Guess Deathwings raid-encounter abilities!

[Joel Atkins]

My guess is..
Cleave (Steady 75k hits to keep the healers busy)
Breath Fire Straight with Maximum Damage (Stack to Prevent Tank Death)
Tail Swipe (1 hit 1 kill, avoid same as Onyxia, any sudden move and DPS on back corner are killed)
AOE Flame Wave (Hide behind blocks which are placed randomly in field, High HPers will survive barely, Med HPers and Low HPers killed if it)

In-between waves Deathwing will fly up and have a similar but different move-set
When Deathwing flies up flames will "shoot" out from him and randomly be placed over field to make ad killing that much harder.
- Ads will rise from the ground (Similar to Ghouls accept it'll be flame-like floors instead of Grey smog)
Ad#1 will have high hp and low attack and speedy
Ad#2 will be slow, extremely high attack and targeting a random a random player (like Prof. Putricide accept no line showing who's targeted)
Ad#3 has high damage and average hp, explodes on queue, lack of DPS on each one will cause death to those around (Tanks will survive with critical health)
All damage from ads will be absorbed into Deathwing's health, so continuous deaths throughout the battle will cause timer to run out and a full field flame wave to evaporate everyone.
- Dragon breath (Similar to Onyxia, watch mouth and avoid)
- Swoop (Deathwing will attack person with highest threat, if threat is on 0 attack is at random)
Players threat drops rapidly while Deathwing in the air, players must continuously use moves to get threat over to the MT player to prevent quick deaths.

[TFA]

I think he front breaths, cleaves and swipes like any other dragon, and i think he has an air phase, other than that, i have no idea :P I like Maeco's idea...

[Zhira]

I'd bet my right nut that a big part of the encounter will involve stripping him of his armor (which basicly keeps him together). As to abilities, my guess is the usually cleave and tailswipe. Apart from that his wings probably comes into play, maybe some kind of massive pushback.

Lastly I think elemental adds will spawn from the openings in his body, maybe more and more as you strip more armor from him

Just a guess, of course.

[Deleted]

This fight needs to be epic in proportion.

It's really too early to say how the deathwing story will develop, but definitely count on him dying. There's also gonna be some serious help from other dragonflights (probably) - the Light King fight wasn't as epic in proportion as it should and could have been, and I'm pretty sure the Deathwing fight is gonna involve the raid moving out of huge void / fire zones and moving into huge healing zones that aleztrazsa puts on the ground. Tanks will probably have to move to one on the other side of the room to avoid the raid taking a cleave; it'll make the healers freak out.

There'll be a pretty imba air phase - probably complete with conflaguration marks and with adds; during this phase it'll probably be Deathwing and Alextrazsa fighting in the air, and while taking adds the raid will probably have to maneuver around deep breaths, conflags, and there could be Deathwing's blood falling from the sky doing huge damage to those standing on the impact zone + deep breaths (similar to KJ fireballs - but worse for the blood drop). The raid will probably have a limited time to take care of the adds - if you take too long, alextrazsa dies / needs to escape to survive, and when deathwing comes down there will be no perks that the raid can use to survive (i.e.: large healing zones? - maybe this is also a mechanic that can trigger a possible hardmode?)

Anyway, there will also be twilight dragons in a possible third and fourth phase.

Expect somewhere around 100k damage hitters; this is gonna be an unforgiving fight - there won't be room for failure.

Oh, and there will probably be some kind of magma surge across the room + some kinda phase where you have to control a dragon or something.

Lots of abilities that involve one person moving away from the raid; really excited about the possible air phase and about the possible alextrazsa healing zones / hardmode unlock - hopefully ysera is around with dream zones for increased damage - really similar to ulduar watchers on yogg.

Lost my train of thought now, I think I've gotten across some interesting ideas though. I hope they add a new mechanic we haven't seen yet.

[Deleted]

What I would use if I would be DW? I would just smash / kick / bite everyone to pieces, healers 1st ofc. It's just stupid that every raid encounter is almost the same, tank takes the boss and he keeps it. I want to see pure hellraiser, fucking the whole raid by just smashing bodies to corner and breathing lava on them. Total chaos. I want total chaos

Hopefully he will be stupid hard to beat, that you would really need to spent hundreds of hours to get reagents and materials just to craft potions/gear just for him.
Like Ragnaros.

