A growing collection of guides and walkthroughs for raid dungeons in the World of Warcraft. View the archives to the right or the labels at the bottom of the page for other guides, walkthrus and bosses.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Netherspite Boss Guide: Karazhan World of Warcraft Raid Walkthrough

If you're looking for a World of Warcraft Karazhan Raid Guide for Netherspite, you've come to the right place!


Netherspite, along with Shade of Aran and Terestian Illhoof, is an optional boss. All three of these bosses may be completed in any order that the raid wishes. Often times the raid will kill Shade of Aran on the first run through, then come back for Netherspite and Terestian Illhoof the next day.


Netherspite is a giant, ghostly dragon and is one of the more difficult bosses in Karazhan. Make sure that your entire raid has appropriate consumables including food, elixir/flasks and potions.


Ideal Raid Composition:

2 Tanks (crit immune, class doesn't matter)

3 Healers

5 Good DPS


Having strong DPS is very important in this fight. Once you begin the encounter with Netherspite, a 9 minute enrage timer starts. When that timer reaches zero, he will kill the entire raid within 20 seconds. DPS is by far the most crucial element of this fight, besides making sure to stand in the beams. What beams? Alright then, let's get to some of the big nether dragon's abilities.


Netherspite alternates between two phases during the fight. He goes back and forth between them periodically. Let's go over them, and the strategy during each phase.


Portal Phase


This is the phase that Netherspite will be in when you first begin the fight. Three portals of three different colors will spawn in corners of the room. From these portals, beams of the appropriate color will reach towards the center of the room. If these beams come into contact with Netherspite, they will each give him buffs, like healing him or making him do more damage.


These beams have to be blocked by players standing in the beams. Players blocking a beam get a buff from it, however they each have both a good and bad effect and the buffs continue stacking over time, making the effect more and more extreme. Once the buff wears off of someone, they get a debuff called Nether Exhaustion which prevents them from standing in the same color beam for one minute and 30 seconds, and because of this two people will need to be assigned to each beam, taking turns in the beam each new portal phase.


Red Beam

If someone is standing in the red beam, they will automatically have Netherspite's aggro. Needless to say, the two tanks are the ones assigned to stand in the red beam. This is great, because it makes it very easy to tank him. As a note, while tanking Netherspite you will want to strafe in and out of the red beam for a second or two about once every 10 seconds. This will stop the buff from affecting you too much.


The red beam grants you additional health, defense and reduces the amount of damage you take. However, each additional application reduces your maximum health by 1,000. If the beam hits Netherspite, it reduces his damage taken by 1% for each application - something very major in this DPS race.


Green Beam

This is the healing beam. If it hits Netherspite he heals, so it is very important to not let him touch this one. Two, or even all three of your healers if they're bored or something, will alternate between standing in this beam.


The green beam will reduce the costs for casting spells and increase your +healing with each application, however it also reduces your mana.


Blue Beam

This is the DPS beam. You can have just about anything you'd like in it, though it is suggested that you have your two DPS which are best and most experienced alternate between standing in it. It increases damage done, however also increases damage taken from spells as well as reduces healing received. If it hits Netherspite, he gets a boost to his damage done.


People in the blue beam will keep taking damage from Netherspite's shadow aura, so your DPS standing in the beam should have high health as well. If you have trouble with DPS dying while taking the blue beam, you can use two DPS for each phase, each taking about 20 seconds in the beam.



Banish Phase

This phase lasts for around 30 seconds. Netherspite will go into a sudden rage and start using Netherbreath. However at this point, Netherspite becomes stationary and unable to move. His Netherbreath only has a range of 60 yards and his room is huge. As soon as the banish phase begins, everyone simply turns and runs towards the edge of the room. When around 5 seconds are left in the banish phase, the next red beam tank will start approaching Netherspite and preparing to pick up the red beam, while healers will make sure to stay in range to heal them.


Then Netherspite will switch back into his portal phase, summoning the three portals which may or may not be arranged in the same way. Your raid must immediately stand in the beams and begin DPS again.


That's about it. It's a challenging fight because of all the team strategy required, but once your raid gets it down, it's pretty easy. Here are a few tips and tricks:


- Netherspite is a dragon. Stay away from his head and tail, unless you're tanking him.

- Some shadow resistance can help, if your raid is having trouble. Your raid should have a priest's shadow resist buff if at all possible.

- Don't fret it if you can't down Netherspite on the first try, first week or even first month. Netherspite is the sort of boss where one or two substandard raid members can really spell failure, especially if your DPS isn't strong enough to beat the timer. Feel free to come back with better gear at a later date.


That's all for this World of Warcraft Karazhan Boss Guide for Netherspite! Check back for more World of Warcraft Raid Walkthroughs soon!

