
Nefarian, Healer Guide
Posted 1 year, 2 months ago for patch 1.13 by Preston.
This page covers a healer-focused strategy for Nefarian in Blackwing Lair. While it's tailored for healers, other roles may also find the information useful. If you have any suggestions or feedback, you can leave a comment below or tweet @PrestonDvorak.
This guide has been updated and maintained based on my own experiences with the encounter, logs information, and Dungeon Journal information. I'll continue to update it as-needed.
General Mechanics and Abilities
Stage One - Drakonids
This stage begins the encounter and ends when 42 drakonid adds are killed.
- Drakonids spawn from the two doorways near the back of the room.
- Chromatic Drakonid
- Stay at least 15-yards away to avoid
Brood Power: Black.
- Stay at least 15-yards away to avoid
- Small Chromatic Drakonid
- Two out of the five drakonid types will be used with each raid reset, chosen at random.
- Red Drakonid
- Stay at least 15-yards away to avoid
Brood Power: Red.
- Resistant to fire damage.
- Stay at least 15-yards away to avoid
- Blue Drakonid
- Target random players with
Brood Power: Blue (dispel, magic), draining mana and reducing attack speed.
- Resistant to frost damage.
- Target random players with
- Green Drakonid
- Stun random players with
Brood Power: Green.
- Resistant to nature damage.
- Stun random players with
- Black Drakonid
- Stay at least 15-yards away to avoid
Brood Power: Black.
- Resistant to shadow and fire damage.
- Stay at least 15-yards away to avoid
- Bronze Drakonid
- Target random players with
Brood Power: Bronze (dispel, magic), reducing casting and attack speed.
- Target random players with
Stage Two - Nefarian Calls
This stage begins after 42 drakonid adds are killed in stage one and ends when Nefarian reaches 20% health.
- At the beginning of the stage, all players are hit by
Shadow Flame. It's recommended everyone be wearing
Onyxia Scale Cloak to avoid the damage over time effect.
- Don't stand in front of the boss to avoid
Cleave and
Shadow Flame.
- Move at least 35-yards away from the boss before
Bellowing Roar to avoid the fear effect.
- Targets the player nearest to the center of Nefarian's hitbox with
Veil of Shadow (dispel, curse), greatly reducing healing received.
- Every 30-seconds, Class Call applies a negative effect to players based on their class.
- Priests: Direct healing spells deal damage over time to targeted players instead of healing due to
Corrupted Healing.
- Druids: Are forced to be in
Cat Form by
Involuntary Transformation.
- Paladins: Continually cast
Improved Blessing of Protection on Nefarian by
Siphon Blessing.
- Shaman: Spawns random shaman totems that benefit enemies with
Corrupted Totems.
- Hunters: Their weapon equipped in the ranged slot is immediately broken.
- Mages: Target random players with
Wild Polymorph (dispel, magic).
- Rogues: Teleported to Nefarian and immobilized.
- Warlocks: Summon two Corrupted Infernals.
- Corrupted Infernal
- Stay at least 8-yards away to avoid
Immolation.
- Avoid the impact locations of
Inferno Effect.
- Stay at least 8-yards away to avoid
- Corrupted Infernal
- Warriors: Forced into
Berserker Stance by
Berserk, which also increases damage taken.
- Priests: Direct healing spells deal damage over time to targeted players instead of healing due to
Stage Three - Bone Constructs
This stage begins when Nefarian reaches 20% health and ends when he's killed.
- At the start of the stage, all previously killed Drakonids are resurrected as Bone Constructs.
- Bone Constructs
- Deal additional damage with
Exploit Weakness if attacking the tank from behind.
- Deal additional damage with
- Bone Constructs
- Beyond that, stage three works the same as stage two.
Resistance Levels
- Players generally won't make use of any additional Resistances on this encounter but should all be wearing
Onyxia Scale Cloak.
Healing Notes
The notes below mostly pertain to progression difficulty, meaning if you out-gear the difficulty you're on or use extra healers they may not apply.
- Be aware of other healer classes that are affected by a Class Call as this will likely raise the overall healing requirement.
- Warrior tanks will be taking extra damage while affected by
Berserk, both due to the effect itself and because they're stuck in
Berserker Stance.
Debuffs to Track
- Major:
Veil of Shadow (dispel, curse),
Wild Polymorph (dispel, magic)
- Minor:
Brood Power: Red,
Brood Power: Bronze (dispel, magic),
Brood Power: Blue (dispel, magic),
Corrupted Healing
Addons
Healer DBM Settings for Nefarian
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