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Comment by Azzerath

I always knew Deathwing was a nub. (Referring to the View in 3D)
Just to make this post a bit more informative, this is the version of Deathwing the Destroyer that is the last boss of Dragon Soul and not the one where you ride around on his back.

Comment by Iroared

This is the boss for Madness of Deathwing encounter in Dragon Soul.
Loot for this encounter is contained in .

Strategy for normal mode (10 man) (updated 12 Jan 2012):

If you know the general mechanics, feel free to skip to the last paragraph with tips and observations

Group composition: 1 or 2 tanks (if using a single tank, it either has to be a paladin, or you need pretty good DPS so you don't get two impales), 3 healers (or 2 really good ones).

The encounter consists of two phases: first phase, which repeats four times, where you defend each aspect's platform, and second phase, where you finish off Deathwing.

For the first phase, each aspect gives you powerful buffs. Once you are finished defending a platform, you lose the buff from the corresponding aspect. This means you have to figure out which buffs are the most important to your raid and to leave them for later.
The buffs are as follows:
Alexstrasza: increases maximum health by 20%, casts Cauterize
Nozdormu: increases casting and attack speeds by 20%, casts Time Zone
Ysera: increases healing done by 20%, gives each player the ability
Kalecgos: increases damage done by 20%, causes attacks to occasionally trigger Spellweave
Each platform follows the same pattern. At the start of the fight, and after you are done with one of the first three platforms, Deathwing will cast Assault Aspects - after the cast is completed, he will choose an active platform with the most players to assault. All players should run to that platform.

On each platform, the goal is to destroy a Deathwing's limb (28M health on 10man normal). When a limb reaches 90%, it starts dealing damage to the raid with Burning Blood, increasing as the limb gets lower on health. At 70% and 40%, Blistering Tentacles will spawn around it, which are immune to AoE, and deal rapidly increasing damage to the raid. If Alexstrasza is not active (you already completed her platform), they should be single targeted and killed before the damage becomes unhealable. If Alexstrasza is active, however, she will quickly destroy these herself.
- Almost immediately after the assault starts, a Mutated Corruption will spawn in the back. It casts at random players, so everyone should stay spread out. It will also cast Impale at its target, dealing huge damage. The tank needs to use large cooldowns for this. Ideally, the tentacle should die before it casts Impale again, otherwise tanks will need to switch between the impales, and might have problems with defensive cooldowns (each platform usually takes less than 3 minutes). If Ysera is active, can be used instead. Plan out tank and healer cooldowns beforehand. Note that this is physical damage, and Hand of Protection can be used to immune it, as long as the tank removes it and re-taunts quickly afterwards
- At some point Deathwing sends an Elementium Bolt at the platform, which flies very fast and deals huge damage on impact high periodic damage until it is destroyed. Nozdormu's Time Zone will significantly decrease its travel speed, ideally giving the raid enough time to kill them and avoid the impact (the bolt has about 800k health on 10m normal). If Nozdormu's platform has already been completed, everyone will need to stack far away from the impact point and use raid cooldowns such as Power Word: Barrier to survive it, and quickly kill the Bolt.
- Also, several Regenerative Blood will spawn, which don't hit hard, but apply Degenerative Bite to their target, which eventually overwhelms the tanks. They should be tanked inside timezones to decrease their attack speed. When they reach full energy, they heal to 100%, so DPS should focus on AoE'ing them (Spellweave helps out a lot - just spam any aoe spell, Spellweave will do most of the work).
- Lastly, Deathwing will start casting Cataclysm, which is a one minute cast, and wipes the raid if the limb is not killed in time. At this point, the aspect will cast Focused Assault on the limb, increasing its damage taken by 100%. Killing the limb will remove 20% of Deathwing's health and briefly stun him.

Platform order depends heavily on group's DPS and healers. If you have great DPS, you can leave Nozdormu last instead of Kalecgos, so you don't have to worry about surviving Elementium bolt impact. If you're doing Ysera early (which most groups start with), you need to plan tank CDs for Impales. Having good dps helps here too, since you might be able to kill the tentacle before the second impale. If you don't do Kalecgos last, it will become much harder to kill Regenerative Blood and subsequently complete the platform before Cataclysm. After red (Alexstrasza), the raid will need to quickly single target Blistering Tentacles, because their damage quickly gets overwhelming.
Kill order on platforms is as follows: start on limb, switch to Corrupton once it spawns. When Elementium Bolt is cast, all DPS must immediately switch to it regardless of whether Corruption is dead or not (it takes a few seconds for the bolt to arrive near the platform). Once the Corruption is dead, DPS should attack the limb, stopping to single-target the Blistering Tentacles and AoE the Regenerative Blood.

Once all four platforms are cleared, Deathwing will fall forward on Ysera's platform (he will also be attackable from Nozdormu's platform, but everyone needs to assist killing adds on Ysera's). Everyone should quickly get there and start attacking Deathwing's head. There will be two types of adds:
Elementium Fragment: three will spawn in 10m normal; they will cast at a random player, which will also give them a similar debuff, which shows how much time is left until the cast finishes. Those players need to use to survive it (it will once again become available in this phase).
Elementium Terror: two will spawn, they need to be tanked and killed quickly, since they apply , which quickly gets deadly.
As Deathwing gets lower on health, he will start dealing increasing damage to the raid, so at some point you will need to ignore the remaining adds and finish the boss.

