Karazhan Nether Dragon Abilities
A nether dragon with impressive powers that patrol the top area of the Libary. A fully optional boss, he can be skipped if the raid does not have time or have nothing to gain from him.
But he is a very fun encounter, and offers some unique aspects to boss fights not seen anywhere else. A challange any raid should conquer atleast once in their ongoing assault on evil dungeons.
Abilities:
Melee attack: A slow hitting attack for around 8000-9000 without armor. Reduced greatly by high armor.
Void Zone: Targets a random raid member during Portal phase, and opens up a vortex under the feet where they stand. Deals around 1000 shadow damage each 2 seconds for 15 seconds aslong as anyone stands in it.
Nether Burn: Aura effect ability, that deals 1200 shadow damage each 5 seconds to any raid member in line of sight.
Empowerment: A selfbuff that cannot be removed, increasing Netherspites damage with 200%.
Enrage: After a total of 9 minutes after the raid engages Netherspite, he will enrage increasing his damage with 400%, and will do Nether Burn each second instead of 5 seconds.
General information:
Even if he is a dragon, he does not have many of the similiar melee attacks like they do. A cleave or Tail sweep for example. So its perfectly safe to stand anywhere close to him and not wory about getting hit for huge numbers of melee damage.
His aggro radius isnt to huge either, so the raid can enter his room where he patrols, aslong as they stick fairly close to the wall there. When aggroing him, its best to try get him as close to the center of the room as possable, at start. Reason for this is that the portals open around the center in fixed postions.
Its advised that the raid make sure that any form of Shadow resist spells or abilities, are buffed and prepered for this battle. Since both Nether Burn and Void Zones deal 100% Shadow damage, higher shadow resist or absorbation will help in reducing general raid damage from these two sources.
The battle itself consists of 2 "Phases". The "Portal" phase and the "Banish" phase. In each phase he has unique abilties he wont use in the other phase. So the raid need to adapt to both phases to master this encounter.
The "Portal" Phase will last a full minute from the time that the portals appear. The "Banish" phase will last 30 seconds from the time that Netherspite banishes himself. Please note that he might not always do this right after the portals close. It might take a few seconds before he moves into banishing mode.
Portal Phase:
Once Netherspite is engaged, the first phase will be the "Portal" phase. Upon aggroing Netherspite, he will not open the 3 portals at once, but it will take a few moments until they appear.
In this phase, the main tactic is revolved about handling the 3 coloured portals, and the beams they shoot out towards Netherspite. To prevent Netherspite from getting various buffs from these beams, the raid most place their members betwenn the beams and Netherspite, to gain the powers themself.
At start, the coloured portals will always appear at the same spot. The Red portal will appear to the east side off the room. Viewing from the entrance. The Green portal will appear on the west side of the room. And finally the blue portal will appear on the north side of the room.
Each new "Portal" phase however, these portals will sometimes shift location betwenn the 3 spots portals can appear in. So the raid needs to keep an eye out at each new "Portal" phase, to note what colour is in what spot, and adjust fast to that.
Red Portal and beam:
Named the Perseverance beam, this colour represents the Tanking beam in this battle. Each second it hits Netherspite, he will reduce all damage taken with 1%.
If a player gets hit by this beam, each second that player will immediate aggro from netherspite. Even if not doing anything, and everyone else is trying their best, Netherspite will always focus on the player who is absorbing the red beam for the moment.
Also, the player in the beam will get all damaged taken reduced by 1% per second. Defense will increase by 5 for each second, and also get a health bonus of 31000 that gets reduced by 1000 each second. This reduction in health will remove base health aslo, if a player stands to long in the beam.
As noted above, it is not possable for any lone player to stand in the red beam an entire "Portal" phase. That players health will get reduced to zero if standing to long. Therefore, during a "Portal" phase, 2 players will alternate on the read beam.
The Green portal and beam:
Named the Serenity beam, this beam will heal Netherspite each second for an accumilating effect of 4000 each stack. So first second he will get 4000 health back. The next second he will get 8000, and the third 12000 and so on. Very important that this beam is absorbed by a player as fast as possable.
If a player absorbs this beam, that player will get all healing done increased by 5% per stack. Also all spell costs will be reduced by 1% per stack. However, maximum mana will be reduced by 200 per stack also, making it possable to be at zero mana after to many stacks.
If the raid has only 2 healers, its not advised that any healer uses this beam during the entire battle. It will leave the raid with only one healer for a short moment, which may lead to deaths. This due to one healer having no mana to use for a short amount of time.
The blue portal and beam:
Named the Dominance beam, this beam will increase Netherspites spell damage with 1% per second or stack. Making his Void Zones, Nether Burn and Nether Breath very lethal if he gets to many stacks of this beam.
Should a player absorb this beam, that player will get all his damage increased by 5% per second or stack. So damage by that player will in the end of the "Portal" phase be huge. Which is needed to kill Netherspite fast enough.
Also, any player standing in the blue beam will also get all healing recieved reduced by 1% per second or stack. And all damage taken will be increased by 8% per second and stack. Making that person both take alot more damage, and also harder to keep alive.
Handling the beams:
The 3 different beams need 3 teams to handle. Each team consists of either 2 or 4 people. The reason for this is, that once a player has been absorbing a beam and then leave it, the player will get a debuff called "Nether Exhaustion", making that player unable to absorb that coloured beam for 90 seconds.
So to make sure that a beam is absorb each new "Portal" phase, their must be atleast 2 players alternating between absorbing that particular beam for the entire battle. Otherwise Netherspite will get buffed by a certain beam, if noone is able to absorb the beam.
The blue beam is pretty straightforward to absorb and hold. The player will deal alot more damage each stack in the beam, but since aggro is not a a problem aslong as someone is absorbing the red beam, that player should go full out on damage.
