Sunday, June 22, 2014

Green Fire Part Three!

Yes, I realize that the second part of this series was written way back in April of 2013. I've worked on and off on Kanrethad Ebonlocke (cursed be his name) for over a year now, but I finally, finally (finally) managed to beat him. (Ok, I actually died right when Jubeka showed up, but it was good enough.)

The final part of the Green Fire scenario is by far the hardest. This is essentially a one-man raid boss with many mechanics to keep in mind and a lot of things to juggle.

The good news is that once you've reached Kanrethad, you'll be transported to the top of the Black Temple every time you start the scenario, and thus you can skip the rest of the stuff  you had been through.

So, if you're still working on this guy, or perhaps you just started the chain, or you've been remotivated to try again given that there's a Feat of Strength that will give a title coming in Warlords (and one that you won't be able to get post-6.0,) how do you beat this evil dude?

First, let's talk about your build:

Destruction works great for this (as it has for the entire scenario - and given that Destruction is the most changed by green fire, it makes sense.) First off, you'll want to go with Grimoire of Sacrifice. There are two reasons for this: one is that you'll have to enslave the first demon Kanrethad summons - a Pit Lord - in order to really succeed in the encounter. The other is that sacrificing the Imp allows you to purge magic effects, which is something you'll want to do practically on cool down.

The rest are mostly optional, but I recommend Soul Leech for sustained damage mitigation, Shadowfury for a specific part that I'll get to, Sacrificial Pact as an emergency button, Unbound Will just because, and Kil'jaeden's Cunning because movement is nice.

Having great gear is certainly not a bad thing, as higher damage means that adds will not last as long, and the fight itself will go quicker, meaning fewer chances to screw up. Still, this is a fight that's all about execution and situational awareness. You cannot grow complacent, or he will kill you in an instant.

Pre-Fight Preparation:

There are three pillars at the back of the Temple Summit. Kanrethad's portal will spawn in front of the middle one. Set up your Demonic Teleport location behind one of the side pillars, and if you want, throw a Demonic Gateway from there to the circular ridge in the middle of the summit.

I recommend setting up raid marks to let you know the operating range of your teleport spell, because you'll need to hit that with only a few seconds' notice.

Sacrifice your Imp and make sure you're buffed up.

The target here is Kanrethad Ebonlocke, so let's start with his abilities:

Curse of Impending Doom: This is just a 7-minute hard enrage timer. I think you can actually cleanse this if you have a purification potion, which lets you nearly double the time you have, but overall it's just background information.

Seed of Corruption: This is a DOT that can explode when it goes off and potentially (not sure if it's always) leave a little dark vortex that will draw you in and do big damage. Always try to cleanse this with Singe Magic or the Pit Lord's Fire Breath.

Agony: A powerful DOT that you should also try to dispel.

Rain of Fire: The damage from this isn't huge, but if you can stand move for a bit, get out of it.

Soul Fire: Kanrethad's standard attack. It's not too horrible, but it's a constant source of damage.

CHAOS BOLT: This one's the biggest thing to avoid. The key to avoiding this is to line-of-sight it. Whenever Kanrethad begins to cast Chaos Bolt, teleport behind the pillar and wait for the cast to fail. Then get out of there and resume the fight. Chaos Bolt does about a million damage, so you might be able to survive one of them if you hit Sacrificial Pact at full health, but it's much easier to just avoid it.

CATACLYSM: This is another fight-ending ability. You have to interrupt this, but thankfully the Pit Lord has a charge/stun that will interrupt the cast of the spell. To get a little extra damage in, start casting Chaos Bolt before you hit charge, as he'll take extra damage while stunned.

Annoying Imp: I believe this only happens if you have too many DOTs on you, but occasionally an annoying imp will jump on your back and occasionally stun you at inopportune times while saying silly things. I don't know if you can dispel him, but it's a good reminder to keep getting rid of debuffs.

Summon Various Demons: The fight would be pretty simple if it weren't for all the demons Kanrethad was summoning. He will summon a Pit Lord first, and then after that there will be a group of 60 Imps, followed by 3 Fel Hunters, and then 1 Doomguard, and then repeating Imps, Fel Hunters, Doomguard, etc.

