Akil'zon : Eagle boss

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Trash Clear

Group composition: Two tanks, 2-3 healers, 2 AoE (warlocks/mages are best), and 3-4 single-target DPS for the elites.

Approaching Akil'zon, the raid encounters an Amani'shi Lookout. Upon aggroing the Lookout, he will run up the hill toward Akil'zon, starting a Shattered Halls gauntlet-like trash event. The raid should have two tanks ready to tank the elite trolls and non-elite eagles.

There are four pairs total each containing a Amani'shi Wind Walker (shaman) and a Amani'shi Protector (warrior). These mobs cannot be crowd controlled. It is best if one tank always takes the left and one always the right, to avoid confusion on who is tanking what. Both will need to be aware of the Amani'shi Warriors coming up from behind. Kill the Wind-Walker first (as he heals), followed by the Protector.

While the raid heads up the gauntlet Akil'zon occasionally sends down non-elite eagles in groups of 5-6 which must be picked up by the tanks (Thunder Clap and Demoralizing Shout/Roar or Consecrate). With sufficient AoE and attentive healers, you can just AoE the eagles. Meanwhile, pairs of Amani'shi Warriors will spawn behind the raid and head up the ramp. They have less health than Amani'shi Protectors and need to be picked up by the tanks and killed.

Because of the constant spawns of Eagles and Warriors, the raid will want to move as quickly as they can. When the Amani'shi Tempest is engaged, eagle and Amani'shi Warrior spawns will cease, but any already en route will need to be killed. Once Amani'shi Tempest has been killed and you will find yourself at Akil'zon.

If a member of the raid dies, he or she should release and run back, being careful to move up the ramp after the Amani'shi Warrior pair has moved toward the raid. If a returning member is intercepted by the Amani'shi Warrior pair, not only can this kill the member again, but it can result in a reset of the event.

The respawn time for Akil'zon's trash is short, only 30 minutes. You have only a few attempts on Akil'zon before the trash gauntlet will respawn and you will have to repeat the event. If the respawn happens before you engage boss and you are still on boss' platform (after some unsuccessful tries for example) the waves of eagles and warriors will start coming again. Killing the Amani'shi Tempest on the boss' platform again will stop the waves from coming but you will still have to clear the pairs of trolls again. When you pull the boss it will pull all the trash from the event. Keeping this in mind, the raid may wish to keep an eye on the respawn timer and wait the necessary time to allow the Amani'shi Tempest to respawn. It is safe to pull the Tempest from the top of the ramp near Akil'zon, after which the raid can easily kill the Wind-Walker/Warrior pairs. Waiting and killing the Tempest is faster than reclearing the Gauntlet.

Using the above information, the Gauntlet event can be completely bypassed and only the 4 elite trolls will remain. Before engaging the lookout, have either a Hunter or Rogue stand at the top of the hill, just in view of the lookout. The rest of the group then engages the lookout and awaits for the eagles and warriors to come. Once the warriors spawn, have your rogue or hunter engage them before they reach the group and then immediately drop aggro by either vanishing or using feign death. The eagles and warriors will then run away and despawn, causing the event to reset. The lookout will run up the hill to restart the Gauntlet however, no more eagles will spawn, and your group is free to individually pull the 4 pairs of trolls without having to worry about the eagles and warriors. This strategy is much like the one used in the Slave Pens to reset the Naga when Naturalist Bite is freed and has been proven to work on patch 2.3.0.
[edit] Abilities

* Summon Amani Eagle - an ability to call forth Soaring Eagles which have Eagle Swoop
* Static Disruption (Nature) - deals 3500 damage to target and those within a close range of the target. Also leaves a debuff that causes nature damage taken to be increased by 25% that lasts 20 seconds
* Call Lightning (Nature) - deals 3500 - 4500? damage
* Gust of Wind - throws target up in the air. Upon target falling, deals half target's full health in damage.
* Electrical Storm - channeled spell that raises a target into the air and places a cloud over them. The cloud then strikes everyone not under it approximately each second. Each strike hits harder - first strike for 800 - 1200 nature damage, second for 1600 - 2400, third for 2400 - 3600, fourth for 3200 - 4800, etc. Lasts approximately 7-8 seconds. (Occurs every 45-60 seconds) NOTE that this ability is targeted on the toon furthest away from Akil'zon.
* Enrage Timer - After approximately 8 minutes he will enrage, increasing his damage dealt by 500%. He must be downed before the enrage.

