Karazhan - Prince Malchezaar

[Shadowwolf]

Normal Kill Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4ybFCiCoTs

General Info / Attacks / Abilities

• Has about 1.1 million health points (same as Onyxia)
• Summon Infernal - Every 45 seconds or so, Malchezaar will summon an Infernal which, about 3 seconds after landing, casts a Hellfire AoE roughly the size of the one Baron Geddon uses. Each Infernal lives for about 180 secs, and there is no limit for how many of them can be up at the same time. Typically you will have 3-5 Infernals up at a time until the end of Phase 2 (see below), after which they will start increasing rapidly. These Infernals are stationary, and can be avoided by the raid. They cannot be targeted or attacked. Malchezaar exclaims one of two emotes to announce an Infernal: "You face not Malchezaar alone, but the legions I command!" or "All realities, all dimensions are open to me!".
• Enfeeble - Periodically casts Enfeeble on 5 people chosen at random (excluding his primary target), which reduces their max hit points to 1, and healing effects and health regen to 0% for about 7 seconds. Do not try to heal these people as it will do nothing. Enfeebled people must stay 30+ yards away from Malchezaar to avoid getting hit by Shadow Nova, and watch out for Infernals. After the Enfeeble has faded, players return to their previous health. Vampiric effects such as Siphon Life ignore Enfeeble.
• Shadow Nova - Malchezaar will cast Shadow Nova (3-second-cast) 3-5 seconds after Enfeeble. It has a range of 25-28 yards, deals about 3000 shadow damage, and includes a knock-back. This attack can be outranged by healers and ranged DPS, so even if they are enfeebled it does not cause much concern. Melee must get out of range, however as long as they start running right away they will have plenty of time to avoid the Shadow Nova. This attack can be resisted.
• Shadow Word: Pain - Cast periodically on his primary target. Can be dispelled. Cannot be reflected. 1500 damage per tick. During phase 3 he will start casting it on random targets.
• Thrash - Gains 2 additional attacks against current target. Malchezaar uses this ability somewhat randomly, with a few seconds to up to a few dozen seconds between each use.
• Flying Axes - During Phase 3, he unleashes his axes as a separate attacking entity. They deal physical damage and appear to have Demonic Frenzy as they start out hitting each new target for only about 400 on cloth, while ramping up to 2000 a hit.

General Tips

• If you dispel Shadow Word: Pain fast enough, a Mage can cast Amplify Magic on the MT to make healing easier.
• Healers can stand at max range for heals on the MT and be out of range of the Shadow Nova, thus able to continue healing during Enfeeble.
• Malchezaar cannot use Enfeeble on the highest target on his aggro list. However, since aggro is not pulled until 110% of the MTs aggro for melee and 130% for ranged, it is possible for someone to be higher than the MT without pulling aggro, and thus cause the MT to be a target of Enfeeble.
• The range of the Hellfires from the Infernals is not nearly as big as it seems graphically, which means that there is some leeway to where you can move and avoid damage.
• If you have a ranged person that is very familiar with this fight and the safe places to stand, mark him/her with a raid icon and instruct the ranged raid members to stay on top of the raid icon during the fight. This saves a lot of time explaining positioning and is very effective if the person marked is good.
• Having your tank using an Elixir of Detect Demon makes it a lot easier for them to keep track of where the infernals have landed, and not get trapped. Also, it's useful for Hunters and Warlocks to be tracking demons.
• Melee DPS try to keep an eye on infernal position and have an escape route for when you get hit by Enfeeble.
• It is possible to have all ranged stand huddled together between the wall and the pillar at the right of the doorway, avoiding shadow nova and most infernals, while melee tanks Malchezaar at maximum range.
• Another option is to have a well-geared feral druid tank Malchezaar, starting in the center of the platform. A druid in dire bear form can feral charge out of each Shadow Nova that isn't resisted, allowing complete freedom of tanking position in order to better avoid the Infernals. If you use this method, the tank may need additional healing during phase 2 to mitigate crushing blows.

Phases:
Phase 1

• Tank Malchezaar in a corner somewhere with the tank's back to the wall to avoid knockback.
• DPS him steadily down to 60%, being mindful of Enfeeble, Shadow Nova, and the Infernal AoE.
• One strategy is to use white damage only for the first phase, except for hunters and classes with aggro wipes. This allows the tank to gain plenty of aggro to counter the high raid DPS of phase 2 and 3, meaning the tank will never get enfeebled.
• If you start to get cornered by Infernals, have your tank move to another part of the platform. Try to do this before Phase 2.