General tips and observations
For most groups, the easiest order is Green>Red>Yellow>Blue. Make sure big raid cooldowns (Power Word: Barrier, Tranquility, Spirit Link Totem) are up for the Blue platform, so you can survive the Bolt. You will also need a cooldown or two for the Tentacles when the limb hits 40% on Yellow and Blue platforms, as the raid damage gets very high here.
Paladin tanks are great here because they can solo-tank all two impales per platform (survive the first with 50% reduction or healer CDs, then use Ardent Defender, Hand of Protection or Divine Shield for the second one). Otherwise, you either need two tanks, or one tank and enough DPS to kill the tentacle before second impale, which one-shots the tank. Pop damage cooldowns for the tentacle, since enrage shouldn't be an issue if you're using 1 tank. On phase 2, you have to kill the Terrors very quickly, because one tank will take massive damage from them. It is possible to have a plate DPS tank one Terror for a bit to reduce the stacks on the tank (warriors are best for this). Rogues can also tank one with Evasion, using Cloak of Shadows to remove the stacks, but they can't taunt so don't rely on it. If the tank does die, you can still kill the boss before the second set of Terrors comes out and kills the raid (ignore the Fragments, use Dream for Shrapnel).

Comment by IDrownFish

This is a pretty epic fight.

Thrall has just blasted Deathwing with the Dragon Soul, piercing straight through his chest with a direct shot, which causes Deathwing to crash down into the Maelstrom. Thinking he is defeated for good, the Aspects thank you and offer you your choice of gear as a reward.

"You might want to hurry, though..." says Nozdormu.

Suddenly, Deathwing's broken, maddened, and falling apart at the seams body emerges from the Maelstrom, just as powerful as ever. At this point, he is more magma and corruption than dragon, and his limbs have pretty much become tentacles with claws. He is completely insane, pissed, and in a prime position to finish the job he started and destroy the world.

This is a final boss fight.

This is an epic confrontation with the Destroyer.

And this is a fitting end to the expansion.

Cue the final boss music.

Comment by Naybr

Deathwing is one of the lengthiest raid encounters in the history of WoW with a first kill likely to take you very close to the fifteen minute enrage timer. Thus cooldowns which you might typically use once per encounter (BL/Hero/Time Warp, Army of the Dead) can and probably should be used twice instead.

Comment by 405880

Note to mages, don't ever blink while you're crossing between stones, or you will die.

Comment by ZelosRaine

This is a challenging fight with both execution requirements, gear checks, and high awareness needed from all raiders. Additionally, it is a very long fight.

What may seem most intimidating about this fight (and what may be holding many guilds back) is the fact that there is no one right order. The general consensus seems to be: begin with Ysera, go to Norzdormu, then either Alexstraza or Kalecgos. The most important thing is to pick one order and stick with it (unless obvious problems immediately emerge).

Generally speaking (until raid groups' average dps goes up), this will be a 2 tank 2-3 heal fight (on 10 man). My guild (with fairly high raid dps, most averaging 30k+) did 2 tanks, 3 heals. The finer points of our strat are as follows:

Rule of thumb: Kill whatever is newest, use dps cooldowns (generally) on the elementium bolt so that the remainder of the cooldown can be used to finish off the corruption.

Starting on Ysera's platform, tanks should taunt off after impale with a total of 2 impales per platform. Tanks should use the dream buff to survive impale on this platform.

On Norzdormu's, everything is the same except tanks should use their 3 min 50% damage taken cooldowns as the dream buff will be gone.

On Alextraza's (we found Kalecgos' damage buff more helpful as the tentacles go down very quickly to good dps), the raid must stack (with the exception of the tank tanking the corruption) as a group as far away from the impact point of the elementium bolt as possible, one raid cooldown (barrier, spirit link, etc) should be used here. Additionally, tanks may need an external cooldown (hand of sacrifice, pain suppression, etc) to survive the impale as their 3 min cooldowns will likely not be up.

On Kalecgos', everything will be as above (except 3 min cooldowns should be up for impale) but dps will need to single target the tentacles that come up. The first set should not be too hard. However, the second set will come out during significant raid damage and a raid cooldown (two if needed) should be used. Dps MUST switch and kill them quickly. I recommend melee kill near while ranged far so that the group can remain stacked up. If meeting the cataclysm enrage timer is an issue here, feel free to pop hero as this is, by far, the hardest stage.