However, the longer that player stands in the beam, the harder he or she will be to keep alive. So dedicated healing will be needed on the person currently absorbing the blue beam. A warlock or shadow priest is prefered for this spot, since they can also regain life with either Life Drain or Vampiric Embrace spells while dealing damage.
The green beam is the most important to make sure it does not hit Netherspite. Since the longer it hits him, the more he will heal, toons of damage done to him could be undone in a matter of seconds.
Any healer in this beam, will have their healing power greatly enchanced. So they should make sure to spam heal anyone in need as much as possable while standing in this beam. Since once they get to the end of the current "Portal" phase, they will be left with either very low mana, or no mana at all until they can refill it.
Use the "Banish" phase to regain mana after you been in the green beam, since damage to the raid will be greater in the "Portal" phase. Try to save potions and mana regain abilities after you are done absorbing the green beam, to quickly regain mana again.
Another tactic that can be used, is to have a non mana class to absorb the green beam for a whole phase. This is usefull if the raid as a low amount of healers, and cant afford having 1 of them low on mana for certain periods. Any class without mana wont be affected by beam effects.
The red beam is abit tricker to assign a team for, since no lone player can absorb it a whole "Portal" phase. And since 2 people wont be enough to absorb the beam each "Portal" phase due to Nether Exhaustion, this beam requires atleast 4 people to manage succesfully.
The red beam absorbers, or "Tanks", should split into 2 seperate teams to alternate absorbing the red beam. The first team handels the first "Portal" phase, and once the first tank in that team gets enough stacks of the beam, he or she should call out for his partner to take over absorbing the beam.
In the next "Portal" phase, the second red beam team does the same thing. The first tank absorbs the beam, then calls out for the partner to take over once the stacks get to high. Around 25-35 stacks of the beam is a good amount to make the switch between. More then that, and the first tank might get the health reduced to much and killed in one hit.
All teams alternate each "Portal" phase like explained above, until Netherspite has been defeated.
Other information about Portal phase:
While the handling of the 3 portals and their beams is important, the raid must not forget the other things that will happend during this phase.
Each 5 second, Netherspite while deal shadow damage to the entire raid via his aura. The damage isnt high, but will in time reduce the health of the raid unless healed. The person absorbing the blue beam needs a extra eye, since the aura will start to deal very high damage in the last seconds of the "Portal" phase.
He will also during this phase, place Void Zones under random raid members feet. While standing in a Void Zone, that player will take 1000 shadow damage each 2 seconds. It lasts only 15 seconds, but can combined wth the aura, deal high damage to anyone standing in it to long. Make sure to keep an eye out for it at all times, and move out as fast as possable if you get caught in one.
One other note on Void zones. While absorbing a beam, take note that any player should not try move sideways betwenn a portal and Netherspite, or that player might loose the beam for a moment. So if a void zone appears under a player absorbing a beam currently, that player should move either forward to Netherspite, or backwards. Never to the sides.
The "Banish" phase:
During this phase, Netherspite will banish himself and remain stationary. This phase lasts a total of 30 seconds from the moment he banishes himself.
During "Banish" phase, Netherspite will not open any portals, and not use any abilites he has in a "Portal" phase. So the raid need not to worry about absorbing beams, or avoiding Void zones anymore.
He will only attack a player, if that player is in melee range during this encounter. Its highly advised to make sure to contunie damage during this phase, so the raid will be ale to kill him before he enrages after 9 minutes.
Since a player standing in the blue beam, should have a few seconds of increased damage in this phase, due to the blue beam buff, he or she should have no problems keeping aggro from netherspite on himself/herself. Standing outside range of his melee attack, this will allow other melee DPS to continue attacking him without fear of getting aggro themself.
However, should any melee get aggro, they should be aware that Netherspite hits hard on non tanks, and try move out of his melee range as fast as possable should this happend. All ranged DPS can easily stand outside his melee and contunie dealing damage until the end of the "Banish" phase.
During this phase, the only other means of engaging the raid then normal melee attack Netherspite has, is his Nether Breath ability. He will randomly taget a raid member and after 3 seconds breath towards that player in a cone shapped area.
The easiest thing for the raid to do during this phase, is to spread out around Netherspite, and try dodge any player he turns towards. If a player notices Netherspite turning to them, and then starting his breath, he or she should remain stationary and let all other players get out of the breath area.
The "Banish" phase is short, so he should not do to many breaths during this phase. Once the phase is nearing its end, all players should be aware of one final thing. Once a new "Portal" phase starts, ALL aggro will be removed and resetted. So holding any damage near the end of the phase is higly adviced.
Once "Banish" phase is over, and a new "Portal" phase takes place, all players who should be absorbing a beam should at once keep an eye out for the portal they are suppose to absorb the beam from. They may switch places from the last "Portal" phase, so its easiest to run to the middle at the start of the phase, and look around fast.
Tactics in short:
Split the raid in 3 teams.
2 people to handle the Green beam. Can be anyone.
2 people for the Blue beam. Should be ranged DPS classes. Warlocks or Shadow Priests prefered.
4 people for the Red beam. 2 people in each team, tanking a "Portal" phase. Both teams alternate each new "Portal" phase.
During "Portal" phase, avoid Void Zones when they appear.
Never move sideways when absorbing/tanking a beam. Move forward or backwards.
A healer is needed to heal the player absorbing the blue beam always. Near the end of a "Portal" phase, 2 healers might be needed to keep that player up.
Once a "Banish" phase starts, players should spread out around him to try dodge Nether Breath.
At end of "Banish" phase, hold fire to make sure Tank can easily gain aggro in the new "Portal" phase.
