Altairus

Altairus is an immense storm dragon and the second boss of the Vortex Pinnacle. He maintains an unyielding vigil over the hovering platforms of the Vortex Pinnacle. The very energies of the storms pulse through this being, and he is said to command the wind currents that buffet the elemental forces.

Abilities




Strategy

 * Altairus only casts Lightning Blast at players that attempt to leave the platform.
 * Wind flows on the platform of Altairus: all dps and healer should stay upwind of the boss in order to gain the Upwind of Altairus buff and avoid the negative Downwind debuff.
 * Tank will need to stand Downwind from the boss in order for melee dps to receive the buff. If there are no melee, however, it is possible for tank to stay Upwind too.
 * Altairus will randomly change the direction of the wind; everyone needs to adjust their positions accordingly to stay upwind of the boss.
 * Rogues are extremely powerful against Altairus, energy regeneration increases with attack speed, with Slice and Dice and other buffs, the Rogue has a practically unlimited energy pool and can easily double thier DPS. Safe Fall also prevents the fall damage from the tornadoes.

Heroic

 * Tornadoes are all over the platform. You must avoid them: if you get caught up in one you will take about 6000 damage and get knocked up and away, possibly off the platform. When you land you will take fall damage.


 * He will not only frost breath the primary target, he will turn and target a random group member and breath on them, hitting anyone in that direction.


 * Everyone stand in the hitbox and move as needed to get the buff.


 * The tank needs to focus first on avoiding the tornadoes, second on keeping frost breath from hitting the party. If necessary, you can tank him at the edge of the platform, as shuffling the party around the boss in the center makes it very likely that someone will get caught in the tornadoes or breath.


 * DPS and the healer need to focus first on avoiding the tornadoes, second on staying out of his face, and last on aligning themselves with the wind. The tank cannot always put Altairus in a position that makes it easy to get the upwind buff.  Do not chase the wind if it requires you to get in the boss's face or run through a lot of tornadoes.  The wind will shift soon anyway, and this is more of a survival test than a DPS race.

Trivia
Altair means the flying one or bird of prey in Arabic. Coincidently, Altairus is pointing north, and since he drops Reins of the Drake of the North Wind, this is probably intentional.

Videos
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