A compilation of Sunwell Plateau Boss Stats/Guides:
Kalecgos
Thanks to Oark
Raid Setup
Tanks: 3
Healers: 7-9
DPS: 13-15
In addition, you need at least 3 decursers, with 4 making the fight much more manageable.
Gear Requirements
Main Tanks: You will need fully Black Temple geared tanks to be able to withstand the massive physical and spell damage dealt in both realms.
DPS and Healers: It is recommended that all members of the raid have 9-10k health. There is a very large amount of AoE damage done, and if you have any less you will not be able to survive. Because of this, usually tier 6+ quality gear is needed to be able to have enough HP to survive while still being able to provide the DPS or healing needed.
Buffs, Potions, and Gear
This fight is more based upon execution and timing than it is on gear, so you can fudge a bit on the consumables after a certain gear level. However, without a perfect raid setup and perfectly BT-kitted characters, you will need to use consumables a very good amount to stand a chance (and this is likely true even when you're perfectly geared). Here is a list of standard consumables, with a few that will greatly improve your chance of winning:
Tanks: Ironshield Potions. The dragon and the demon both do incredible physical damage. It needs to be mitigated as much as possible.
Physical DPS: Damage to the demon is more imperative than damage to the dragon due to the nature of the fight. Because of this, Demonslaying Elixirs become a viable (and great) option when learning the fight.
Boss Abilities
Sunwell Radiance
Chance to hit increased by 5%.
Enemy chance to dodge reduced by 20%.
This buff is currently active on all NPCs in Sunwell Plateau, including bosses, it seems intended to balance encounters against high avoidance tank gear. It also makes the rogue ability Evasion less effective. It does not require any particular raid strategy to counter, but tanks and rogues should be aware of it.
Both Kalecgos and Sathrovarr the Corruptor are Tauntable.
Kalecgos
(Located in the "normal realm," henceforth referred to as the dragon realm)
Arcane Buffet: This AoE blast hits all targets in the dragon realm for 463 to 537 and also applies a stacking debuff that increases arcane damage taken by 500 per application. This debuff lasts 40 seconds and is not dispellable. The debuff stacks indefinitely until the player enters the Spectral Realm, at which point it is removed. If a player remains in the dragon realm without taking a portal for too long, this debuff will eventually stack high enough to kill them in one tick.
Spectral Blast: This is a spell cast on any player in the dragon realm every 20-30 seconds, teleporting them to the spectral realm. This will damage everyone within 8 yards of the targeted player for approximately 6,000, in addition to spawning a portal where they were standing. This portal is used by other players to get to the demon realm. This cannot target the player currently on top of Kalecgos' aggro list.
Frost Breath: This inflicts frost damage in a frontal cone in front of the dragon form of Kalecgos. Reduces attack speed by 75% for 12 seconds. Dispellable.
Wild Magic: This is a random debuff cast on a random player. The debuff is entirely random; any class can receive any of the following six abilities:
- Healing done by spells and effects increased by 100%.
- Chance to hit with melee and ranged attacks reduced by 50%.
- Increases threat generated by 100%.
- Spell and ability costs reduced by 50%.
- Casting time increased by 100%.
- Damage done by critical hits increased by 100%.
Spectral Realm: This is a debuff placed on players that enter the spectral realm. It lasts 60 seconds. When this debuff expires, the player will be ported back to the dragon realm.
Spectral Exhaustion: This debuff is placed on players that are removed from the spectral realm. It prevents re-entry into the spectral realm until it expires. It lasts for 60 seconds.
Tail Lash: Standard dragon tail lash. This deals damage and knocks the player down. The Tail Lash should be avoided.
Sathrovarr the Corruptor
(Located in the "spectral realm," henceforth referred to as the demon realm)
Corrupting Strike: This massive shadow nuke deals between 9k and 10k damage. It applies a DoT that does an additional 1k damage over 3 seconds, as well as a knockdown effect for that three seconds that does not allow the tank to mitigate.
Curse of Boundless Agony: This is essentially the same as Curse Of Agony, dealing shadow damage that steadily rises throughout the duration of the curse. It starts ticking at 250, and if allowed to progress will eventually tick for over 6,000. When decursed, this curse will jump to a nearby target.
Shadow Bolt Volley: This shadow damage attack deals 5-6k damage to a random target. This is a cone based attack, dealing damage to everyone in a small area around the targeted player.
Strategy
Fight Overview
There are two (simultaneous, of sorts) phases to the fight. Everyone starts in dragon phase, with random people (and thus their groups, if all goes to plan) being teleported into the demon realm. In the dragon phase it is your standard tank and DPS fight, with Wild Magic and Arcane Buffet being taken into account. In the demon phase, the demon Sathrovarr will be fighting the human form of Kalecgos. If the demon kills the human form of Kalecgos, the fight is over; everyone is ported to dragon phase and the dragon despawns for 30 seconds (so resurrect quickly and get out!).