The second and last phase of the fight is relatively simple by comparison. Your raid will have all their buffs back and will need them. The tentacle adds will come up shortly after you land on the platform and they should be single targeted (10 man) or aoed down (25 man). Any raid member affected by shrapnel must wait for the last minute then click their dream button so as to avoid death. Faiding light from Ultraxion is good practice for this. As soon as the tentacles are dead (before if you are unlucky), the elementium terrors will spawn. They should be picked up immediately, a skull placed on one, and burned down one at a time. The tanks will take significant damage but try to survive it without major cooldowns as it will be much worse the next time (and there will be a next time). Once the adds are dead, as much dps should be put on the boss as possible, but, if lust has not been used, it should still be saved. There will be a second round of adds. They should be handled like the first but the boss will be bleeding fire on the raid at this point and they will be much more dangerous. As soon as the tentacles are dead and the terrors have been picked up and marked, any lust/healer cooldowns (chained) should be used to keep tanks and raid alive. At that point, burn the boss, ignore any third sets of adds that might come, and pray.

Good luck!

Comment by 601638

I have a question.

Along the first Limb Tentacle, after killing the Mutated Corruption and the Regenerative blood, the only thing you have to do is to dps the Limb Tentacle until it dies. The question here is...

What happens if one or two dps go to another Limb Tentacle and starts dps it and get back to the first one before it dies?

For example, the order of the raid will be this: Ysera, Alexstrasza, Nozdormu and finally Kalecgos. Along the first one with Ysera, could some dps be done on Kalecgos Limb Tentacle so lately get back to that one with fewer hit points to dps?

Hope I explained nicely ^^u

Sorry if my english is bad.

Comment by 338957

A prot paladin can soak 2 impales on each platform using the following cooldowns:

1. Dream + DP
2. AD then LoH
3. DG + DP
4. DS + taunt
5. AD then healer cooldown or well-timed heals
6. HoP + taunt
7. DG + DP
8. AD then LoH

The only tricky impale is the 5th. My group used Spirit Link Totem. If you don't want to waste a healer cooldown, you can pop Stay of Execution and WoG after the 5th impale hits.

Also, pop Mirror of Broken Images right before any Elementium Bolt lands.

Comment by 490383

I was thinking if you had 2 good healers 6 dps and 2 tanks you could go Ysera>>>Kalecgos>>>Alexstrasza>>>Nozdormu. having Time Zone up every platform and having Blistering Tentacle down from Alexstrasza for 3 platforms while keeping Nozdormu buff (increases casting and attack speeds by 20%).

Should be really easy to heal. this leaves you with all your CD's for the head. also could have one high dps for the first 2 jumps dpsing on the 4th platform till starts.

Comment by 916115

The Korean guild KIN Raiders (즐거운공격대) from KR-Kargath was the first guild in the world to defeat the second part of the Deathwing encounter in the Heroic version of the Dragon Soul raid instance.

Comment by 816831

He is categorized as an elemental. He could really be a giant, elemental, dragonkin, or demon. He should really just be uncategorized.

Comment by Felreaper

If you're having trouble dps wise with this encounter but have great heals, I'd recommend going into it with:

1 tank
2 healers
7 dps

And doing the platforms in the order of: Green, red, yellow, blue.

My guild has been doing this so far, and we could probably add an extra healer now since dps is a lot more geared than when we first did it, but here's how it works:

On the green platform, when the first big tentacle comes up everyone needs to switch immediately to it. With 7 dps and a 20% damage buff, we manage to kill the tentacle before the elementium bolt is launched. If you can't manage to do this, you're going to want to gear up more before you try this encounter again because since the tank can't take a 2nd impale, and there's no nozdormu slow on the bolt on the 4th platform, you'll most likely die.

Do all the other platforms like this, but the other change is when Deathwing falls foward. When the 2 big adds spawn, have your tank grab them, and pop all their cds while dps nukes one down. I'm pretty much the sacrifice, sometimes I live after, and sometimes I don't. Once those 2 are dead, everyone needs to dps deathwing down and that you get him before the 2nd set of big adds spawn. Popping hero after the 2nd big add dies really helps the burn on deathwing.

This is a very stressful fight on healers if you're 2 healing, so do as much as you can to help them (lock candy etc).

Comment by 933283

For ranged DPS:

1) You may target tentacles on a platform adjacent to yours by standing on the edge of platform, EXCEPT the one located on Kalec's. (In other words, you cannot attack Kalec's while standing on Ysera's)
2) You may target both tentacles on Ysera's AND Kalec's platform by standing on the edge of Kalec's platform.

On their WFK strategy, KIN raiders seemed to avoid Cataclysm on Kalec's by sending a party of warlocks, shadowpriests (yeah, more dots!) and some healer to Kalec's platform in advance when the rest dealing with Ysera's.

If you want to exploit this fact, please be warned that:

1) The actual zone you can use to deal both tentacles is pretty narrow, and Crush might deal splash damage onto it.
2) You may not want to see Blistering Tentacles AND Mutated Corruption at the same time. If the tentacle on the other side is severely injured (less than 80%), stop dealing it.

Comment by Euphemia

After slacking around for a bit too long, we finally started the New Year out with a kill :D

Our setup on our kill:

2 (pala & feral)
3 healers (2 shamans and 1 priest)
5 dps (assass rogue, survival hunter, 2 destro locks and 1 fire mage).

