King Rastakhan Guide - WoW Battle of Dazar'alor Boss Strategies and Loot

Battle of Dazar'alor Boss Guides » King Rastakhan Guide

King Rastakhan is a boss encounter in the Battle of Dazar'alor raid in World of Warcraft. Our strategy guide will help you to defeat the King Rastakhan encounter and the loot listing below contains all of the loot he drops on each difficulty.

Overview

King Rastakhan is the final Alliance story encounter in Battle of Dazar'alor. Horde will experience this encounter through a flashback, and will be transformed into Alliance races for the duration of the encounter. It is a four phase encounter with lots of moving parts.

Fight Basics

• This is a two tank encounter requiring taunt swaps.
• There are many adds with their own unique abilities.
• The raid will want a balanced mix of ranged and melee, slightly favoring ranged due to the nature of the mechanics.
• Throughout the four phases, damage and healing requirements will constantly increase.

Phase 1 - King Rastakhan and Bodyguards

• All damage King Rastakhan takes is split evenly by his bodyguards.
• The phase ends when his bodyguards are killed.
• Scorching Detonation will be cast by Rastakhan on the active tank, lasting five seconds. They will need to run away.
• Rastakhan will target random players with Plague of Toads, which causes lines of toads to hop in that direction. On Heroic these toads leave behind slime puddles.
• Additionally on Heroic, Rastakhan will cast Greater Serpent Totem which spawns a fire breathing totem. This totem faces a random player and does a conal fire breath, which applies a dot. It should be killed quickly.
• On Normal difficulty there are two bodyguards, Prelate Za'lan and Siegebreaker Roka.
• On Heroic difficulty there is an additional bodybuard, Headhunter Gal'wana.
• Roka casts Meteor Leap on a random player which splits damage amongst everyone it. Afterwards they jump back to the tank with Crushing Leap, debuffing the tank with Crushed.
• Za'lan casts Seal of Purification which causes a beam to chase a player.
• On Heroic, Gal'wana will throw a Grevious Axe at random players, applying a dot that is removed when healed about 90% HP.
• Kill the bodyguards and Phase 2 begins.

Phase 2 - King Rastakhan and Bwonsamdi

• The raid will be stuned for ~10 seconds while Bwonsamdi appears.
• Bwonsamdi will need to be tanked, but can not be damaged during this phase. Threat still generates normally.
• Bwonsamdi has an Aura of Death which applies Deathly Withering every 3 seconds to anyone within 30 yards.
• Bwonsamdi will cast Caress of Death on his active tank which does magic damage and prevents all healing for five seconds.
• Random players will be afflicted with Death's Door, which after 8 seconds leaves a Death Rift at the players position.
• King Rastakhan gains new abilities, in addition to his old ones, in this phase.
• Plague of Fire will debuff ~3 random ranged players, does fire damage and jumps to players within 7 yards.
• Rastakhan will create Zombie Dust Totem that mind control two players until it is destroyed.
• When Rastakhan reaches 60% HP, Bwonsamdi will port the half of the raid closest to him to the Death Realm.

Phase 3 - Death Realm and Living Realm

• Both tanks should stay in the Living Realm. Bwonsamdi can not be tanked.
• Rastakhan receives Bwonsamdi's Boon, which grants him 2% increased damage every 15 seconds, stacking until death.
• Half the raids healers will be needed in the Death Realm.
• Bwonsamdi can now be damaged in the Death Realm.
• Bwonsamdi's Aura of Death is applied automatically to anyone in the Death Realm. This debuff can be cleared by clicking one of the Death Rifts that were created in Phase 2. This will pulse shadow damage on the raid whenever a player uses a Death Rift.
• Bwonsamdi will cast Inevitable End in the Death Realm. He will drag players towards this zone around him, instantly killing anyone who enters it.
• Patches of Dread Reaping will spawn and move around the room, dealing heavy damage to anyone standing in them. This patches can travel through Death Rifts to the living realm.
• In the living realm, King Rastakhan will maintain all his abilities he has received in the previous phases, and spawn two new guards.
• On Heroic, he will spawn a third guard.
• These guards must be tanked, have unique abilities, and can be crowd controlled for the first 60 seconds after they spawn.
• Phantom of Rage adds will cast Necrotic Strike on the tank, which reduces all healing taken by 50% for 8 seconds in a 10 yard radius around them.
• Phantom of Retribution will chain cast Grave Bolt on the tank, which can be interrupted. They will also cast Seal of Bwonsamdi, which creates puddles that must be soaked by players, else the raid takes deadly magic damage.
• On Heroic, the third add is a Phantom of Slaughter, which will cast Focused Demise on a random player. This deals damage over five seconds and can only be kicked by the person taking damage from it.
• Living realm players should crowd control one add and focus down the other as fast as they can.
• When Bwonsamdi reaches 50% HP in the Death Realm, he leaves the encounter and all players can join the living realm where the final phase begins.

Phase 4 - King Rastakhan

• King Rastakhan will no longer cast Zombie Dust Totem, but will now cast two skills Bwonsamdi previously used - Death's Door and Inevitable End.
• He will also gain access All All Encompassing Death, which creates a Death Rift in an area around his location.
• This ability was not tested on the PTR, and will be properly documented once live raiding begins.
• The soft enrage of this encounter is killing King Rastakhan before the Bwonsamdi's Boon buff stacks too high for the raid to survive the damage he is dealing.

Strategies by Role

All Roles

• Ensure you stack to split damage from Meteor Leap.
• Kite the beam from Seal of Purification away from others.
• Avoid standing in Bwonsamdi's Aura of Death in Phase 2.
• Stay spread for Plague of Fire in Phase 2 and beyond.
• Control what half of your raid is sent to the Death Realm by ensuring they are closest to Bwonsamdi on the transition.
• All players are capable of soaking a Seal of Bwonsamdi circle in Phase 3.

DPS

• Cleave and multi-dot damage is great for Phase 1 and Phase 3.
• Quickly switch to any totems that spawn as they are the immediate priority.
• Anytime adds are up, they are the priority.
• Try to have cooldowns up for the Death Realm to push 50% as fast as possible.

Healers

• You may need to use minor cooldowns on Meteor Leap.
• Tanks will take significant damage throughout the entire encounter.
• Ensure half the healers are in the Death Realm in Phase 3.
• Make sure you can see Caress of Death on your raid frames.

Tanks

• Mobile tanks are very strong for this encounter (Monks, Warriors, etc.)
• Taunt swap whenever Scorching Detonation is cast, or when a tank is debuffed with Crushed, Caress of Death or Necrotic Smash.
• In Phase 1, consider stacking Rhastakhan with the bodyguards.
• Sometimes you can run from the bosses and adds to reset your debuffs during long casts.

Detailed King Rastakhan Strategy Guide

• A detailed Mythic strategy will be available once Mythic raids open up.

King Rastakhan Achievements

King Rastakhan Loot List

King Rastakhan drops item level 340 (LFR), 355 (Normal), 370 (Heroic), 385 (Mythic) loot. Loot can have higher item levels if it becomes Titanforged or Warforged.