Important to note in learning: The dragon is easily resettable by having a hunter shoot it and immediately Feign Death, thus despawning him for another 30 seconds and allowing you to recover (i.e. resurrect any bodies that may have been unreachable with a dragon sitting on top of them).
Raid Setup
Raid groups need to be set up to be somewhat self sufficient, while still having decent group synergy. Generally there is a melee group and a tank group that are not "self-sufficient" (that is, have no healers). Because of this, if one of your melee are teleported with the first portal, you will need to send a healer or two in after them. Assign raid targets to one person in each group (other than the MT group), so you have a Star Group, Circle Group, Diamond Group, and Triangle Group. You need to be certain that there is always a decurser both in the demon realm and the dragon realm, as well as multiple healers, so arrange the groups accordingly.
The Pull
The pull and subsequent positioning is one of the most important (and difficult to master) parts of the fight. The third tank in your tank rotation will initiate the pull, with everyone running in immediately on his heels. All of the assigned groups (star, circle, diamond, and triangle) need to get to their assigned quadrants immediately and spread out as best as possible. When positioning yourself, it is very important to take note of both the front and back of the dragon. If you are directly in front of the dragon, you will get hit by Frost Breath. If you are too close to the rear, you will get hit by Tail Lash. If anyone is closer than 8 yards to the person targeted by a portal, they will take 6k arcane damage (or more, depending on the number of stacks of Arcane Buffet they've taken).
NOTE: At the moment, the dragon's targeting in the "shrubs" around the edges is sketchy. It is possible for the dragon to attempt to target you and attempt to portal you to the demon realm while you are "in" the bushes. He will not be able to cast it on you, meaning he will just skip that portal. If this happens, you will most definitely wipe. Every portal is needed.
Dragon Phase
Between 20 and 30 seconds into the fight, Kalecgos will target a random raid member and teleport them to the demon realm. The player will need to announce that he was teleported, along with his group name (star, circle, diamond, triangle, melee) immediately. As soon as anyone in a group is teleported, the entire group needs to get to the portal and enter the demon realm. This starts what is referred to as the "portal rotation." There is a five portal rotation. Tanks rotate separately and independently from the rest of the raid. Tanks will be the only players to enter the same portal every time; everyone else's rotation is based on the dragon's random targeting. This is a sample portal rotation:
30s - Portal 1, Star Group teleported. Tank 1 enters demon phase.
1m - Portal 2, Circle group teleported.
1m30s - Portal 3, Diamond group teleported. Tank 2 enters demon phase. At this point the people that took portal 1 will start being ported back to dragon phase.
2m - Portal 4, Triangle group teleported. Portal 2 group returns.
2m30s - Portal 5, Melee group teleported, Tank 3 enters demon phase. Portal 3 group returns.
3m - Portal 1, Circle group teleported. Portal 4 group returns.
3m30s - Portal 2, Star group teleported. Tank 1 enters demon phase. Portal 4 group returns.
It is imperative that everyone in the teleported person's group makes it into their appropriate portal. The first five portals of the fight are some of the most hectic, as by the fifth portal there is still a group of people that have been on top the entire time and taking the stacking arcane buffet. If anyone misses a portal, they will be taking a lot of unneeded damage and be off of their rotation for the rest of the fight due to the Spectral Exhaustion debuff.
As soon as the first group is teleported, the positioning in the dragon phase becomes much easier. You can spread out some, but stay around your group. When the portal hits your group, you need to be close enough to get to it and interact with the portal before it disappears.
Tanking In The Dragon Phase
Tank 3 in the rotation will be tanking Kalecgos for the longest period of time and thus should be your best geared tank. A warrior tank really helps for this spot in the order, as he is the last one to go into a portal. Improved Defensive Stance helps in mitigating the massive amounts of arcane damage he will be taking from the Arcane Buffets at that point (it will be stacked very high). As soon as T1 (Tank 1) is ported back out of the demon phase, he needs to run and get into position to tank the dragon. As soon as he is in position, he needs to Taunt the dragon and commence tanking him. It is very important to get the dragon off T3 as soon as possible, as by this point T3 will have the debuff stacked and be taking a large amount of arcane damage in addition to the dragon's melee.
As soon as any tank exits the demon phase, they should immediately position themselves to tank the dragon and Taunt.
The tanking rotation should go as follows:
Portal 1: Tank 1 enters.
Portal 2: Tanking does not change.
Portal 3: Tank 2 enters.
Portal 4: No tanks take portals, but Tank 1 should be back in the dragon realm and Taunt the dragon off Tank 3 (must be Taunted before Portal 5 appears).
Portal 5: Tank 3 enters.
You continue rotating in this fashion the rest of the fight. Tanks should keep track of the portal number, as you want a new tank going in every other portal to ensure a minimal amount of Arcane Buffet debuffs on your tanks.
Note: If the first group teleported is the melee, you will need a healer to jump in with them as they probably will not have one assigned to their group. If this is the case, the tank should wait until an adequate number of healers are in the demon phase to Taunt the demon for the first time. Kalecgos can tank the demon for a good amount of time before dying.