Platform order:
Ysera > Alexstrasza > Nozdormu > Kalecgos

Kill prio for adds (ALWAYS applied!):
Normal Platform = Elementium Bolt > Mutated Corruption > Regenerative Bloods > Blistering Tentacles > Arm/Wing
Head Phase = Elementium Fragment > Elementium Terror > Deathwing

(of course, time your dps on the Arm/Wing so you don't have Blisterings up while killing the Regenerative Bloods)

SuperBrief Tacts:
We popped tw/hero after killing the second spawn of Elementium Fragments (to not have more Shrapnels ripping us apart) in the head-phase. We left the Terrors for the tanks, so I guess we just "sacrificed" our tanks - all in the name of a final kill, I guess...

We've worked extensively on 2man-healing this fight, and as soon as we up our dps slightly, we can do that, which should make this a way more controlled kill. The video is somewhat...wild...towards the end...
The point is that, once we can 2man heal it, we will get the Mutated Corruption down well in time before the Elementium Bolt comes to join the party - which will make every platform so much more controlled healingwise :D

Complete Tacts
However, for thorough strategy and tactics, have a look at the video from the actual kill.

Good luck to everyone - go get your "Destroyer's End"-titles!

Comment by crimsonhead

for those that don't know, I found this by accident on my warrior yesterday.

You can get the achievement Stood in the Fire by dying to deathwing at any point (yet to be confirmed, but I have read comments on the cheev), for me personally, I intercepted an elementium bolt and got burned...

Comment by Igpolaris

"This is madness!"

"No! This is DEATHWING"

Comment by 924343

Thought I'd add a few tricks for strategy that a paladin can make use of in this fight from my fight the other night when my offtank died and could not be brezzed. To survive the double/triple impale (or to save your tank if your not tanking) you can try this technique, on the second impale, pop guardian of ancient kings and Ardent defender, though the damage redux doesn't stack, you greatly weaken the impale with the 60% and you get the life-saving heal to offset what's left (20% isn't always enough to make that 200% pale be small enough to have the 15% heal save you), allowing you to survive the second without a tank, if your group doesn't dps fast enough and you have a third impale, just drop hand of protection or divine shield and it will eat up the damage quite effectively, just remember to drop it immideately after to quickly regain aggro.

On a side note, had an interesting bug occur where deathwing got tired and laid his head down on the platform with one tentacle still up, we think it was a seizure or something (he is insane after all), something for groups to keep in mind if this happens, you can/should pass through the head to the other side if you have any hopes of winning should that bug occur. It took us completely by surprise, and by the time we realized we needed to move to the other side, half the raid was dead due to shrapnel and elementals. Hope my experiences are of help to someone.

Comment by Kathucka

There is a way to make the 10-man 1-tank 2-heal composition much easier. It's the "Stand and Wait" strategy.

Simply put, don't bring the limb tentacle below 95% health until the Regenerative Blood is all dead. Most of the raid damage on the platforms comes from Burning Blood, which increases in power as the limbs are damaged. However, they won't even cast it until they are below 95%. It might be hard to convince your damage-dealers to hold back, but it's worth it.

If you do this, there is very little raid damage for most of the fight. Doing this makes things much easier on the healers. They can generally maintain full mana until late in the third platform.

Some tips:

A good order is green - red - bronze - blue.

Healers may need to blow cooldowns on the Blistering Tentacles for platforms 3 and 4. They'll have lots of mana, though.

For the first three platforms, the Elementium Bolt should come after the Mutated Corruption dies. It should die before it lands.

The hardest part of the fight, by far, is surviving the Elementium Bolt on platform 4. It does a lot of damage, and the Mutated Corruption will probably still be alive, hitting the tank and slamming the raid. To beat this, have a holy paladin use Divine Protection (bubble) on himself and Hand of Sacrifice on the tank. He can heal the tank while the bolt arrives. Everyone else should run under the wing tentacle and pile up with all damage-reduction cooldowns, such as Divine Guardian, Aura Mastery, Rallying Cry, Feint, Raptor Strike (glyphed), etc. After the Bolt lands, kill it ASAP while scattering to reduce Slam damage.

Seriously, surviving those five seconds is almost the whole fight. Everything leading up to that is easy.

On phase 2, the tank will be taking double stacks ot Tetanus from the Elementium Terrors, which will quickly become unhealable. However, the melee hits from the Elementium Terrors don't do much damage. You can clear the Tetanus with Hand of Protection and have the tank click it off. You can have a damage-dealer serve as a temporary tank. Or, you can just let the tank die.

The second wave of Elementium Terrors is lethal. Two healers won't be able to keep up the tank and the rest of the raid, and everyone will be out of cooldowns. You must finish off Deathwing before they kill the tank.

Comment by Russiankid001

If the top half of him is in Azeroth wouldn't his with his bottom half be mooning Deepholme?

Comment by 433719

Really awesome but long fight and you must be lucky to get what you want :P

Comment by 957168

Funny how Deathwing can be more difficult and (arguably) complicated then the LK with only 2 phases while LK had like 5.

Comment by 315792

What puzzles me is, that we seem to end the fight with Deathwing at around 1.5% or so, and all of a sudden he's dead. Anyone else had that experience? Happened twice to us now?