[edit] Strategy

This fight is about spreading out as needed and then collapsing back in upon one person, rinse and repeat. Akil'Zon will hit the main tank for an average of 2500. He will also cast Call Lightning on the main tank. At the start of the fight, the raid should be spread out a little in order to avoid Static Disruption hitting too many people at once. The raid should be positioned where it is easy to collapse back in on one person however. It is recommended to have the raid on one side of the boss with healers closer to the tanks. Players should be kept topped off on health to compensate for Gust of Wind and Static Disruption.


Periodically Akil'Zon will create an Electrical Storm every 45 to 60 seconds. This is foreshadowed by rain that will suddenly start up in the instance, which can help give your raid an indication that it is time to collapse onto one spot (Collapsing onto the tank just prior to the creation of the storm allows dps to continue during the storm). In your chat log it will state "An electrical storm appears!". Another visual sign is that Akil'Zon will seem to have an electrical charge about him, then will shoot a vibrant purple warlock life drain looking graphic towards one person. That person will be lifted in the air and stunned as the center of the cloud. Another indication of the location will be a dark spot on the ground. Everyone in the raid, including the main tank, must get into or close to that dark spot on the ground. Failure to accomplish this quick enough will result in a dead raid group. This is a channelled spell, so if you can position your raid and therefore the cloud center close enough for melee to continue hitting Akil'Zon, great. If not, then you still won't have to worry about Akil'Zon running rampant while you scramble to get under the cloud.


Additional Note: Pay attention to Akil'Zon's health. Depending on your dps, the Electrical Storm will possibly come about 10% into Akil'Zon's health. If this is the case for your raid, then you can better gauge about when the next storm will hit. For other raids with high dps, the storm may hit on average around every 15% health.


Once the Electrical Storm is over, the raid should again spread out a little bit to about where they started the fight. Akil'Zon will call for his "bruddahs" which will bring some Soaring Eagles into the fight. They are different than the birds you met during pre-boss event. They fly in the air and dive-attack selected party member, that means melee dps and off-tanking is useless against them. These eagles have Eagle Swoop which hits for 1500. After the first wave(?) they may begin tossing players into the air for high but non-fatal fall damage. Locks can seed, hunters can shoot down, mages can fireball, and shaman can chain lightning. They move very quickly across the boss area and some players may find it difficult to finish casting a spell before they are behind the player or out of range. The recommended strategy is to have the shaman chain lightning and finish them off with instant ranged attacks. The birds do not despawn and must be killed or they may eventually wipe the raid.


Eagles will only spawn to replace the ones that are killed. Therefore ignoring them and healing thru their damage is a possible alternative. The damage they do could be overcome by a shaman using chain heal and a pally with concentration aura to assist the casting. However, late in the fight these eagles will begin throwing players into the air. If players are not topped off the fall will kill those incapable of slow fall by means of a spell or item.


Rinse and repeat the spreading out and collapsing through the Electrical Storm while managing the birds and you win.


Alternate Strat


As this fight is entirely dependent on being ready for the lightning storm, which is in turn dependent on mostly incorect timers which often lead to the raid being AoE'd and wiped out, our guild devised a different strategy.


Using a timer such as DBM (Deadly Boss Mods) or BigWigs, when the raid is called to stack the melle group stacks upon the tank, whilst the ranged group stacks upon a pre determined caster who stands on one corner of the square that the boss stands on. This way if the timer is out and a group is AoE'd a shamans chain heal, or priests CoH (Circle of Healing) can easily top up a single group. When the lightning storm does eventually hit the raid, the group that does not get hit by the lightning storm simply runs 10 feet to stand with the group that is being hit. As the storm ends the groups move back to their original positions and the casters spread out again.


The most effective way of dealing with the adds using this strategy is to have an affliction Warlock with decent +dmg (800+) to put up corruption and curse of agony on each bird as these are instand cast and do enough dmg to bring each one down.


Rinse and repeat.