Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsDragon Soul: Fall of Deathwing Raid Finder bosses explained in 5 seconds
by Mathew McCurley 
Dec 12th 2011 at 4:00PM
For tips for the first four bosses in the Dragon Soul raid, The Siege of Wyrmrest Temple, please check out our first guide.
First, here are some quick Raid Finder facts:
- No lockouts. Participating in the Raid Finder will not lock you out from doing the raid on 10- or 25-man with your guild or group, nor will it lock you out from loot for these instances.
- You only get to roll on loot once per boss per week. You can fight bosses multiple times but are only eligible for loot on the first kill.
- Get 250 valor points for completing the raid wing.
- Two tanks, six healers, 17 DPSers are needed for a Raid Finder raid.
- You can queue up in Raid Finder with your Real ID friends across servers.
Two tanks taunt-trade the boss after each Fading Light. Everyone needs to press the new button that appears, Heroic Will, whenever Hour of Twilight casts. Healers can touch crystals for buffs during the fight. Pour on the DPS, and remember to press Heroic Will during Hour of Twilight or if you get the Fading Light debuff as a tank.
Tanks need to grab the big adds and pull them close, but don't face them toward each tank since they cleave. Players have to group together on the large Twilight Onslaught casts or the ship will be too damaged; it appears as a large, swirling purple vortex. After three waves of adds, Warmaster Blackhorn joins the fight. Face Blackhorn away from the raid, and when he turns to use his Shockwave, move out of the cone or you will die.
After landing on Deathwing's back, players must kill one of the tentacles and tank the add that spawns near the plate on his back. Two types of adds spawn from where tentacles used to be, large amalgamations and small corrupted bloods. You must kill 9 corrupted bloods near an amalgamation to cause him to explode (don't kill the big add before he transforms), loosening the plate. Then, DPS the Burning Tendons to break the plate off of Deathwing's back. Repeat three times.
The Madness of Deathwing fight is a little bit more cumbersome than the other fights in Dragon Soul, so if you have any questions about how the fight works in detail, ask your raid leader for specifics. Here is your 5-second version:
Tank and kill the large tentacle in the back first. Then kill Deathwing's tentacle and any adds that spawn. Move to the next platform and repeat until all four platforms are completed. Move back to the middle platform and DPS Deathwing's head and adds until he is defeated. Press Dream if you are targeted by Shrapnel.
A common platform order is Ysera, then Nozdormu, then Alexstrazsa, then Kalecgos (middle, jump left, jump left, jump all the way right.)
Congratulations, you've defeated the Raid Finder Dragon Soul! Be polite, be patient, and have a fun time raiding in a more accessible raiding environment.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Homeschool Dec 12th 2011 4:42PM
Seconded. Great feature, I hope you guys keep it around for future expansion and patch releases.
Mathew McCurley Dec 12th 2011 5:57PM
You are most welcome.
Chayned Dec 12th 2011 4:19PM
I may be mistaken but i thought that you couldn't cross realm queue for the LFR as you can't make your party a raid group?
Roy Inverse Dec 12th 2011 4:23PM
You cant, meaning you can only que as a 5-man group at the most using real-id friends.
You can make a raid group if you want to invite more people, but only with people from the same server.
Lipstick Dec 13th 2011 1:25AM
You can cue with up to five people from real id+your server (a normal party basically), and cue for LFR as a group. You can not however create a raid group out of 10 people from real id and cue for LFR.
Starlin Dec 12th 2011 4:22PM
When raiding in the Raid Finder it is important not to scare off the healers. They are flighty creatures prone to bolting at the first sign of trouble.
GrandOldDuke Dec 12th 2011 4:28PM
I think they have some way of marking territory as well, as a way of warning other healers of danger, as once they're gone, no further healers will appear in the area.
Boozard Dec 13th 2011 12:43AM
more importantly, do not agitate the hardcore dps. they are nervous and insecure creatures that will not stop barking over the raid channel, constantly waving their e-peen. fortunately, they are relatively harmless but they are tenacious creatures that won't shut up and won't go away.
Mugutu Dec 30th 2011 8:05PM
Please, PLEASE remember that the platform order is for LFR, guys.
You really don't want to eat two bolts on normal or heroic.
Otherwise, great summaries. Thanks Mat.
Jerry Dec 12th 2011 4:33PM
Thank you so much for writing this up! I hope everyone is reading.
You have no idea how many times we wiped (in multiple raids) on Spine of Deathwing last week because people wanted to keep using the "normal" strategy (kill 3 tentacles, go into one of the holes, roll him). So, many, wipes.
Schadenfreude Dec 12th 2011 10:51PM
This! So frustrating.
raleighpop Dec 12th 2011 4:37PM
If i come in to a LFR with 2 bosses down am I locked out from there loot as well?
Homeschool Dec 12th 2011 4:43PM
Negative. You are eligible for loot from each boss once per week. If you join a raid in progress, it just means you'll have to join another one later to get the bosses you missed.
Shinae Dec 12th 2011 4:46PM
No, you are only loot-locked to each boss you kill.
For example, you can come into a raid that has the first 2 bosses down, kill the second two, then queue in LFR again to get a a group with no bosses down, kill the first 2 bosses and get to roll on their loot. If you stick around to kill the 2nd two bosses again, you won't be able to roll on anything, but you're still eligible for VP if you finish it (if you're not capped).
The Raid Finder interface will show you which bosses you're saved too by mousing over the warning-triangle icon.
K.B. Dec 12th 2011 4:44PM
On average how long does a run take? Assuming it's not a wipefest of course.
The Dewd Dec 12th 2011 5:04PM
I haven't paid attention but I've heard folks say it's 1-2 hours, tops, including waiting in the queue. (Unless the queue bugs out and has you waiting forever despite the "average wait of 7 minutes" or whatever.)
Kaesth Dec 12th 2011 4:45PM
The ultraxion summary is a bit wonky wonky, but it's easy enough in LFR to not make a huge difference.
Basically tanks need to taunt after Fading Light is cast (as opposed to Hour of Twilight), and only tanks will get it, so no one else needs to worry about it. Otherwise, everyone just needs to use heroic will with hour of twilight and you win.
Shinae Dec 12th 2011 4:52PM
I did Ultraxion once. I was healing, and I never saw a Heroic Will extra button. I never clicked crystals, either, but I didn't know about them. That group just had us stack on the tanks, and that was it. Sometimes people phased out but not for long. Whatever fight mechanic was going on was pretty much ignored.
Caylynn Dec 12th 2011 4:56PM
Easy enough as long as everyone (except the tank eating the twilight) PRESSES THE DARN BUTTON!
I can't tell you how many times I wiped on this in LFR, because apparently people can't click a button when the raid leader shouts in raid warning each time they needed to click the button!
We had so many wipes in there that I was going to bail if we wiped one. more. time. (It was a ridiculously high number of wipes - I needed to repair and I had gone in fully repaired.) But on that try we killed him! We finally had enough people who figured out how to press the button! (And yes, I know if you use Bartender or Dominos you won't see the button like in the default UI, but we were kindly explaining to people how to get it to show and how to move it, if they were running Bartender or Dominos).
The Dewd Dec 12th 2011 5:05PM
As someone who has seen (but not killed) Ultraxion on 10-man regular but not the Raid Finder (I got into a Madness run that doing the spine), can someone explain what the difference is? It sounds like you don't need Heroic Will and that it's only a tank thing? Every just stands and DPSes while healers do their thing, including the crystal stuff?