Comment by wintermadness1

I love this fight, except for when one of our healers jumps between platforms...and is unceremoniously dropped to his death in the water. To add insult to injury, they are also impossible to reach with a battle-rez. Maybe I'm being unreasonable, but I hate wiping to a bug that should have been fixed on PTR. Anyone else have this happen to them?

Comment by jakra002

Is there any actual lore behind the weapons that he drops? I mean, look at those that The Lich King drops, especially at 25HC, according to the yellow text at the bottom all seem to have been attained from his dead enemies. What about Madness of Deathwing?

Comment by Deathsdefend

Don't forget the legendary: You have done NOTHING. I will TEAR your world APART.

Comment by Ezekeil

Today on 10 man Madness no blood spawned during hemorage!

Comment by 445371

Easy peasy. One shotted yesterday in LFR. No one died, still 2 minutes left on enrage. lol

Comment by 293216

Is there a trick to jumping between platforms? I keep falling as well as a few others even if we wait for the waves to form.

Comment by magicsimon

The usual braindead mistakes on DW in LFR:

- Someone leaves before the fight is started or the raid aren't full when someone starts the fight...
TODO: Make sure there is atleast 1 tank and 4-5 healers in the raid. Else announce to the raid what's missing.

- During the fight there are usually a couple people (half the raid) that does something wrong constantly....
TODO: Tell them, in a short and precise message, what they are doing wrong and what they should be doing instead (if only one person, then whisper). Don't start calling them all kinds of stuff or whine everytime they mess up. They might be new to LFR and don't know the tactics. They won't ask for them either, because they are afraid to get kicked (by vote), "flamed", don't care or just don't understand english.

- Someone starts calling people names and complaint (whine) about how bad they are at playing WoW (in his/her eyes).
TODO: Ask the person this question (or something similar): "How is the constant whine that you do helping the raid? Does it improve the DPS/tanking/healing?".

Do remember that the LFR was created for getting gear and learn the boss fights/tactics!

Comment by Kaltzor

Do you like fire? He's full of it.

Comment by 575688

Madness of Deathwing Clicker Challange

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDbIIoBGlqk CLICK IT !

Comment by Namnalia

Tactics for 10m heroic:

Setup:
While 2T2H is possible, I recommend 2T3H as it allows less careful play. You won't have any dps problems if you were able to beat spine anyway. If you somehow have to rely on a 2H-setup, try not to damage the limb at all before the platform is cleared - the DPS should be sufficient and this might take a lot of stress from the healers (they will probably curse enough during P2).

Changes from normal mode:
Twice on each platform during the first phase, a random non-tank will get infected by a Corrupting Parasite. After the debuff fades, a Parasite will spawn at the location of the player and start channeling a 10s spell called Unstable Corruption. Basically, he'll explode for the hp he has left divided by 10 when he finishes the cast. Two additional notes: Upon spawning, the Parasite kills nearby players, so there should be none near the infected player (the infected player himself does not die, ofc). Secondly, the time zone will slow down the cast to 15s.

Furthermore, the Bloods spawn a lot earlier on the platforms (right after the first impale hit).

In phase two, DW will spawn Congealing Bloods when he reaches 15, 10 or 5% hp. These adds won't do anything but run to DW and heal him by one percent each when they reach him. This might even result in a second blood spawn (e.g. when he's healed to 16% by a blood and damaged to 15% again), so these bloods MUST NOT REACH HIM (caps for srs bsnss here!).

Tactics:

Platform order:
The "normal" platform order (Ysera (green), Alexstrasza (red), Nozdormu (gold), Kalecgos (blue)) is optimal for 2T3H setups. If you are completely unable to get enough survival cooldowns for your tanks, you might change Ysera and Alexstrasza.

Dealing with the Parasite:

On the first three platforms, place the parasite in the time zone. If your ranged DPS are able to bring it below 30% on their own, don't bother using melees for it (unless it's a melee that spawned it, then he should help out). If the parasite is below 30%, ignore it and kill the big tentacle instead, the explosion will not deal as much damage as the tentacle does.

Surviving the last platform:

On Kalecgos' platform, the !@#$ hits the fan: You don't have a time zone left and you're missing the haste buff and several other benefits of the aspects. The damage requirements on this platform are rather high compared to the first three. To get through this, you should place the first parasite near the tentacle to allow every dps to switch to it fast. Burn it down (BL/Heroism plus pots are not a bad choice here). Soon afterwards you will be forced to retreat to the limb as the bolt will impact. Use some your damage reducing cds and raid cds here, finish the bolt and the tentacle while placing the second parasite near the limb. Finish the tentacle and the parasite combined with the bloods and go for the limb. This is a rather hard damage race as you'll have to deal with the limb tentacles twice and it is a rather bad idea to dps the limb below 90% before everything else is finished (your healers are stressed enough).

Phase 2:

The good thing about the nerfs (we're at 15% as I'm writing this) is that you have so much time left to beat the enrage timer that you can finish everything on its own: DPS DW until the Fragments spawn, finish them, finish the Terrors in the time zone, drop DW below 16%, go for the bloods, return to DW, stop at 12%, kill Fragments and Terrors a second time, drop DW below 11%, go for the bloods, drop DW below 6%, go for the bloods, offtank / dream-use anything and kill him. The only difficult thing about this phase is to reliably slow the Bloods and kill them off fast enough and to go to this phase solidly (after all, it's almost 12 minutes into the fight). While arguably Spine is harder (I'm not that sure about that after the nerfs), take this encounter seriously or you'll wipe a lot more than you expected, wasting just another 12-minute-try.

