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Al'ar

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Mon, 17/09/2007 - 12:29 — Kjartan

Overview

This fight takes place in a room with a lower and upper level. During Phase 1 Al'ar will be flying around on the upper level jumping between 4 platforms. Once he dies he will be reborn in the middle of the lower level and we get the pleasure of killing him again, permanently. During all this Al'ar will spawn mini phoenixes called Ember of Al'ar which we need to control.

Raid requirement

Minimum health buffed: 8,000
Fire resistance: 0!

Recommended videos

  • Doom vs Al'ar Semi-recent Al'ar video from a tank perspective, very handy to get a feel for tank Al'ar movement.
  • Last Resort vs Al'ar Pre 2.1 Al'ar video from a mage perspective, some aspects of the fight have been changed since then but still gives a good feel for the movement and tasks casters need to perform.

Al'ar

Health: ~5,200,000 (2,600,000 and is then reborn with another 2,600,000 health)
Melee on tank: ~4,000
Immunities: Fire!

Ability Used Effect
Flame Buffet Whole fight.
If nobody in melee range.		 Deals 1750 to 2250 fire damage.
Increases fire damage taken by 10%.
Lasts 10 seconds.
Stacks.
Flame Quills Phase 1.
Used when Al'ar flights up high in the middle of the room.		 Deals 6563 to 8437 fire damage per second.
Lasts 8-10 seconds.
Only effects the upper platform area.
Charge Phase 2.
Randomly used on a player.		 Deals 4500 to 5500 fire damage.
Flame Patch Phase 2.
Burns the floor where player is standing		 Deals 2188 to 2812 fire damage per second.
Increases fire damage taken by 10% for 20 seconds.
30 second cooldown.
Melt Armor Phase 2.
Cast on Al'ar's current target.		 Reduces armor by 80%.
Lasts 60 seconds.
60 second cooldown.
Meteor Phase 2.
Al'ar will fly and cast into a meteor, which then crashes back to the ground.		 Deals 5700 to 6300 fire damage.
Effects 10 yard radius.
Spawns two Ember of Al'ar.
30 second cooldown.
Rebirth Phase 2.
Al'ar will use this at the start of phase 2 and after every meteor.		 Deals 4375 to 5625 fire damage.
Effects 15 yard radius.

Ember of Al'ar

Health: 78,000
Melee on tank: ~900
Immunities: Fire!

Ability Used Effect
Ember Blast Whole fight.
Always happens when the Ember dies.		 Deals 7000 to 9000 fire damage.
Knock Back.
Effects 15 yard radius.

Phase 1

During Phase 1 Al'ar will fly between four fixed spots on the upper level as shown on the diagram below.

Positioning

Classes Position Role
Al'ar tanks Upper level There need to be at least two tanks assigned to Al'ar. As mentioned Al'ar will fly from on position to the next, and if left untanked will kill the raid with his Flame Buffet ability. This means the tanks have to play leapfrog, moving in order to control him. The first tank will start off in position one, the second tank in position 2. Once Al'ar flies to position 2 the first tank will move to position 3. Again Al'ar will move, this time to position 3, now the second tank has to move to position 4. Finally Al'ar will head to position 4 and the first tank will be back in position 1 and the cycle repeats.

Occasionally instead of leaving position 1 or 4 Al'ar will decide to use his Flame Quills ability which bombards the upper level with massive fire damage. YOU CAN NOT SURVIVE THIS! When Al'ar heads high up to the middle of the room the Al'ar tanks have to jump down to the lower level, the ramps are off limits as well. After he is done casting Quills he will head for either position 1 or 4. The first tank will cover position 1 and the second tank to position 4. In the 3 seconds it takes Al'ar to fly from the middle of the room down to either position 1 or 4 both tanks have to run up the ramp quickly to avoid the raid taking too much Flame Buffet damage. Intercept or similar abilities help out here, or speed potions.

Al'ar will resume his normal rotation after quills. If he lands in position 4 the first tank can just stay at position 1, if he chooses position 1 the second tank has to move from position 4 to position 2. However, Al'ar might choose to do another Flame Quills again so always keep an eye out for it.

Threat is not reset for phase 2 so tanks are recommended to taunt Al'ar every time he lands, and as often as cooldown permits when he is under 5% health.

Summary:

  • First tank covers position 1 and 3.
  • Second tank covers position 2 and 4.
  • Be quick about getting in range of Al'ar to avoid Flame Buffet killing the raid.
  • Always use a taunt ability when he reaches a new position.
  • Ignore any Embers of Al'ar.
Ember of Al'ar tanks Lower level Two tanks should be assigned to this task.

Every time Al'ar moves away from a position he will leave behind an Ember, which will then head down either one of the ramps to the lower level. They will usually go for healers so it is important to pick them up before they reach the raid. The adds deal moderate amount of physical damage to tanks, but several may need tanking at the same time so stacking up on block or armor is recommended.

When an Ember dies it performs a final act of exploding which deals fire damage and causes a knock back. Due to the knock back it is important to position the adds so that they aren't in the path of the Al'ar tanks as they have to cross the room on occasion and having them sent flying at the wrong time will cause the flame buffet to wipe the raid. There is a small indentation next to the entrance to Al'ar's room which can be used to prevent the add tank being sent flying.

