTE: As always, abilities are subject to change with hot-fixes and minor patches. Below are the 25/10man official TankSpot Video Guides:
Environment, Positioning, and Pull:
(1) After defeating the Gunship Battle Encounter, you ship will dock with the area where you'll fight the Deathbringer. There is a rather long "cut scene" where your faction's heroes will engage in dialog. Presumably, you'll be able to regroup and talk to someone to start the event.
(2) It has been recommended by others to have 2, or even 3, tanks for this encounter. As I will explain below, the debuff Rune Blood may forces a tank rotation similar to phase2 of Thorim, where tanks must quickly taunt upon application. Therefore, I am suggesting starting with 2 tanks to handle the Rune Blood mechanic (see below).
(3) Positioning is more so key to this fight than anything else. Having a Boomkin and Holy Paladin will make your life much easier, as well as multiple hunters. More on this later.
(4) The raid will be positioned in a semi-circle around the platform as seen below. All ranged must maintain a 12yd separation from each other! If your guild is able to maintain this discipline, the fight will go much smoother. Note: I didn't want to clutter figure with too many dots, but your entire ranged/healer group will be able to fit in this general configuration.
Figure 1. Deathbringer Saurfang Positioning
Boss/Add Abilities:
First I'll talk a bit about how Deathbringer's Blood Power(BP) works and then I'll go into his individual abilities. The last bit will be about the Blood Beast adds, which will have to be dealt with in a specific way.
<---Deathbringer Saurfang--->
34.86m HP
Blood Power (BP) & Blood Link
Saurfang grows 1% larger and deals 1% more damage for each point of Blood Power he has.
This is a resource mechanic specific to this encounter. By using certain abilities, Deathbringer Saurfang(DBS) will build BP. When his BP reaches 100 he will cast Mark of the Fallen Champion on a random raid member (explained later). This resets his BP back to 0. You will want to limit how often he casts this as much as possible, as too many raiders inflicted with the Mark will result in a wipe. Blood Link is the aura he uses to gain BP.
Blood Nova (2BP gained per target)
? range, Instant Cast. 12yd radius.
Blood explodes outward from a random enemy target, inflicting 10,000 Physical damage to nearby enemies.
With a sufficient number of ranged targets [3 on 10man], DBS will only cast this on ranged raid members (think Vezax shadowcrash). This is why it is vitally important for all ranged members to be spread at least 12yds apart. The damage isn't as much of a concern as is him gaining more than 2BP for using this ability. As can be seen in the video, the ranged were grouped up, resulting in DBS gaining considerable BP from each cast. This is bad. Stay spread out to minimize this ability.
Boiling Blood (1BP gained per tick)
? range, Instant. 24sec duration.
Boils the blood of an enemy, inflicting 5,000 Physical damage every 3 seconds for 24 seconds.
This is a moderate DoT placed on up to 6 targets at a time. Raid healers must either effectively cross-heal or have quick assignments for dealing with this damage.
Rune of Blood (1BP gained per landed melee swing)
Instant. 20sec duration [Unconfirmed]. Frequency unknown.
Saurfang leeches health when he performs melee attacks on targets marked with Rune of Blood. Leeches 5,100 to 6,900 health from an enemy target and heals Saurfang for 5 times that amount.
This is a debuff placed on the tank. For obvious reasons, having high avoidance as a tank reduces the number of time he heals and gains BP. This is Saurfang's greatest source of BP if a proper tank rotation is not executed as described below:
(1)Tank1 Pulls
(2)DBS casts Rune of Blood on Tank1
(3)Tank2 Taunts & Tanks for Xsec
(4)DBS casts Rune of Blood on Tank2
(5)Tank1 Taunts
The frequency of the Rune of Blood spell is still unconfirmed, but two tanks *should* be sufficient for most raids. If the switch is properly executed, then avoidance becomes a moot issue for this ability.
Mark of the Fallen Champion (1BP gained per tick)
Instant. Cast at 100BP.
Causes Deathbringer Saurfang's melee attacks to splash to this target, inflicting 5,700 to 6,300 additional Physical damage. If the target dies while under this effect Saurfang is healed for 5% of his total health.
