
Kil'jaeden, Healer Guide
Posted 3 years, 7 months ago for patch 7.3.2 by Preston.
This page covers a healer-focused strategy for Kil'jaeden in the Tomb of Sargeras. 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 fight as well as Dungeon Journal information. I'll continue to update it as-needed.
General Mechanics and Abilities
Normal and Heroic
This is a three stage fight with two intermissions during which you fight Kil'jaeden and the full might of the Legion.
Stage One - the betrayer
This Stage begins the fight and ends when Kil'jaeden reaches 80% health.
- The tanks will be dealing with
Felclaws.
- On Heroic, this ability deals additional damage in a cone in front of Kil'jaeden.
Rupturing Singularity appears at either one of the corners or the center of the platform.
- When it detonates, it knocks all players back about half the distance of the platform. Everyone should be positioned to not get knocked off.
- Standing directly in the impact location is fatal, be especially careful when it's located in the center of the platform.
- Kil'jaeden will periodically call down an armageddon.
- One player must soak the impact location of each
Armageddon Rain.
- Soaking a meteor deals heavy damage upon impact and moderate damage over time.
- If a meteor doesn't hit a player, it triggers
Armageddon Blast, dealing likely fatal damage to the entire group.
- The tanks or a player with an immunity must soak the impact locations of
Armageddon Hail.
- Soaking a meteor deals fatal damage, and will require a strong mitigation cooldown, followed by moderate damage over time.
- If a meteor doesn't hit a player, it triggers
Armageddon Blast, dealing fatal damage to the entire group.
- One player must soak the impact location of each
- On Heroic, Kil'jaeden will create shadowy copies of players.
- When affected by
Shadow Reflection: Erupting, move underneath the boss so the Erupting Reflections are stacked together.
- Every 8-seconds each Reflection casts
Erupting Dreadflame.
- This applies a stack of Reflections, increasing damage done by 50% per stack.
- Every 8-seconds each Reflection casts
- When affected by
Intermission One - eternal flame
This Intermission begins when Kil'jaeden is at 80% health and lasts for 60-seconds.
Nether Gale makes Kil'jaeden essentially immune to damage during the Intermission.
- When affected by
Bursting Dreadflame, move away from other players.
- Enough players must stack in
Focused Dreadflame to split the damage so it's not fatal.
- On Heroic, players soaking must be spread out to avoid extra damage triggered by
Focused Dreadburst.
- On Heroic, players soaking must be spread out to avoid extra damage triggered by
- Kil'jaeden will still periodically call down armageddons during the Intermission:
Armageddon Rain and
Armageddon Hail.
Stage Two - reflected souls
When this Stage begins, Kil'jaeden will still be at 80%, it ends when he reaches 40% health.
- Several abilities continue during this Stage:
Bursting Dreadflame and
Focused Dreadflame
Armageddon Rain and
Armageddon Hail
Rupturing Singularity
- Tanks will still be dealing with
Felclaws.
- Kil'jaeden will create shadowy copies of players.
- When affected by
Shadow Reflection: Erupting, continue to move underneath the boss so the Erupting Reflections are stacked together.
- On Heroic,
Shadow Reflection: Wailing creates a Wailing Reflection of a tank.
- Every 7-seconds, these cast
Sorrowful Wail.
- This applies a stack of
Crescendo to the Reflection, increasing damage done and the area of effect of
Sorrowful Wail.
- This applies a stack of
- Every 7-seconds, these cast
- When affected by
Intermission Two - deceiver's veil
This Intermission begins when Kil'jaeden is at 40% health and ends when all Shadowsoul adds are killed.
Deceiver's Veil reduces visibility and spell range to 8-yards.
- Players take steadily reduced healing from
Choking Shadow.
- Players take steadily reduced healing from
- Shadowsoul adds need to be killed to remove the
Deceiver's Veil.
- These periodically cast
Destabilized Shadowsoul, dealing light damage to the group.
- These periodically cast
- Illidan Stormrage is located in a random spot on the platform.
- Players standing near him are granted the
Illidan's Sightless Gaze buff, giving them 40-yard visibility and spell range while dealing light damage over time.