Healers Lower level In phase 1 healing will be focused on the Al'ar and Ember tanks, but there may be need to patch up the whole raid after a Flame Buffet.
Casters Lower level Go all out on Al'ar. I phase 1 threat does not matter!
Melee
Hunters		 Lower level Until the first Ember of Al'ar spawns focus on Al'ar, after that help the Ember of Al'ar tank by killing the adds and help rounding up any stray adds.

Phase 2

A few moments after Al'ar dies he will be reborn in the middle of the lower level, when his rebirth takes place he will deal 4375 to 5625 fire damage to anyone within a 15 yard radius. Everyone should clear out from the middle, and keep in mind that threat does not reset from phase 1! This means that Al'ar will go to whoever has the highest threat. The Al'ar tanks should be quick to pick him up and taunt. During phase 2 Al'ar will fly out of range and target a raid member and summon a meteor on their location. The meteor will cause anyone nearby to take fire damage and spawn 2 Ember of Al'ar, and a few seconds Al'ar will respawn on the impact area dealing more fire damage, anyone in the meteor area need to clear out before Al'ar appears. There will also be several Flame Patches appearing around the room that deal fire damage and need to be avoided. Another randomly target ability is Al'ar's charge which can't be avoided, just healed through.

The focus in this phase is high mobility to avoid patches and meteor, add control so they don't kill healers and high damage output on Al'ar.

Classes Position Role
Al'ar tanks Upper level The two tanks from phase 1 will have to take turns tanking Al'ar due to the Melt Armor debuff that reduces armor by 80%. Al'ar is tauntable so bouncing between tanks shouldn't be a problem, but beware of resists and to use secondary abilities as an emergency.

When Al'ar flies up to cast meteor the tanks should stay in the middle, but spread out a little bit so not both will get hit by meteor. Since Al'ar doesn't reset threat on a meteor rebirth he should target the current tank, but since he will still cast Flame Buffet if nobody is in melee range it is important to close the distance quickly and pull him back to the middle of the room.

Last thing to keep an eye out for are the Flame Patches, be sure not to stand in these and move away if one appears under you.

Summary:

  • Taunt Al'ar when the other tank is affected by Melt Armor.
  • Get in range quickly after a meteor and reposition Al'ar in the middle of the room.
  • Stay out of Flame Patches.
Ember of Al'ar tanks Lower level The job is the same as in phase 1, just with more adds and more spread out spawn locations. High block and armor will come in handy to minimize incoming damage, and spamming of multiple mob threat effects. Since the adds shouldn't explode tank on the outer edge of the transparent floor to make getting to any new adds easier.
Healers Lower level In phase 2 healing will still be focused on the Al'ar and Ember tanks. The Ember tanks will take more damage, as well as more raid damage due to Charge, Flame Patch, Buffer and Meteor.
Casters
Melee		 Lower level Focus on Al'ar, but in this phase threat matters so try to stay under 100% of the current main tank to avoid becoming the target after Meteor.

Make sure to stay spread out to avoid too many taking Meteor damage, and run away from the meteor patch to avoid Al'ar's rebirth and move away from Flame Patches.

Hunters Lower level Primary task is to help the Ember of Al'ar tanks by picking up any Embers that get away from them, as long as the Ember tanks have control focus fire on Al'ar.

Make sure to stay spread out to avoid too many taking Meteor damage, and run away from the meteor patch to avoid Al'ar's rebirth and move away from Flame Patches.

Alternate tactics and reasoning

Phase 1

Not much to talk about. If there are spare tanks more can be assigned to the leap frog chain to reduce the risk of tanks not reaching their destination on time.

In the past adds from phase 1 would when killed in phase 2 take away 3% of Al'ar's health, this is no longer the case so killing them is more efficient to have a clean start. If melee/hunter damage is high enough the extra tank can help with Al'ar.

Phase 2

Two areas can be done with alternate tactics here.

Instead of spreading out for meteors the raid can group up to ensure that the location of Ember spawns and Al'ar's rebirth is constant. The risks here are higher since everyone will take the Meteor and potentially the Rebirth damage. The benefit is that picking up the new adds and Al'ar is easy so this tactic should only be considered if tanks are having a really hard time controlling both Al'ar and his Embers.

The second aspect which can be altered is how adds are handled. Each of the Embers have the health equivalent of 3% of Al'ar total health, and killing one of them will reduce Al'ar's health by 3%. In theory this should make killing the adds effective, but when the time it takes for people to switch targets and adding up the time it takes to apply the debuffs this results in a net loss of DPS. Once Al'ar is dead all the adds will despawn so it is just a question of if the Ember tanks can control the adds long enough for Al'ar to die. If the incoming damage on the tanks is too much for the healers to cover or the adds are running around uncontrolled some, or all DPS can be refocused to kill adds. Should it be necessary to kill adds it is still recommend that rogues and shadow priests work it is recommend that they stay on Al'ar.

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