I bet he will earthquake us and spawning mini volcanos... And lava waves, but not without those stupid obsidian sanctum holes in the wave, just pure lava damage to everyone without any chance to avoid it

[AvalonTLW]

Some kind fear ability followed by AoE spell.

And lots of talk.

[Dareios]

Earthquake, him being the Earthwarder and all.

[Maeco]

I'd bet my right nut that a big part of the encounter will involve stripping him of his armor (which basicly keeps him together). As to abilities, my guess is the usually cleave and tailswipe. Apart from that his wings probably comes into play, maybe some kind of massive pushback.

Lastly I think elemental adds will spawn from the openings in his body, maybe more and more as you strip more armor from him

Just a guess, of course.

This! Perhaps one phase (or a repeating phase) involves in getting players on top of Deathwing to dps down bolts that keep the Adamantite Plating on his body.

Exciting stuff, there is sooo much potential for this fight.

[Deleted]

Immolation Aura, the entire raid takes large amounts of fire damage very 3 seconds throughout the entire fight.

Perhaps even a stacking debuff on melee like on Magmadar(or Golemagg?).

[Mogrutana]

I hope he has a melee attack.

[CoraTehEJ]

Some sort of timed enrage type encounter. Maybe having lava slowly rising onto a platform the raid is fighting deathwing on. Maybe having to slowly damage his armor off of him before being able to actually damage him, like a mana shield type deal. dunno just my 2cents

---------- Post added 2010-10-18 at 11:45 AM ----------

Just had another idea after reading Zhira's post that if DPS have to ride on his back while damaging bolts or what not Deathwing can lift off into the air at random, while half the raid is still on his back. Needing to split the raid heals/tanks with ranged DPS staying on the ground. Like a two phase fight such as Kalecgos(?) from sunwell.

[Diurden]

im guessing there will be fire, and if you step in it you might even die?!

[Xleetskeetx]

Oh lawd, I'll do it for funsies.


Phase 1, circular room, Onyxia-esque.

Magma Claw - The main attack tanks have to deal with outside of auto-attacks and the standard dragon breath and cleaves. Occurs every 6 seconds. Cannot be dodged/blocked/parried. Hits for additional fire damage and applies a debuff that lasts for one minute with a stacking sunder armor effect combined with a DoT.

Sticky Magma - The debuff applied by Magma Claw, tooltip reads "You are covered in molten rock, reducing armor by x% and dealing x damage to you every 3 seconds" Lasts 60 seconds.

Withering Heat - Every 6 stacks of Sticky Magma, a stack of Withering Heat is applied. Reduces the player's maximum health by 3%.When applied to a target without Sticky Magma, also reduces Rage gen/Energy regen/Runic Power gen/Rune Regen/Mana Regen by 5% per stack. Lasts 10 minutes. Physical, cannot be cleansed by any means, persists through death.

Earthquake - Every 40 seconds, 3 second cast. The ground trembles at the might of the Dragon Aspect, dealing x damage every second for 8 seconds.

Earthwarder's Rage - 2 second cast, 35 second timer. Deathwing screams with rage, silencing the raid for 3 seconds. If a cast was caught channeling, the silence effect lasts 10 seconds for that player.


Phase 2, Begins at 85% health. Deathwing shatters sections of the wall and ceiling, allowing lava to flow into the room.

Magma Claw

Sticky Magma

Withering Heat - The raid now takes a stack of this every 15 seconds, tanks are immune to the raid-wide version with the Sticky Magma debuff active.

Earthquake - Now causes lava and water puddles to spawn at random. Lava puddles cause cause damage per second and expand quickly, and Water puddles remove 1 stack of Withering Heat every second. Both last for the duration of the earthquake. Players with Sticky Magma will not have Withering Heat stacks removed.

Earthwarder's Rage

Tail Slam 20 second cooldown. Deathwing slams his tail into the ground, knocking back players within 20 yards and sending (4/10?) cracks at random targets. Upon a crack impacting(well, going underneath) a player, a spike erupts beneath them, knocking back players around it and dealing x damage. The main target is hit for y damage and sent 65 feet into the air.