This is the ability you want to avoid. When DBS reaches 100BP, he will cast Mark on a random raid member. For the duration of the fight, the Marked raider will receive this damage every time DBS performs a weapon attack (landed or not). Furthermore, he will gain an extra BP. As such, DBS' BP gain increases exponentially as the fight goes on! This is why it is vitally important to limit the number of times this is cast. The raid will become nearly impossible to heal if too many members have mark. DBS will heal from each Mark if a tank rotation isn't properly executed.
Frenzy
Instant.
Saurfang goes into a frenzy, increasing his attack speed by 30%.
Nothing special. Soft enrage at 30% health.
<---Blood Beasts--->
90,000 HP
Blood Beasts (BB) are adds that are spawned every 40sec in waves of 5, which your ranged DPS must contend with. Below is the strategy I have developed to contend with them. UPDATE! This strategy has changed due to the drastically reduced HP of each beast.
(1) As stated, approx. every 30sec, DBS will summon 5 Blood Beasts around himself. THEY MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO HIT ANYONE. If a Blood Beast connects with a melee swing, DBS gains 1BP. This is bad. As such, they cannot be tanked, but instead must be kited. Blood Beasts have 75% DR to AoE effects, so AoEing them down is out of the question.
(2) Blood Beasts can be slowed, dazed, stunned, rooted, and knocked back. All of these can, and should, be used to defeat this encounter.
(3) As seen in the graphic below, create a "slow" area using frost traps and earthbind totems where the BBs can be kited. Just before the timer for the first BBs spawn, have melee DPS and tanks cease any AoE abilities. Your Holy Paladin with Righteous Fury should easily pull the aggro of the BBs. This will ensure that the BBs are not initially pulled by the melee, causing BSD to gain unnecessary BP. All five BBs should now be aggroed to the RF Holy Pally, who stands at the far end of the slow patch.
(4) All ranged DPS on the left should be assisting Hunter[A], with all ranged DPS on the right assisting Hunter[B].
(5) With the drastically reduced HP on BBs, they should go down very fast. If any BBs get too close to the Boomkin, have him/her cast Typhoon to reset the "pull."
Figure 2. Typhoon to Reset the "Pull"
At this point you rinse and repeat until dead.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
(1) The key to this fight is limiting the amount of BP that DBS generates.
(2) RANGED STAY 12 YARDS APART! Follow the diagram and you should be fine.
(3) Do not let Blood Beasts hit you. It generates BP for DBS.
(4) DBS will gain BP exponentially as the fight goes on. You must slow this inevitability as much as you can.
(5) UPDATE! High avoidance factors in very little for tanks on DBS. Marked targets take damage on every swing attempted by DBS.
(6) DISC PRIESTS ARE YOUR FRIENDS! If any ability that generates BP for DBS is completely absorbed, he will not receive any BP. As such, the tank, Marked members, and recipients of Boiling Blood should have PW:S up on them whenever possible. In fact, just shield everyone, its always a good policy.
(7) You cannot afford dead raid members. If DBS' healing > rDPS, wipe it up and try again.
(8) Towards the end of the fight, you will inevitably have several Marked targets. It may be advisable to assign raid healers to focus each target, as they will be taking massive damage. Remember, a player dying to Mark = 5% health for DBS.
(9) UPDATE! Most raids will have at least one paladin and one warlock or druid. One way to drastically reduce BP gain is to put a SS on a paladin (ret preferred) and have that paladin DI the first marked player. The paladin is then rezzed by SS (or by Brez if none are available). The DI'd player DOES NOT CLICK OFF THE DI! Essentially, you have accomplished the same thing as killing off one of your raiders, except DBS doesn't get his 5% heal. Of course, if you do not kill DBS within 3min of the first mark, you'll have to pick up heals on this person.
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Deathbringer Saurfang will test your guild's healers and the coordination of your ranged DPS. Melee DPS pretty much get to do their thing for the entire fight.
As always, feel free to add info to this post that will further everyone's understanding of the fight.
Good luck on the bringing down Deathbringer Saurfang and clearing the first wing of ICC!
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Originally Posted by Spiritus
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