Tanking:
P1:
The tank cooldowns for impale are one of the make-or-breaks of the fight. As Impale deals 840k damage and is NOT mitigated by armor, you'll need decent cooldowns for every single one of them. There are tricks around this by using immunity classes, but they are rather difficult to pull off, so you're a lot better with a "decent" tank-eats-it tactic. Each platform will take less than 3 minutes, so do your napkin math and assign a perfect cooldown order for all the platforms. Usually, the tank that takes the first Impale will go for the bloods afterwards and pull them whereever it is you need damage.

P2:
Tank the big tentacles in the time zone, mark one of them immediately. Help out with the bloods as good as you can, your DPS really matters a lot here.

DPSing:
P1:
The tentacle is the most important target on each platform unless you are on the parasite. You should be quite familiar with the spell weaving mechanic. As your tank will hopefully bring the bloods to your current target, spread some dots on them to profit from spell weaving. Place yourself decently to avoid triple-hits by the tentacle's slash.
Control your dps on the leg/arm, especially on platform 3 (do not go below 85% before the tentacle) and 4. (do not go below 95% before the tentacle). Use dream / damage reduces for the second arm-tentacles. Your healers will love you!
P2:
Controlled dps and using spell weaving are the key. You need to spread dots and cleave wherever necessary, and you need a reliable slow for the congealing bloods alongside insane burst AoE.

Healing:
P1:
Help out the tanks with impale, time your heavy group cds so that you are able to survive the harder parts of platform 3 and 4 (namely the arm tentacles and the bolt impact).
P2:
Keep those tanks alive during Tetanus. Threaten your stupid DPS to use dream when they still have it after the Fragments.

Have fun and see you in Pandaria!

Comment by ontera

Koo koo ka choo, I am the Cataclysm.

Comment by 991895

We did this last night and on the contrary of what many says we find 1 tank 2 heal it to be a lot easier on both the dps and healing. Our Shaman finished on full mana, and the priest was just about to use her cd's. Our setup was Blood DK, Hunter(soaking every second except 4'th where I as Rogue did for Cloaking the Bolt at the same time. Ret, Demo, Fire, 2x Ele. And Disc/RestoSham. Platform rotation was Green->Red->Bronze->Blue and we never had any issues cos of healthstones on 4'th, Cataclysm was miles away. All in all took us about 4 hours to Get down from first attempt with no vids watched.

Comment by Diverdave333

Let's see...
Giant reptilian boss that breathes fire? Check.
Boss arena is in the center of the world? Check.
Terrain is lava, lava, everywhere? Check.

Somebody play the final boss theme from Super Mario Galaxy!

Comment by Railander

although the dungeon journal doesnt say so, even in heroic difficulty it may still drop the chanced mount (not sure if the drop chance is increased or not).
if it does drop, the 100% mount will still drop as well.

Comment by 948661

This isn't a guide on how to kill him but on how to one-tank him as a Blood DK.

As a Blood DK, our guild had a shot at one-tanking the fight (with me as the one tank) this is with a 25% debuff however to all damage done and health reduced.

Our Raid Setup was :
2 tanks (Blood DK, Prot Paladin)
3 Healers (Resto druid, Resto Shaman, discipline Priest)
6 dps (1 death knight, 1 rogue, 1 shadow priest, 1 surv hunter, 1 arcane mage)

However due to unforeseen circumstances our rogue,druid and paladin weren't availble so we ended up going with :

1 tank (Blood Dk)
3 Healers (Disc Priest, Holy Priest, Resto Shaman
6 damage dealers: (1 death knight, 2 arcane mages, 1 surv and 1 MM hunter, 1 shadow priest)

We did (Green, Red, Yellow, Blue)

1st Plattform I popped Dream,

2nd Plattform I popped Icebound Fortitude

3rd Plattform I popped Bone Shield, Vampiric Blood ( the unglyphed one for the 15% extra health)

4th PLattform i had to take 2 impales, the first one i popped Icebound Fortitude and then my VP for the raid on bolt impact, but then i died on the second impale and we wiped)

As a new result i popped Icebound Fortitude on the first one, and then one the bolt I used VP, Then for the second impale i used my Army of the Dead damage reduction and saved up Death Strikes up to about 100k absorb, I survived with enough health to survive a melee and then the Corruption died.

For Phase 2

We skulled one Terror and bursted that down quickly, I popped Dream and Anti Magic at 9 stacks of Tetanus and popped all my cooldowns for the second time we had Terrors up at around 6-7 stacks, save for VP which I popped when raid is at low health for extra healing.

Comment by 948661

For those wondering about the drake:

Reins of the Blazing Drake:

10 Man-Normal = Very, very slim chance

25 Man-normal = Slim chance

Life-Binders Handmaiden

10 Man-Heroic = Likely chance

25 Man-Heroic guaranteed

Comment by Voidly

Highlights of Lore Behind Deathwing;

Deathwing the Destroyer, formerly known as Neltharion the Earth-Warder. Thousands years ago he was empowered with power of the earth by Titans. Later, he has been corrupted by the Old God.