- Players standing near him are granted the
Stage Three - darkness of a thousand souls
This Stage begins with Kil'jaeden at 40% health, and ends when he's killed.
- Several abilities continue during this Stage:
Bursting Dreadflame and
Focused Dreadflame
- Tanks will still be dealing with
Felclaws.
- Avoid the Rifts created by
Tear Rift unless you're using them to deal with other mechanics explained below.
- Players standing in a Rift are affected by
Gravity Squeeze, dealing increasing damage over time.
- Players standing in a Rift are affected by
- When
Darkness of a Thousand Souls is cast, stand inside a Rift to avoid the burst damage and the damaging debuff application.
- For the very first cast of this at the start of the Stage, there is no Rift active to stand in, so the group should stack to make healing the burst damage easier.
- Be aware of where
Demonic Obelisks are located.
- These will detonate shortly after appearing, shooting fel lines in a cross pattern.
- Being hit by a fel line causes heavy damage and knocks back.
- On Heroic,
Flaming Orb creates a Flaming Orb that follows the closest player.
- If targeted, run away from the Orb for as long as possible, and try to end with it impacting near a Rift.
- Once the Orb hits a player, it triggers
Flaming Detonation, dealing fatal damage to other players within 10-yards and creating a fire patch.
- The size of the fire patch is reduced based on how long the Orb was kited.
- Touching a fire patch applies
Burning, dealing heavy damage over time.
- The fire patches will be pulled slowly pulled towards Rifts.
Mythic Differences
Stage One - the betrayer
- Kil'jaeden will create shadowy copies of players.
- In addition to the other effects,
Shadow Reflection: Wailing applies
Lingering Wail to the affected player when the Reflection is killed.
- When dispelled, this triggers
Wailing Grasp, pulling all players to the location of the dispelled player.
- When dispelled, this triggers
- In addition to the other effects,
Shadow Reflection: Erupting also triggers
Erupting Essence when a Reflection is killed.
- When a Reflection is killed, it triggers
Lingering Eruption on the player it belonged to.
- Avoid the resulting
Erupting Orb that travel out from the affected player.
- Touching an Orb deals fatal damage from
Chaotic Eruption.
- Touching an Orb deals fatal damage from
- Avoid the resulting
- A Reflection being killed also triggers
Latent Eruption, dealing damage to other players near the one the Reflection belonged to.
- When a Reflection is killed, it triggers
- In addition to the other effects,
Stage Two - reflected souls
- Kil'jaeden will create shadowy copies of players.
Shadow Reflection: Wailing and
Shadow Reflection: Erupting include the additions above still.
Shadow Reflection: Hopeless creates a Hopeless Reflection of healers.
- These Reflections need to be healed to full health quickly.
- If
Hopelessness finishes casting, or the Reflections reach full health, they create a pool of
Soul Anguish.
- The size of the pool and the damage it deals is decreased the faster the Reflections reach full health.
- When a Reflection reaches full health, all healers gain
Lingering Hope, increasing mana regeneration.
- If
- These Reflections need to be healed to full health quickly.
Healing Strategy
Stage One - the betrayer
- Players soaking
Armageddon Rain and
Armageddon Hail will need heavy healing and then moderate healing over time.
- On Heroic,
Erupting Dreadflame deals increasing damage to the group every time it's cast.
- On Mythic,
Wailing Grasp needs to be dispelled in a controlled manner.
- On Mythic, players affected by
Lingering Eruption will need moderate healing over time.
Intermission One - eternal flame
- Players targeted by
Bursting Dreadflame will take heavy damage, along with any other players within 15-yards.
- Players soaking
Focused Dreadflame will need light to moderate healing, depending on how many other players are soaking.
- Players soaking
Armageddon Rain and
Armageddon Hail will need heavy healing and then moderate healing over time.
Stage Two - reflected souls
- Players targeted by
Bursting Dreadflame will take heavy damage, along with any other players within 15-yards.
- Players soaking
Armageddon Rain and
Armageddon Hail will need heavy healing and then moderate healing over time.
Erupting Dreadflame deals increasing damage to the group every time it's cast.