Pit Lord:

The Pit Lord is your buddy for this fight. As soon as he shows up, use Enslave Demon. Depending on how long the fight lasts, you might have to dismiss him at some point and re-enslave him, but for most of the fight he's going to be on your side. The Pit Lord has four abilities:

Cleave: This is on auto. The Pit Lord will do melee attacks that cleave. Basically just a nice source of damage.

Fel Breath: Fel Breath is fantastic. It does AoE damage in a large cone, and it will clear you of a DOT if you're standing in the cone. Use this whenever you can, but especially when the Imps come out.

Charge: The Pit Lord charges and stuns the target, causing it to take increased damage, and also interrupts spells. USE THIS ONLY ON CATACLYSM. It has a long enough cool down that it's better to play it safe.

Health Siphon: The Pit Lord has tons of health, and chances are that you're going to be the one with threat, so if you ever need a big boost to your health, hit that button. Obviously if the Pit Lord is low on health, you might want to hold off, but I never ran into that as a problem.

Imps:

The Imps are pretty basic. There are just a lot of them. The good news is that casting Rain of Fire on them will fill you with tons of Burning Embers. Just blanket them in Rain of Fire and use the Pit Lord's Fel Breath on them. Use Ember Tap to heal up if you're getting bombarded by them.

Fel Hunters:

When Kanrethad starts summoning the Fel Hunters, use your "Move To" command on the Pit Lord to send him to the other side of the portal than where you are, and lay down Rain of Fire to draw the Fel Hunters to you. The reason these guys are so dangerous - possibly the most dangerous things he summons - is that they can dispel your Enslave Demon from the Pit Lord. This is also a great time to hit Shadowfury, which should give you a little more time both to attack and also to keep them off your Pit Lord.

The three pop out one at a time. When the first comes out, hit it with Havoc. Then target the second, pop Dark Soul, and hit it with a Chaos Bolt. This should kill the first two. The third you'll just have to kill the old fashioned way. Just be sure none of them go after the Pit Lord, or you'll be in a world of trouble. Even with 5.4 gear, my Chaos Bolts were not enough to take the Fel Hunters down in one shot, but with Dark Soul active, it was enough, so I recommend making sure you've got Dark Soul off cool down and that you use it here.

Doomguard:

The doomguard is actually simple. Just CC him. He'll cast Doom Bolts at you that hurt, so just CC him with Banish. If the fight lasts long enough for a second Doomguard to appear, you'll want to use Fear to keep the other under control. Keep that CC up.

When Kanrethad reaches 1% or so, Jubeka will show up and banish the weakened Kanrethad. Once you have credit for the quest, you're safe (I died at this point.) If you click on Kanrethad once he's banished, you'll leap into the air and gain the passive "The Codex of Xerranth," causing all your fire abilities to become green.

Literally everything fire-related. The icons on your action bars, the Burning Ember meter, any proc buffs or even power auras like the one for Molten Core. Even your Warlock mounts, the Felsteed and Dreadsteed are given a make-over to fit with the green-fire theme.

If you don't want that look, you can talk to Jubeka to remove it. You can come back again to the Black Temple if you're interested in doing the fight again, and the scenario will, I believe, send you directly to Ebonlocke.

Once completed, Jubeka Shadowbreaker can be found at the Altar of Damnation in Shadowmoon Valley, just a few feet north of the various benches and Gul'dan's spirit-echo-thing. She will be standing there keeping Kanrethad permanently banished. You can speak to her there to have the green fire removed, which will cost 500 gold. Then, if you want to re-acquire the look after having it purged, you can simply click on Kanrethad again and have that cool jumping/spinning animation (you can actually see this animation again even if you never got rid of the green fire.)

Come 6.0, if you've managed to complete this, you'll have the title "of the Black Harvest" on any 90+ warlock on your account. This is a Feat of Strength, though. Future Warlocks will still be able to acquire the Codex of Xerranth, but the title appears to be for those who completed it during Mists only.

And that's how you turn your fire green. Give us a deep maniacal laugh, buddy, you've earned it.

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