Phase 3, 60%. A brief RP moment to let the Sticky Magma debuff fall off the tanks, and the roof of the chamber explodes outwards(let's say the entire top of a mountain) and Deathwing begins flying in a circle around the outside of the chamber.

Deathwing cannot be attacked by melee in this phase.

Intimidating Swoop - Deathwing Strafes the ground, blowing players away and breaking up their formation. This is the filler between abilities, no damage, simply a "punt" effect that sends everyone flying. Kicks people off of the shadowflame buff and the water.

Withering Heat Now occurs every 10 seconds.

Call of the Twilight Deathwing calls a Twilight Drake to assist him. These land and must be tanked and killed. They are called following each Deep Breath.
Twilight Drake
Breath - A 45 degree frontal cone breath attack, standard drake operating procedure.
Twilight's Gloom - A stacking DoT that is pulsed to the raid every 5 seconds, lasts 15 seconds
Martyr - The Twilight Drakes will attempt to explode at 10%, 5 second cast time.

Deep Breath - Every 1 minute Deathwing will target a random raid member and fly at them whilst spewing fire across the floor. He can turn up to 20 degrees towards his target after casting(He can turn 20 degrees from where his target WAS at the beginning of the cast). 34% damage every .5 seconds. 5 second cast time. Leaves a trail of fire that lasts for 3 minutes.

Earthquake - Phase 2 Earthquake continues

Shadowflame Burst Targets random raid members, 15 second cooldown. A ball of shadowflame impacts the ground causing x damage and blasting back players within in 15 yards. Players hit will be afflicted with a shadow/fire DoT and have their healing received reduced by 50%. The ground seethes with power at the impact site, granting reduced threat as well as 25% spell haste and 50% spell damage. The ground will stay scorched for 30 seconds.


Phase 4, Final, 35%. Deathwing has had enough of you, and lands once again to fight you on the ground.

There will be ledges to the left and right of Deathwing in this phase, and melee can jump on his back for additional damage.

Magma Claw

Withering Heat - Phase 3 continues

Earthquake - Phase 2 continues

Earthwarder's Rage

Tail Slam

A World to Unmake - After 30 seconds and every 30 seconds thereafter a section of the floor collapses, revealing a pool of lava beneath. The room will be split into 7 sections. The section that is going to fall will rumble and the cracks will glow bright orange. Players have 5 seconds to vacate the premises or they will fall to their deaths.
Every time a section collapses, lava is splashed over the remaining platform. Anyone hit receives 3 stacks of Sticky Magma.

Shadowflame Flare - Target player is ignited with Shadowflame, taking DoT damage and exploding after 8 seconds. Anyone caught in the explosion will die, and the ground under the explosion will grant the same effect as Shadowflame Burst.

[Deleted]

My Chin hungers...
( does chin slam aka fury of frostmourne )

---------- Post added 2010-10-18 at 12:13 PM ----------

[MorphexEU]

Oh lawd, I'll do it for funsies.


Phase 1, circular room, Onyxia-esque.

Magma Claw - The main attack tanks have to deal with outside of auto-attacks and the standard dragon breath and cleaves. Occurs every 6 seconds. Cannot be dodged/blocked/parried. Hits for additional fire damage and applies a debuff that lasts for one minute with a stacking sunder armor effect combined with a DoT.

Sticky Magma - The debuff applied by Magma Claw, tooltip reads "You are covered in molten rock, reducing armor by x% and dealing x damage to you every 3 seconds" Lasts 60 seconds.

Withering Heat - Every 6 stacks of Sticky Magma, a stack of Withering Heat is applied. Reduces the player's maximum health by 3%.When applied to a target without Sticky Magma, also reduces Rage gen/Energy regen/Runic Power gen/Rune Regen/Mana Regen by 5% per stack. Lasts 10 minutes. Physical, cannot be cleansed by any means, persists through death.

Earthquake - Every 40 seconds, 3 second cast. The ground trembles at the might of the Dragon Aspect, dealing x damage every second for 8 seconds.

