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| Boss: | Deathbringer Saurfang |
|---|---|
| Zone: | Icecrown Citadel |
| Modes: | 10N, 25N |
| Type: | Normal boss kill |
| Bluedeep <CUTIES ONLY> |
|
| 9 guides |
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| Created: 20 Nov 2009 Updated: 11 weeks ago |
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Target Audience
General raiding audience.
Overview
Limiting Deathbringer's gain of Blood Power is the primary objective of the encounter. Every time Deathbringer reaches 100 Blood Power, he will cast Mark of the Fallen Champion. If Deathbringer's rate of Blood Power gain is too high, then the amount of Marks will quickly overwhelm the raid. Managing this rate of gain requires proper raid positioning and add management.
Raid Composition
| Tanks: | 2 |
| Healers: | 6 |
| Melee: | any |
| Ranged: | any |
Blood Nova may put a strict upper limit on the number of ranged DPS you can bring.
Strategy
Deathbringer will gain Blood Power (BP) through a number of mechanics.
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Blood Nova: 2 BP is gained per person hit by Blood Nova. Blood Nova has a twelve yard radius. Similar to General Vezax and Shadow Crash, Deathbringer will first target ranged if a sufficient number of individuals are at range.
Blood Beast Melee Hit: 3 BP is gained per melee hit by a Blood Beast.
Rune of Blood: 1 BP is gained per melee hit by Deathbringer on a tank that has Rune of Blood.
Boiling Blood: 1 BP is gained per tick of Boiling Blood.
Mark of the Fallen Champion: 1 BP is gained per “tick” of Mark of the Fallen Champion. This damage is triggered whenever Deathbringer attacks. UPDATE tank avoidance has no effect on the rate of BP gain from MotFC.
The BP gain from Rune of Blood can be eliminated by having the tanks switch off whenever one of them has the debuff. The debuff is 20 seconds in duration.
The BP gain from Blood Nova can be mitigated by spreading out such that no more than two individuals are hit by a given Blood Nova.
The BP gain from Blood Beast melee hits can be mitigated by a kite-and-DPS strategy. Essentially the goal is to kill all five Blood Beasts before they have an opportunity to hit the person with threat. There's no definitive way to accomplish this goal. Movement slowing effects such as Earth Bind Totems, Frost Traps, Crippling Poison, Desecration, and Chains of Ice are all highly effective. Blood Beasts are also susceptible to knockback and stun effects.
The BP gain from Boiling Blood is not substantially under player control. Generally six Boiling Bloods will be active at any one time. Boiling Blood provides Deathbringer with a basal rate of unavoidable BP gain. A single tick from Boiling Blood and 1 BP gain can be prevented by a full absorb with a Priest shield.
The BP gain from Mark of the Fallen Champion is not substantially under player control but can be mitigated by proper play. Decreasing the amount of individuals hit by Blood Beasts and Blood Nova will have substantial effects on the rate of BP gain from Mark by decreasing the frequency between additional Marks.
General Tips
Individuals with Mark of the Fallen Champion cannot easily be battle resed because they retain the debuff through death.
Tank Tips
UPDATE: Avoidance not will reduce the amount of Blood Power gained by Deathbringer by Mark of the Fallen Champion. Every melee strike, regardless if it is a hit, miss, dodge, or parry will trigger the a Mark splash.
Heal Tips
Add Boiling Blood and Mark of the Fallen Champion to your raid frames.
There will be up to six Boiling Bloods out at any one time.
Mark of the Fallen Champion triggers damage on an individual each time the tank is hit by Deathbringer. Individuals with Mark can also be affected by Boiling Blood. Therefore it may be helpful to design a strategy to compensate for this increase in damage. For example, Paladins are capable of using BOP to remove the Boiling Blood from a double stack individual, while Priests can use Pain Suppression.
The number of individuals with Mark will increase throughout the encounter. While the first few Marks are manageable without any defined assignments, it may become necessary in the later stages of the encounter to assign healers in a manner similar to Penetrating Cold on Anub'arak.
Melee Tips
This encounter is a traditional tank and spank from the melee perspective. However, every 40 seconds Deathbringer will summon five Blood Beasts. Although Blood Beasts take 90% less damage from AOE abilities and 70% less damage from diseases, it is still possible to inadvertently pull threat as they spawn. Therefore one should avoid any AOE abilities within the spawn window.
Ranged Tips
Stand at least 12 yards away from one another.
In the current iteration of Deathbringer pets can be targeted by Blood Nova and will grant Deathbringer additional Blood Power. Keep your pets within melee range.
Common Problems
But He's Gaining Blood Power Too Fast!
This is the primary cause of wipes. The quick and dirty method of diagnosing the source of the problem is to look at the number of melee hits by Blood Beasts and the number of individuals hit by each Blood Nova. If more than two individuals are hit by a given Blood Nova, then this suggests that your ranged are not sufficiently spread out. If melee are consistently being hit by Blood Beasts as they spawn, then they need to lay off AOE abilities when the spawn is coming up.
Appreciate the raid guide.
Do you know of a mod which will give a range for the 12 yards for Boiling Blood? DBM only does 10 it seems.
When melee gets Boiling Blood do you send them to the door behind from where Saurfang's tanked until it fades?
Just found out one way to trivialise Mark of the Fallen Champion :
Just let the targeted person die.
This really keeps the rate at which he gains BP low.
You gain much more from not having to heal it (less healers, faster fight).
5% is really nothing to do.
The only part where it doesn't really work nicely is when a heal is targeted.
We usually have a paladin heal him with his beacon.
It's even works on holy priests as they die twice (thx little angel) so he heals for 10%
Appart from that, losing a DPS and having him heal for 5% is easily compensated by having an extra healer swith to a dps spec.
I do believe this won't work on HM though as he'll probablt heal for 25% or something.
Hm. You mention concerns of an upper limit on ranged players, but there seems to be no disadvantage to grouping excess ranged with the melee. (Saurfang doesn't need to be moved or chased around, and there are no special mechanics like Heigan or Shade of Aran that punish casting in melee range.)
Article author
This is true. You can place excess ranged in melee range. However you might run into threat concerns for classes like Warlocks and Mages. You will also want those ranged to not DPS any Blood Beasts while they are in melee range.
god damn BD, you're talented at guide composition.