User:Thio/Drannak

Overcultist Drannak is the third raid boss in the Grim Batol raid, though he can be encountered interchangeably with other bosses in the Outer Ring. As the leader of the Wyrmcult, he leads Deathwing's mortal servants - and he has been rewarded judiciously.

Background
Little is known about Drannak, other than that he once had ties to the Twilight's Hammer. Coming to understand the truth of the Old Gods, he defected to the Black Dragonflight. Now leading the Wyrmcult, he has been granted dark powers by Deathwing's new consort, Zelaria.

As one of the four bosses providing reinforcements to Zelaria, he must be killed before the Defense of the Foothold event can begin.

Phase 1

 * spell_shadow_shadowfury.png Dark Tremors: Sends shadowy shockwaves into the ground, causing large portions of the ceiling to fall from above in random locations over 10 seconds.
 * spell_shadow_painspike.png Flash of Darkness: Fires dark lighting at all active players, dealing fatal damage. This attack can be blocked by fallen pieces of the ceiling.
 * spell_shadow_ritualofsacrifice.png Doom Strike: Deals 175% weapon damage to the current target and afflicts them with Doom. If not dispelled within 6 seconds, the victim dies.

Phase 2

 * spell_shadow_sealofkings.png Shield of Hate: Shields Drannak from all physical and magical damage.
 * spell_holy_prayerofshadowprotection.png Army of the Void: Summons a void zone periodically. The void will then detonate, killing all players within it and spawning a Void Slave with these abilities:
 * spell_shadow_focusedpower.png Glide: Increases the Void Slave's movement speed by 100% for 5 seconds.
 * spell_shadow_shadesofdarkness.png Instability: At 1% health, the Void Slave becomes immobile and invulnerable. 4 seconds later, it explodes, dealing fatal shadow damage to those nearby.

Phase 3

 * spell_shadow_ragingscream.png Shield of Suffering: Reduces all damage taken by 90%.
 * spell_shadow_shadowmend.png Void Bolt: Summons a powerful beam of void energy to focus on a target. If the target does not move after 4 seconds, the beam becomes fatal.
 * spell_shadow_shadowform.png Void Rage: Deals 200% of the target's total health in damage to all players over 8 seconds. Every player that dies to this effect heals Drannak for 1% of his health.

Pre-fight
At the entrance to Drannak's sanctum is a neutral black drake - the Zelarian Sentry. The Sentry has no abilities to speak of, and can be killed easily. Slaying the Sentry before engaging Drannak allows the fight to proceed as normal. Engaging Drannak with the drake alive enables the hard mode version of the fight, denoted by a small cutscene.

Phase 1
Phase 1 is fairly easy on normal mode, but requires decursers to be on their toes and everyone else to be mobile. Since none of his attacks require direct intervention from the tank, Drannak may be tanked normally in Phase 1.

Periodically, it will be announced that "Drannak emanates with dark force!". When this occurs, chunks of the ceiling will randomly fall to the ground. A very visible effect will be shown on the ground underneath a falling rock. This attack lasts for 10 seconds, after which Drannak will being casting Flash of Darkness, which takes 5 seconds. During this time, players must block line of sight between themselves and Drannak by standing behind one of the fallen chunks of ceiling. Those who do not will die instantly.

In addition to this, Drannak will occasionally afflict the tank with Doom, which must be dispelled in 6 seconds, or the tank will die instantly. Because the attack itself does 175% weapon damage and has a 10 seconds minimum cooldown, tanks may wish to use defensive abilities if they have low health when Doom Strike is possible.

Phase 1 ends when Drannak reaches 10% health. Drannak has very low health for a raid boss, so this should take no longer than 1-2 minutes for an adequately geared raid. If the raid spends more the 2.5 minutes on Phase 1, Drannak will simply fire endless Flashes of Darkness until the raid is dead, effectively giving him an enrage timer of 2.5 minutes for this phase.

Phase 2
During Phase 2, which occurs at 10% health, Drannak will be completely invulnerable. Instead, the raid will be burning down Void Slaves, which periodically spawn from Drannak's Army of the Void spell.

Every few seconds, a beam of purple lightning will shoot out from Drannak. Briefly afterward, the ground it targeted will erupt into a fatal Void Zone and spawn an aforementioned Void Slave. Void Slaves have a very unpredictable threat table, but can be tanked. They will shoot towards the nearest target upon spawning, however, and must be picked up be a tank.

At 1% health, Void Slaves will become invulnerable and immobile, at which point all melee DPS must run away. After 5 seconds, the Void Slave will explode, dealing fatal damage to all nearby players.

After many Void Slaves have fallen, Phase 3 will begin.

Phase 3
As Phase 1 was a DPS race and Phase 2 required tanks to be alert, Phase 3 will severely test raid healing. Because of Drannak's Shield of Suffering reduces damage taken by 90%, Phase 3 will last approximately as long as Phase 1, though with the addition of abilities that are functional at low target health.

Drannak's first ability in this phase, Void Bolt, will fire a small purple beam at a random non-tank player. For 3 seconds, this beam is harmless, but if a player remains in it for the duration, they die instantly. For the alert raid, this ability should not be a problem.

The Overcultist's second ability, however, is more difficult to counter. Void Rage deals 25% of the target's total health in damage to all players every second, for 8 seconds. Healers must be ready to heal through this damage quickly, as any deaths to this ability will restore 1% of Drannak's health, effectively equivalent to 10% due to his shield ability.

Hard Mode
In Hard Mode, several change occur to make the fight much more difficult.

First, Flash of Darkness is now cast three times for each cycle, and destroys the rock that blocks it. This means that, in the 5 second interval between Flashes, the raid must migrate to a new rock to avoid wiping.

Second, Void Slaves now explode after 3 seconds, instead of 5.

Third, Void Rage now deals 50% of total health in damage per second for 6 seconds.

Quotes
Aggro: Forge Golem: Killing a player: Phase 2: Death Ray Rebound: Phase 3: Phase 2 repeat: Death:
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell

Related achievements


The following achievements are for the encounter's hard mode.