Earthwarder's Rage - 2 second cast, 35 second timer. Deathwing screams with rage, silencing the raid for 3 seconds. If a cast was caught channeling, the silence effect lasts 10 seconds for that player.


Phase 2, Begins at 85% health. Deathwing shatters sections of the wall and ceiling, allowing lava to flow into the room.

Magma Claw

Sticky Magma

Withering Heat - The raid now takes a stack of this every 15 seconds, tanks are immune to the raid-wide version with the Sticky Magma debuff active.

Earthquake - Now causes lava and water puddles to spawn at random. Lava puddles cause cause damage per second and expand quickly, and Water puddles remove 1 stack of Withering Heat every second. Both last for the duration of the earthquake. Players with Sticky Magma will not have Withering Heat stacks removed.

Earthwarder's Rage

Tail Slam 20 second cooldown. Deathwing slams his tail into the ground, knocking back players within 20 yards and sending (4/10?) cracks at random targets. Upon a crack impacting(well, going underneath) a player, a spike erupts beneath them, knocking back players around it and dealing x damage. The main target is hit for y damage and sent 65 feet into the air.


Phase 3, 60%. A brief RP moment to let the Sticky Magma debuff fall off the tanks, and the roof of the chamber explodes outwards(let's say the entire top of a mountain) and Deathwing begins flying in a circle around the outside of the chamber.

Deathwing cannot be attacked by melee in this phase.

Intimidating Swoop - Deathwing Strafes the ground, blowing players away and breaking up their formation. This is the filler between abilities, no damage, simply a "punt" effect that sends everyone flying. Kicks people off of the shadowflame buff and the water.

Withering Heat Now occurs every 10 seconds.

Call of the Twilight Deathwing calls a Twilight Drake to assist him. These land and must be tanked and killed. They are called following each Deep Breath.
Twilight Drake
Breath - A 45 degree frontal cone breath attack, standard drake operating procedure.
Twilight's Gloom - A stacking DoT that is pulsed to the raid every 5 seconds, lasts 15 seconds
Martyr - The Twilight Drakes will attempt to explode at 10%, 5 second cast time.

Deep Breath - Every 1 minute Deathwing will target a random raid member and fly at them whilst spewing fire across the floor. He can turn up to 20 degrees towards his target after casting(He can turn 20 degrees from where his target WAS at the beginning of the cast). 34% damage every .5 seconds. 5 second cast time. Leaves a trail of fire that lasts for 3 minutes.

Earthquake - Phase 2 Earthquake continues

Shadowflame Burst Targets random raid members, 15 second cooldown. A ball of shadowflame impacts the ground causing x damage and blasting back players within in 15 yards. Players hit will be afflicted with a shadow/fire DoT and have their healing received reduced by 50%. The ground seethes with power at the impact site, granting reduced threat as well as 25% spell haste and 50% spell damage. The ground will stay scorched for 30 seconds.


Phase 4, Final, 35%. Deathwing has had enough of you, and lands once again to fight you on the ground.

There will be ledges to the left and right of Deathwing in this phase, and melee can jump on his back for additional damage.

Magma Claw

Withering Heat - Phase 3 continues

Earthquake - Phase 2 continues

Earthwarder's Rage

Tail Slam

A World to Unmake - After 30 seconds and every 30 seconds thereafter a section of the floor collapses, revealing a pool of lava beneath. The room will be split into 7 sections. The section that is going to fall will rumble and the cracks will glow bright orange. Players have 5 seconds to vacate the premises or they will fall to their deaths.
Every time a section collapses, lava is splashed over the remaining platform. Anyone hit receives 3 stacks of Sticky Magma.

Shadowflame Flare - Target player is ignited with Shadowflame, taking DoT damage and exploding after 8 seconds. Anyone caught in the explosion will die, and the ground under the explosion will grant the same effect as Shadowflame Burst.

*applauds*

[Nikkaszal]

Expanding upon the idea of Deathwing's armor playing a large part - here's a thought. I know the "RP aspect" of this is not canon with datamined cutscenes, but what the hell:

Alexstrasza has been captured by Deathwing and tortured. As you enter the fighting area it is revealed that Alex is badly beaten, chained to the wall and blinded. Deathwing has just had his armor repaired by his cultist forgesmiths, and as it is reapplied to his body he orders his minions to hold off the intruders (ie you).