Decursing In The Dragon Phase
Later in the fight, curses will start trickling to the dragon phase as well as the demon phase. Wait to decurse them until it has ticked several times in order to minimize the amount of shadow damage that it is dealing. The time that you let curses tick on people depends on the number of decursers that you have, but generally by about halfway through the fight your decursers should be doing nothing but bouncing curses around. If the tank is cursed it needs to be removed immediately.
Note: There is an alternative tactic of decursing isolated players to avoid the curse jumping. This is not recommended in this particular guide, but is discussed in other guides.
Demon Phase
The demon phase is where your raid needs to focus on expending all cooldowns and bringing as much DPS to bear as possible. Threat is not an issue in the demon phase.
Positioning in the demon phase:
The Shadow Bolt Volley makes positioning important in the demon phase. Circle Of Healing and Chain Heal are incredible in dealing with all of the AoE damage being done to the raid and should be utilized to their full ability. The best way to do this is to make a tight circle around the demon. If you are evenly distributed around the demon, you should be able to hit everyone in the raid with Chain Heal and still not cause too many people to take the Shadowbolt. Melee should be directly behind the demon, with healers and ranged DPS on either side. There is no reason for them to not be in melee range of the demon (and it actually helps a good deal if everyone is, as it allows Chain Heal to hit anyone that has taken damage). Melee should never be in front of the demon, as the parry mechanic is in effect and it can get your tank killed quite quickly.
Tanking In The Demon Phase
The tank in the demon phase will take an incredible amount of burst damage and needs to be topped off at all times, especially before a Corrupting Strike (which occurs every 20-30s). When first entering the demon phase, the tank should first run up to the demon and put up any applicable debuffs that they can to reduce damage taken (before Taunting!). After properly debuffing the demon, the tank should stand on top of Kalecgos and watch for the Corrupting Strike. You can tell when the it hits Kalecgos as he will fall to the ground and be stunned for three seconds. As soon as this happens, the tank needs to Taunt Sathrovarr and commence tanking. It takes an incredible amount of threat to hold the demon off Kalecgos, but it is quite possible. Healers need to be aware that 20-30s after Taunting the demon the tank will be hit for 9-10k, followed by 3s with no possible mitigation. It is tantamount that the tank is topped off before a Corrupting Strike.
Decursing In The Demon Phase
Decursing in the demon phase is the exact same as decursing in the dragon phase. Wait to decurse until it starts to tick for a higher amount. Later in the fight, decursers will need to do nothing but bounce the curses around. If a tank is cursed it needs to be removed immediately.
DPSing In The Demon Phase
Threat is not an issue. Full DPS is needed to take the demon down before the dragon (without any extra no-DPS time on the dragon), and it is recommended to burn cooldowns in the demon phase.
The demon must die before the dragon does. If the dragon reaches 1% and the demon is still alive, the dragon will be Banished and stop all actions. While this may sound like a good thing at first because you won't have to deal with the Arcane Buffet anymore, it also means that he will not be spawning new portals. Without new portals, you cannot get any new raid members into the demon realm. After 60 seconds in the demon realm, all players are ported back to the dragon realm. Therefore if the dragon Banishes and you don't have enough people in the demon phase to finish Sathrovarr off in the next 60 seconds, everyone will be ported to the top. At this point you will stare at a Banished dragon for however long it takes the demon to kill the human form of Kalecgos and for the fight to reset.
Overall Notes
After the first portal rotation happens, the raid will have a rough guideline to know when to go into their portals. Generally, as soon as your Spectral Exhaustion debuff wears off, someone in your group will get teleported in one of the next two teleports. At this point the fight is based on the execution of your fellow raid members and their ability to get into the portal and maximize their DPS time on the demon.
In the event of a "bad" portal (generally the only way a bad portal can happen is if one of your tanks is targeted on one of the first five random portals) you need to have a contingency plan. Generally, one group is assigned to be the "bad port" group. For instance if T2 gets taken down on portal 2 and circle is assigned as the "bad port" group, they will go in with him. The other tanks will need to adjust their rotation accordingly to deal with this. Usually this just means the first tank will be taking a few extra Arcane Buffets.
When the demon reaches 10%, both he and the dragon will enrage. If the demon is on human Kalecgos for his enrage he will do MASSIVE damage to him, and if Kalecgos is low on HP at all he will likely die and reset the fight. Both the demon and dragon enrages are able to be healed through easily enough, but any form of extra mitigation is recommended to ensure a kill.
Wild Magic is not a very important part of this fight, but it can be in a few very explicit situations. First, if a DPS player gets the 100% threat Wild Magic in the first part of the fight they need to stop DPS on the dragon. Generally, after the first time you go into demon phase, this is not an issue anymore. However, if a healer gets the 100% increased cast speed Wild Magic they need to let the other healers know immediately so they can adjust accordingly. A great deal of tank deaths will occur because of this particular situation.