- On Mythic, Hopeless Reflections need to be healing quickly.
Intermission Two - deceiver's veil
- The group will be taking random, light damage from
Destabilized Shadowsoul.
- Players affected by
Illidan's Sightless Gaze will be taking light damage over time.
Stage Three - darkness of a thousand souls
- Players targeted by
Bursting Dreadflame will take heavy damage, along with any other players within 15-yards.
- Players affected by
Gravity Squeeze will need increasing healing over time.
Darkness of a Thousand Souls deals a burst of damage and then stacking damage over time to anyone not inside a Rift when it's cast.
In-depth Notes, Normal and Heroic
Consider this section in "beta." My goal is to lay out the order of events without necessarily providing an entire strategy for all roles (other sites do that already). The idea being it should help organize your cooldowns or pre-healing. Feedback is greatly appreciated as Tomb of Sargeras is my first time attempting something like this.
Based on the Event List, we can assume the following:
- Stage One - the betrayer
Armageddon Rain /
Armageddon Hail occurs every 60-seconds, starting 10-seconds into the fight.
Shadow Reflection: Erupting occur every 2-minutes, starting 20-seconds into the fight.
- Occurrence time is based on Stage Two.
Rupturing Singularity occurs every 1-minute 15-seconds, starting 60-seconds into the fight.
- Occurrence time is based on Stage Two.
- Intermission One - eternal flame
- This Intermission lasts for 60-seconds, so you can expect abilities to occur in the same quantity every time.
Armageddon Rain /
Armageddon Hail occurs every 30-seconds, starting 5-seconds into the Intermission.
Bursting Dreadflame occurs every 60-seconds, starting 10-seconds into the Intermission.
Rupturing Singularity occurs every 30-seconds, starting 15-seconds into the Intermission.
Focused Dreadflame occurs every 15 seconds, starting 25-second into the Intermission.
- Stage Two - reflected souls
Shadow Reflection: Erupting occurs every 2-minutes, starting 15-seconds into the Stage.
Focused Dreadflame occurs every 45-seconds, starting 30-seconds into the Stage.
Armageddon Rain /
Armageddon Hail occurs every 1-minute 20-seconds, starting 50-seconds into the Stage.
Shadow Reflection: Wailing occurs every 2-minutes, starting 50-seconds into the Stage.
Bursting Dreadflame occurs every ~55-seconds, starting 50-seconds into the Stage.
Rupturing Singularity occurs every 30-seconds, with the timer resetting every time Reflections are created.
- Intermission Two - deceiver's veil
- There are no timed abilities during this Intermission.
- Stage Three - darkness of a thousand souls
Darkness of a Thousand Souls occurs every 1-minute 30-seconds, starting immediately with the Stage.
Demonic Obeliskoccurs every 25-seconds following each
Darkness of a Thousand Souls.
Flaming Orb occurs every ~30-seconds following each
Darkness of a Thousand Souls.
Bursting Dreadflame occurs every ~30-seconds following each
Darkness of a Thousand Souls.
Tear Rift occurs once 45-seconds following each
Darkness of a Thousand Souls.
Focused Dreadflame occurs once ~1-minute 15-seconds following each
Darkness of a Thousand Souls.
Debuffs to Track
Bursting Dreadflame causes players to need heavy healing.
Armageddon Rain causes players to need moderate healing over time.
- On Mythic,
Wailing Grasp needs to be dispelled.
- (Optional)
Illidan's Sightless Gaze causes players to need light healing over time, but in most cases you can assume everyone has this debuff.
- (Optional)
Gravity Squeeze causes players to need increasing healing over time, but again, in most cases you can assume everyone is affected by this.
- (Optional)
Darkness of a Thousand Souls causes moderate damage over time to players not standing near a Rift.
DBM Settings
Below are the DBM settings I'll be using for Kil'jaeden. You can set them up however you'd like, but these ones should work well as a starting point. Some settings may be Mythic only.
Healer DBM settings for Kil'jaeden
Videos
Heroic, Restoration Druid PoV
Below is a video of me and my guild defeating Kil'jaeden on Heroic difficulty. There is no commentary, only game sounds.
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