Phase 2

• At 60% health, Prince Malchezaar will warp in axes, which substantially increases his melee damage.
• Depending on your tank, a badly timed Thrash can take out more than 12k hp within a second. Healers need to keep the tank topped off, and at least one healer should constantly have a large heal ready to keep your tank above 12k at all times. As he has weapons, he also gains the ability to parry incoming attacks from the front. A Thrash followed by a parry can lead to over 20,000 damage done in under 2 seconds.
• If you have trouble with tank deaths during this phase, overhealing is advisable.
• Applies Sunder Armor (stackable) to the main aggro target.
• Melee Cleave.
• Stops casting Shadow Word: Pain.
• Continues to Enfeeble and Shadow Nova.
• DPS him as quickly as possible down to 30%, being mindful of Enfeeble, Shadow Nova, and the Infernal AoE.

Phase 3

• Phase three begins when Prince Malchezaar reaches 30% health
• Melee damage on the tank returns to normal.
• Prince Malchezaar throws away his axes and they fly around attacking a raid member.
• Stops using Enfeeble however he continues to Shadow Nova without warning other than his 3 second cast-time.
• Resumes casting Shadow Word: Pain
• No longer sunders, parries, or cleaves.
• Make sure the person being attacked by the axes communicates to the raid chat or on Ventrilo or Teamspeak so they can be healed. The damage they do is easy to heal through, but if ignored may cause the death of your healers or DPS. The axes do physical damage and as such can be mitigated with armor. A Paladin's devotion aura is advised at this part.
• The Infernals will start to spawn much more frequently and Malchezaar must be killed as soon as possible. Raid movement and communication is paramount during this phase to avoid taking damage from the Infernals. Each infernal will land on a 20 second timer -- you literally have <2 minutes before there will likely be too many Infernals up, and you wipe. Burn him down fast.
• Prince Malchezaar will random cast amplify magic on raid members, this will greatly increase damage they take. It is a short duration debuff which is non dispellable.
• A badly placed infernal during this phase can easily wipe the raid. If this happens, don't be discouraged, since you managed to get him through the most difficult part of the fight (phase 2).

A suggested video/strategy for positioning problems:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTdvWZDBThk

[Arcdelad]

I talked to my boss, Archist on the Destromath server, who runs a guild there...they have kara on farm mode and clear it every week.

We are doing a great job of marking a caster and the tank so that they can position their groups in the right place...one thing we can do to make this easier is have a person who is just spamming casts (like a healer who is watching health bars) turn his camera angle up and be watching the skys the entire time.

You can see the trajectory of where the infernals are going to land, and that person could ping the map with their projected landing location. This would buy us a few seconds to plan for its fall.

So...now you have three people controlling locations and handling the infernals.

.....and he took the time to let me know he has both the T4 gloves and helm, and the damn nethrazim mindblade or whatever....

[usonian]

I've also heard buffing the tank and ranged group leader with detect demon helps them keep track of where infernals are at all times.  There is a lot of pressure on the tank and the ranged leader to manage the movement of the raid but two that can get in the rhythm of moving with one another is what it will take. 

Just becuase we have these raid markings though, doesn't mean that the raid should be oblivious to what is going on around them.  It isn't difficult to swing your camera angle around and look for infernal aoe, escape routes, etc.  You may not always be able to just run back to the ranged group if you get cut off, everyone just needs to be aware of their surroundings.  We were getting it down pretty well last night but got a few unlucky infernal placements.  They were manageable, it's just going to take everyone getting comfortable moving around as a unit.

[khader]

After watching several videos, it appears that having the range group stand in the middle of the platform makes it easier to avoid the infernals and manage the location of the prince.  Being against a wall seems, at least from my experience, to wind up with us getting caught between a rock and a hot place.   Even one infernal in the wrong spot can ruin the attempt.

Being in the middle the ranged group can move about and stay in range of the tank/melee while avoiding the infernals.   Also appeared the groups could more easily adjust positioning when the tank had to move prince. 

To avoid the prince's knockback, its easiest for the tank to slide along the wall.  However this can be a problem when ranged group is along a wall and an infernal lands between the groups.  This happened last night and I moved away from group to avoid the infernal but wound up out of healing range.  Using more of the platform would seem to be an advantage during the fight and give the ranged group more options for moving around to keep in range of the tank and still avoid infernals.

[Nixphire]

We definitly understand the fight, we need to work on movement, we don't have that down it seems at all. I saw in that first video that they moved after 1 drop because they knew if another dropped in a location close, it could have wiped. We should think more about that as well.

[Genoism]

After watching several videos, it appears that having the range group stand in the middle of the platform makes it easier to avoid the infernals and manage the location of the prince.  Being against a wall seems, at least from my experience, to wind up with us getting caught between a rock and a hot place.   Even one infernal in the wrong spot can ruin the attempt.

Being in the middle the ranged group can move about and stay in range of the tank/melee while avoiding the infernals.   Also appeared the groups could more easily adjust positioning when the tank had to move prince. 

To avoid the prince's knockback, its easiest for the tank to slide along the wall.  However this can be a problem when ranged group is along a wall and an infernal lands between the groups.  This happened last night and I moved away from group to avoid the infernal but wound up out of healing range.  Using more of the platform would seem to be an advantage during the fight and give the ranged group more options for moving around to keep in range of the tank and still avoid infernals.

if one lands nearby the whole group could just move far enough so that there is nothing nearby on both sides of the tank and the group.