The Old Gods:

The Old Gods are powerful dark creatures. They are imprisoned beneath to earth by Titans. There is THREE known Old Gods.

C'Thun, he can be found at Temple of Ahn'Qiraj as the Last Boss. He is Defeated.

Yogg-Saron, he can be found at Ulduar as the Last Boss. He is Defeated.

And the last one is N'Zoth. Who is the responsible for the corruption of Deathwing.
He sent his Faceless one's to aid Deathwing.

Warlord Zon'ozz

"Victory for Deathwing. For the glory of N'Zoth!"
"The will of N'Zoth corrupts you."
"Your skulls shall adorn N'Zoth's writhing throne."
"Your deaths shall sing of N'Zoth's unending glory."

Yor'sahj the Unsleeping

"Our numbers are endless, our power beyond reckoning! All who oppose the Destroyer will DIE A THOUSAND DEATHS!"
"You will drown in the blood of the Old Gods! ALL OF YOU!"
"All praise Deathwing, THE DESTROYER!"
"From its BLEAKEST DEPTHS, we RECLAIM this world!"

Haethen Kaul

"It is true that we serve Deathwing, but we also serve a higher power. Never forget that!"

Also, He is source of Emerald Nightmare, which is twisted Emerald Dream.

His current place is unknown.

First Defeat of the Deathwing:

After he driven mad, he turned aganist other aspects during the War of the Ancients. He also showed himself as Lord Daval Prestor at Second War. After a series of setbacks, he retreated to the elemental plane of Deepholm to recuperate. And many believed he is dead.

After, he returned and his wrath resulted in the Shattering, which reshaped the map of Azeroth.

Dragon Soul:

Dragon Soul is an artifact created before the War of the Ancients by Deathwing to use aganist the Burning Legion. Howewer Deathwing corrupted and he wished to use it to control the other Dragonflights, and make himself a god to be worshipped by the mortal races.

Later Malfurion Stormrage succeeded to steal Dragon Soul but he was captured by Queen Azshara's soldiers, led by his own brother, Illidan Stormrage. Dragon Soul wanted to use open a portal that allows Sargeras entry into Azeroth at Well of Eternity. But they failed and Burning Legion banished back, then Malfurion and the four remaining Aspects placed a spell on the Dragon Soul that would prevent Deathwing from ever using it again.

Also it caused his defeat. Thrall channeled Dragon Soul's Power (Empowered with power of the other aspects, (Again) ) to Deathwing Three times, finally he is destroyed.

Deathwing's Followers and Relatives:

- Twilight's Hammer (The cult worshipping and serving Old God's, led by Twilight Council) Twilight Council : Cho'gall , Twilight Lord Everun and High Priestess Azil. After Defeat of Twilight Council, Twilight's Hammer led by Twilight Father-Prophet (Archbishop Benedictus)

- Ragnaros and Fire Elementals.
- Al'Akir and Air Elementals.
- Neferset Tol'vir
- Few Earth Elementals (His power over the earth) (Morchok)
- Few Water Elementals
- Faceless One's (Forces of N'zoth)

- Lady Sinestra (Prime consort)
- Onyxia, Nefarian and Wrathion (children)

Main sources : Wowpedia and Wowwiki.

Note: I will add more later. Thanks for reading. Sorry for grammar and typing mistakes.

Comment by Eillesthis

FYI if you've done any previous bosses on normal mode (for achievements), you can't do Spine of Deathwing or Madness of Deathwing on heroic this week.

Comment by Plutofour

if you are like me and love the music that plays here when deathwing finally dies i found the script a few minutes ago for in-game pleasure ^_^.

/script PlaySoundFile("Sound\\Music\\Cataclysm\\MUS_43_DeathwingOutro_UU01.mp3")

Enjoy

Comment by 864791

You have done NOTHING.I will tear your world APART

I'm fapping on this voice

Comment by 884018

I hope the rate of Life-Binder's Handmaiden mount is fixed.

Cus what I can see now on wowhead it has 45% drop chance on 10 heroic instead of 100%.

Life-Binder's Handmaiden has 100% drop chance on heroic.

Comment by Eillesthis

About the mounts.
Life-Binder's Handmaiden drops every time on heroic.
Reins of the Blazing Drake drops rarely on normal and heroic.
This comes not only from collective wisdom, but personal experience. The misleading numbers under the Drops tab may be there because the loot comes from a chest (well, some body part), and thus only one person can loot it at a time. If the mount has been distributed by the time someone with the Wowhead Looter can open it up, Wowhead doesn't see the mount for that kill. Oh, and if you're curious,
Reins of the Twilight Harbinger comes from Glory of the Dragon Soul Raider.

View in 3D Links

Deathwing <The Destroyer>

This NPC can be found in Dragon Soul .

