Kil'jaeden, Healer Guide

Posted 2 years, 9 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.
• 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.

• 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.
• 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.

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.
• Shadowsoul adds need to be killed to remove the Deceiver's Veil.
  • These periodically cast Destabilized Shadowsoul, dealing light damage to the group.
• 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.

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.
• 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.
  • 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.
    • A Reflection being killed also triggers Latent Eruption, dealing damage to other players near the one the Reflection belonged to.

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.

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.