PHASE ONE: INTRO
Thus, phase one is a multi-part add slaughter while DW is unattackable. First up, you have cultists rushing at you in direct attack which you have to take care of, while at the same time shutting down the machinery being used to put DW's armor in place. This requires large-scale group movement from area to area taking down the smiths and defending a person while they interact with the mechanisms. While "activating" (ie clicking on it) every single mob engaged in combat will stop what they are doing and immediately make a beeline for that person. Any damage taken will interrupt the activation (10-15sec cast or so). This means the raid has to REALLY defend one person with anything they have - slowing, knockbacks, CC, killing low-HP mobs, anything.

There would be several arrayed around the fighting grounds which all need to be turned off before DW's armor gauge reaches 100% (seen as a stacking buff upon him). This buff indicates his damage reduction when he starts fighting, so 100% means he's immune to damage and therefore it's a wipe. Once all the smiths are killed and the machinery is shut down, DW roars with rage and breaks out to attack you.


PHASE TWO: DEATHWING ATTACKABLE
Since his armor was not put on properly, it doesn't function as it should and is structurally weak. It is therefore able to be melted away... cue Alexstrasza! She rouses from unconciousness and aids the raid as best as she can while chained to a wall - namely firing her breath down to the fighting ground. Since she's blinded/groggy/dazed (whatever, doesn't matter for fight mechanics) she can't really aim and thus the beam can appear at any point, and will move in any direction. It's the tanks' job to maneuver DW under the fire breath which will strip away stacks of his armor buff (meaning you start off doing almost no damage and need to get rid of his armor to actually kill him - also, he would be immune at 100 stacks to ensure if you messed up P1 it's definitely a wipe). This is very much a double-edged sword however - not only is her breath obviously very hot, doing major damage to any raid member who gets caught in it, but it also sends Deathwing into a flying rage when hit by it. For every stack of armor that is removed, DW gains 5% increased attack speed and damage. This lasts about 10sec and refreshes as long as he's in the beam, so the tank needs to drag him over to it, get him melted up a bit and then drag him out (not as basic when you take into account that the beam will also be moving).

Meanwhile, DW's armor shifts and cracks as he fights, and can barely contain the scorching heat of his body. As the fight progresses, portions of his armor will weaken for a time (announced by raid warnings) and any person that part of him is facing will take fire damage. Couple this with the standard dragon tailswipe/cleave/breath and his need to move around a lot, and this means the raid will constantly be needing to watch where they are.

During this phase, DW will also summon elementals which resemble growing pillars of flame. These pillars swell over time, and if allowed to reach their full height/power they collapse and wash the fighting area with lava, which will likely kill people not on full HP. They must be destroyed, but any damage done to them is reflected back 60%. This is where raid healers need to really step up - the DPS needs to kill these guys hard and fast, and they can't afford to slow down if they're hurting themselves too much.


PHASE THREE: DRAKES ATTACK
When DW's armor is completely stripped (or when he reaches 50%HP, whichever is first - a "proper" kill will have his armor gone at 70% or so) he will stop attacking, bellow in fury and channel a fiery explosion dealing 15% of each raid member's HP a second for 10 seconds. This will also crumble the roof, which has two effects. Firstly, debris will start to fall on the battlefield (think Magtheridon) and red dragons will begin to pour into the arena. At this time, four twilight dragons will also fly in to defend DW, and they make up the core mechanics for the next phase of the fight. DW will, for now, switch to human form and take on some other abilities (more later).