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Shade of Aran Guide: Karazhan World of Warcraft Raid Walkthrough

If you're looking for a WoW Karazhan Raid Guide for Shade of Aran, you've come to the right place!


Shade of Aran is an optional boss, and along with Terestian Illhoof and Nightbane may be done in any order after The Curator. However, most people choose to skip past Nightbane and Illhoof to do Shade of Aran immediately after Curator. This is because once Shade of Aran is defeated, players may teleport up to his room by talking to Berthold just inside the main entrance to Karazhan.


Ideal Group Composition:

1 Tank (or less)

2-3+ Classes that can interrupt Shade's main attacks (see below)

1-2 Warlocks (useful, though not fully necessary)

Fill the rest with the best DPS you have


The entire raid needs to have a bare minimum of around 7,600 health when raid buffed, preferably 8,000+. This is because aggro is semi-random with Shade of Aran, so everyone needs to be able to absorb his main attacks without dying. Because of this, threat reduction buffs (like Paladin's Blessing of Salvation) are useless, and tanks should switch out to the best DPS gear they have. Healers need to be on their toes, constantly healing the entire raid.


Shade of Aran is on a 12 minute timer. After 12 minutes, the raid will be destroyed. This is usually not a concern. I have personally never failed to either kill him or wipe before the timer runs up.


For most of the fight, Shade of Aran will stand towards the center of the room casting Fireball, Frost Bolt and Arcane Missiles at seemingly random members of the raid. Your raid members need to interrupt the Fireballs and Frost Bolts, but allow the Arcane Missiles to go off so that Shade of Aran uses the most mana.


Druid Feral Charge, Rogue Kick, Warlock Spell Lock, Mage Counterspell, Shaman Earth Shock, and Warrior Pummel and Shield Bash can all interrupt Shade of Aran's spells.


Shade of Aran will also use three other important spells throughout the fight. I will go over them each individually here:


Flame Wreath

When Shade of Aran uses Flame Wreath, you will see flames erupt on the ground in circular shapes. When he does this, everyone in the raid must STOP MOVING immediately. Everyone in the raid needs to stand still, or several members of the raid may take severe damage. Flame Wreath is simple to avoid, but it's one of the main reasons I've seen raids wipe on Shade of Aran. As far as I can tell, pets do not trigger Flame Wreath.


Blizzard

Blizzard is a storm raining down ice that circles around the edge of the room slowly in a clockwise motion. It is easy to see and avoid, but also easy to accidentally get caught in if you aren't on your toes!


Arcane Explosion

Every once in a while, Shade of Aran will pull everyone to the center of the room, slow them, and start casting an Arcane Explosion. Arcane Explosion will most likely kill you. As soon as he pulls you to the center of the room, you must immediately dash towards the wall. Druids may get rid of the slow by shapeshifting, and it may be dispelled as normal, though there is enough time to make it to the wall even if you are slowed. Many raids wipe to Arcane Explosion.


Also of note, Shade of Aran has a permanent AoE Counterspell up around him. Because of this, all casters must keep their distance. There is no other significant effect.


When Shade of Aran reaches 20% mana, he will polymorph the entire raid for a few seconds, sit down and drink to regain his mana. When he finishes drinking, he will Pyroblast the entire raid for around 7.5k damage. There is nothing that can be done to avoid this. The reason that you don't interrupt his Arcane Missiles is so that he loses mana the fastest while still not taking much damage, that way he Pyroblasts early in the fight. If he reaches 20% mana again, he will not Pyroblast.


When Shade of Aran's health reaches 40%, he summons four water elementals. The elementals last for 90 seconds. There are several ways of dealing with them. First of all, a good warlock can functionally crowd control two of them (fear and banish) until they simply despawn. They can be chain stunned by a rogue, or warrior/priest feared. They can also be tanked and killed - they have around 13k health so they aren't that difficult to kill. Our raid usually likes to bring two warlocks to crowd control them as we find it easier and less chaotic that way.


Just a last few notes before I finish this up. First of all, this is a healing and mana intensive fight. Everyone should have stamina (food) buffs. Everyone should have mana and healing potions, as appropriate. Healers really need to be on their toes, especially in keeping the entire raid topped off at full health. Second of all, be aware that shapeshifting, mages using Blink, accepting a rez, and shaman totems can all trigger flame wreath, so be very careful to not fall victim to the deadly flames.


All in all once your raid gets the fight down, Shade of Aran isn't that hard. Your raid needs to have strong DPS and be able to crowd control the elementals. Also, one idiot running around during Flame Wreath can wipe your entire raid - hence all huntards must be removed from the raid before attempting Shade of Aran.


That's all for today, check back soon for more World of Warcraft Raid Guides & Walkthrus!