Dragon SoulThe Siege of Wyrmrest TempleMorchokWarlord Zon'ozzYor'sahj the UnsleepingHagara the StormbinderFall of DeathwingUltraxionWarmaster BlackhornSpine of DeathwingMadness of Deathwing

Encounter Journal

Heroic		Mythic
Deadly		Important
Tank		DPS
Healer		Interruptible
Magic		Curse
Poison		Disease
Enrage

Stage One: The Final Assault

Deathwing assaults his enemies while attached to the platforms by his twisted limbs.

Assault Aspect – Deathwing searches for his next enemy to assault. Deathwing assaults the platform with the largest number of players and an attached limb.
Cataclysm – Deathwing attempts to finish the job he started by bringing forth a second Cataclysm, inflicting 1462500 to 1537500 Fire damage to all players.
Elementium Bolt – Deathwing creates an Elementium Bolt, sending it to the target platform.
- Elementium Blast – If the Elementium Bolt reaches its destination, the bolt inflicts 456300 to 479700 Fire damage to all players and an additional 380250 to 399750 Fire damage every 5 sec until players destroy the Elementium Bolt. The initial damage decreases the further the player stands from the targeted location.
Hemorrhage – Deathwing's tentacle begins to Hemorrhage, creating several Regenerative Blood at a nearby location.
- Regenerative Blood – The Regenerative Blood of Deathwing forms. Regenerative Bloods gain ten energy every 1 sec. The melee attacks of a Regenerative Blood also cause Degenerative Bite.
  - Regenerative – A Regenerative Blood heals to full health when it reaches maximum energy.
    In Looking for Raid Difficulty, Regenerative Blood heals 50% of max health when it reaches maximum energy.
  - Degenerative Bite – Melee attacks cause Degenerative Bite, inflicting 2340 to 2460 Shadow damage every 1 sec for 10 sec. This effect stacks.
Limb Tentacle – Deathwing grasps onto each platform with one of his limbs.
Mutated Corruption – A Mutated Corruption appears shortly after assaulting a platform.
- Crush – The crushing weight of the Mutated Corruption inflicts 130000 Physical damage to enemies in a cone in front of the Corruption.
- Impale – The Mutated Corruption impales its target, inflicting 1200000 Physical damage to the target.

Stage Two: The Last Stand

At 20% remaining health, Deathwing falls forward onto the platform.

Elementium Fragment – Pieces of Deathwing's armor chip off, forming three Elementium Fragments nearby.
In 25 player raids, eight Elementium Fragments form.
- Shrapnel – The Fragment fires a piece of Shrapnel at a random player, inflicting 390000 to 410000 unresistable Physical damage.
Elementium Terror – Pieces of Deathwing's armor chip off, forming two Elementium Terrors nearby.
- Tetanus – The Elementium Terror's melee attacks cause Tetanus, inflicting 93600 to 98400 Physical damage and an additional 35100 to 36900 Physical damage every 1 sec. The effect stacks.
Corrupted Blood – Corrupted Blood gushes from Deathwing, inflicting Fire damage every 2 sec. The damage increases as Deathwing's health lowers. At 15%, 10%, and 5% remaining health, Deathwing hemorrages. This increases the damage dealt by Corrupted Blood.

The Aspects

The Dragon Aspects assist in the fight against Deathwing. Each aspect channels Expose Weakness on their respective Limb Tentacle when Deathwing begins to cast Cataclysm. Expose Weakness increases the damage done to the Tentacle by 100%.
Each Aspect also channels Concentration after the players destroy their respective tentacle, preventing the Aspect from assisting the players with their presence and their special powers. The Aspects resume assisting the players when Stage Two begins.

Alexstrasza
- Alexstrasza's Presence – The Presence of Alexstrasza increases the player's maximum health by 20%.
- Cauterize – Alexstrasza Cauterizes the Blistering Tentacles, inflicting lethal damage over 5 sec. Cauterize also reduces the damage inflicted by Corrupted Blood.
  In Heroic Difficulty Alexstrasza Cauterizes the Corrupting Parasite, inflicting 3% Fire damage every 0.5 sec.
Nozdormu
- Nozdormu's Presence – The Presence of Nozdormu increases the player's haste by 20%.
- Time Zone – Nozdormu forms a Time Zone at the target location, causing the Elementium Meteor to lapse in time and decrease its travel speed dramatically upon entering the zone. Any enemy creatures within the Time Zone have their attack speed decreased by 50%.
  In Heroic Difficulty the Time Zone slows the effects of Corrupting Parasite.
Ysera
- Ysera's Presence – The Presence of Ysera increases player healing done by 20%.
- Enter the Dream – The Presence of Ysera allows players to enter the Dream, decreasing damage taken by 50% for 2.50 sec.
Kalecgos
- Kalecgos' Presence – The Presence of Kalecgos increases player damage dealt by 20%.
- Spellweaving – The Presence of Kalecgos allows attacks and abilities to cause Spellweaving. Spellweaving inflicts 19500 to 20500 Arcane damage to enemies within 6 yards, excluding the current target.
Thrall
- Carrying Winds – The Carrying Winds take players between adjacent platforms, and increase their movement speed by 60% for 10 sec. This effect stacks.

Deathwing <The Destroyer>

Encounter Journal

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