The twilight dragons will begin to attack Alexstrasza (DW is a little pissed off at her for hurting him) and a race begins to take them down before they kill her. The red dragons in the air will do some damage, but not nearly enough - as always, the raid will need to do the legwork. About 30seconds after this phase begins, a few red drakes swoop down and lands on the ground, permitting players to ride up and confront a twilight drake. Alexstrasza will bestow some of her power upon one red drake before lapsing back into unconciousness for a minute or so, meaning only one drake is effective at a time. The player needs to fly up and pick a fight with one of the twilight drakes, bringing its health down with breath abilities while shielding damage (like Malygos, in a way). The aim of this part is to bring the twilight drake to the ground before Alex's power wears off, as it won't last long enough to kill it on your own. As the twilight drake takes damage it loses movement speed. Here's the kicker - your drake will have an ability called Ram which works like Charge, only it is directional. As your drake and the bad guy dogfight (the twilight will keep moving, to increase the difficulty) you need to slow him down enough to reliably hit him with Ram. If you do so, you collect the twilight drake and charge it into the wall, knocking both dragons out. The player riding will dismount when you hit the ground (similar to the way you jump out of the Proto-Drake for Hodir's Spear daily in Storm Peaks) and the raid will proceed to beat the twilight drake to death as it lies helpless.

Once Alex wakes up again, you can grab another drake and do it for the other three.

While your drake rider is kicking arse and taking names, the remaining drakes will periodically bombard the raid with randomised blasts of shadow (like Hodir icicles). The fewer drakes alive, the less there'll be. In addition, every minutethe four drakes will Deep Breath, with each covering exactly one quarter of the fighting area. It is imperitive that your drake rider disable at least the first drake quickly, so that the raid will have a safe quadrant to run to when the Deep Breaths come (it'll be randomised, and there'll be maybe 6-8seconds to get safe). If the first drake is not disabled by the time the first Deep Breaths come, the raid dies.

Meanwhile, DW has shifted to humanoid form to stop Alex breathing on him - there's no way now she can do so without hitting her champions. He still hits like a monster and still cleaves, so the raid needs to be aware while they're running around the place. He has several new dangers available. Foremost is an ability called Crush, which is a 2-second cast on a random raid member every 8 seconds or so, which instantly kills the person. It must be interrupted. Second is a Shockwave, which he can also target on anyone - spread as much as you can to minimise damage. Third is a debuff applied to everyone who strikes him in melee or casts a spell called Heat which slows attack/casting speed by 2% for each stack (melee is a chance to apply, like Sindragosa but much higher). DW will periodically target raid members with an attack called Fulmination, which explodes for increasing damage depending on how many stacks of Heat the raid member has. The raid member will then be Purged Of Heat and will start to freeze to death, taking a percentage of total HP as damage every few seconds.

Raid members will need to move near these people so they can absorb some of their Heat. The player will begin to leech stacks off people until reaching 200 stacks, at which point Purged Of Heat will be removed (along with any stacks leeched).

This means the raid needs to carefully monitor who has the most Heat stacks and prioritise them for removal by the frozen raid member. Because if their Heat is too high, not only are they performing sub-optimally but they are also an extreme danger to the raid if targetted by Fulmination, as the large stacks will explode for even greater damage.

If Alextrasza dies to the Twilight drakes, it's game over, everyone dies.


PHASE FOUR: THE HARD BURN
At 20% DW will begin using an ability called Petrify, stacking a debuff on his current target which slowly turns the target to stone, lasting one minute. When it stacks to full, the tank is solidified in place permanently and loses all aggro. Thus, the offtank(s) need to take over when stacks start climbing to increase the time left for the raid to defeat the encounter before there are no tanks left and DW runs around owning people.

[Ashar]

Imo, we gonna nuke bolts in his armor, let it fall/destroy it, then nuke Deathwing himself before Dragon Soul explode and wipe everytying - good idea for enrage timer :P
+- human form phase

And yeah, move away form fire is must.

[zaneosak]

Some of these posts are really clever and creative. I like the one that has the floor breaking out in sections. I think the main thing people are missing is that the Dragon Aspects, Alexstrasza and Ysera and HOPEFULLY Nozdormu (crosses fingers) are going to play a big role in the death of the destroyer. If they don't it will be totally bogus. Players cant kill a Dragon Aspect by themselves and this isnt just any aspect, its Neltharion.

This expansion should bring alot of death to major lore characters as they fight against Deathwing.

[Underskilled]

You have to grab his tail and throw him into a floating bomb!

[Junlee]

You'll probably just end up fighting his shoulder through a small crack in his sleeping chambers.

Anything else, and you'd all be obliterated by a flap of his wings.