[Shadowwolf]

Some key points to do we did which helped I think:

Have someone in the ranged group who wont move much marked for people to run to during enfeeble. Something easily seen like the orange circle (or what Goss aptly named the condom). Have this person be the one to watch where Inferno's land. When you see the alert for them incoming in 10sec, you can see the fireball fall from the sky and kind of gauge where it will land. This way that person can look for a spot to move the range group if need be before it lands.

Have a warrior spam Thunder Clap on the Prince during phase 2. It helps a TON on the healers.

Any priests shield the MT when you can during phase 2, also helps a ton on heals and doesnt affect rage generation enough to be noticeable.

The axes in phase 3 seem to have a sort of aggro table that shares with the Prince. They go after the people at the top of the aggro chart but not the MT nessisarily. Its hard to verify this, but it seemed they went to the people on the number 2 and 3 aggro spots more than anyone else. When they first pop tho they tend to target the healers. Id suggest priests spamming shield on anyone who currently has the aggro of them. It sucks up a lot of their dmg since its all physical.

Keeping the MT in the nook on the back wall helps if an Inferno drops nearby. The nook keeps the tank from taking fire damage and still leaves one side of the prince open for melee dps to safely attack.

[Shadowwolf]

I forgot to add the spot you see in the screenshot where ranged was located was free and clear of Infernos on each attempt. I noticed it on our second try where we stood there and got him to 10%, the 3rd try we had bad luck crits on Phase 2 on Panz so never got a chance to relocate. If we had it to do over I think it might have been easier to start ranged there so we didnt have to necessarily move, but it worked none the less. The only problem with that spot is he pats there, so you cant really stage in that spot, kinda have to move after the start =(

[LastDyingBreath]

we had bad luck crits on Phase 2 on Panz so never got a chance to relocate.

excuse me, I'm crit immune tyvm.  I got hit by three crushes in a row and healers were on the move.  RNG screwed us all the same, but I must defend my tankstats /angrybear

[Arcdelad]

If it makes you feel any better I also got hit with three consecuitve crushig blows on him last night....i was at 19.6k health, was capped off by the healers, and I still dropped like a sack of potatoes...

[Shadowwolf]

alright alright, hehe, crushing blows

all I know is you were dropping quick on phase 2 a few times and it took a lot to keep you up, hehe

[Nixphire]

Is it only warriors (pallies) that can get crush immune also?

[LastDyingBreath]

warriors get crush immune the easiest, because their shield block ability gives them 75% avoidance.  you need 102.4% avoidance to be crush immune, so all a warrior needs to have is 27.4% between dodge, block, parry, and chance to miss.  You'd have to be trying to not hit that.  The only downside is if the warrior is stunned he can't shield block and will suck down crushes.  Also, a fast hitting boss might burn the shield block charge (two if talented, and it really needs to be) and leave a spot to crush.

Paladins have to work hard to stack that much avoidance, as Holy shield is only 30% avoidance (35% w/ the epic libram).  Redoubt cannot be counted on, so is essentially worthless.  The good news for paladins is that even when stunned or hit by a flurry of blows they're crush immune.

Druids.... no way.  I suppose if you could hit 102.4% dodge you'd be crush immune, but we can't parry or block.  For druids it's just pray you don't take a series of them, which is what happened to arc and I.  Normally crushes don't bother us so much because we have so much armor that it doesn't really hurt, but Prince hits like a mac truck.  In phase Two he hits like two mac trucks that are also on fire, so a crush chain is essentially GG unless you have ballsy healers, which we do.  The problem comes when the healers are scooting away from hellfire at the very moment you get whomped.  All and all not a huge problem, just one more luck based element on a fight already dominated by infernal luck.  As a side note, Prince is the only mob in the game to date that I've ever wanted Tclap kept up on.

This fight is doable, we've proven that, and it won't be long until I'm decked out in phat purples the guild is ready to take on Gruul's seaside vacation condo.

[Shadowwolf]

That fight is def one I didnt give a damn about "overhealing". hehe

You also got PW:Shield on you a ton of times but not like it was noticed since half a hit on phase 2 used it up =P

[khader]

Thunderclap is helpful to slow attacks which may give healers more time to get large heals in when the Prince gets in a crushing blow or two.

Previous patch made thunderclap usable in defensive stance so unless there is a CC'ed mob nearby its fairly easy for a warrior tank to keep it up on a boss.

Overhealing seems to be imperative in phase 2.  Once the Prince warps in his axes, he can take a tank from full health to dead in few blows which happened to me, Arc and Kay on previous attempts.  I burned through Shield Wall, Last Stand, healing pot, and health stone during phase 2 which didn't seem to do much to ease things on the healers.  Although at one point I had 23K health which the Prince chewed through really fast.