Zskarn, Healer Guide
Updated 3 weeks, 4 days ago for patch 10.1 by Preston. View the change log.
This page covers a healer-focused strategy for The Vigilant Steward, Zskarn in Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible in Dragonflight. 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 contact me.
This guide has been updated and maintained based on my own experiences with the encounter, combat log information, and Dungeon Journal information. I'll continue to update it as-needed.
General Mechanics and Abilities
Normal and Heroic
- The tanks will be dealing with stacking light to moderate damage over time from Searing Claws.
- The tanks, or potentially other players with strong defensive cooldowns, will be dealing with triggering Shrapnel Bombs.
- Players triggering a Shrapnel Bomb take moderate damage and then moderate damage over time from Shrapnel Bomb.
- Failing to trigger a Shrapnel Bomb before it expires about 20-seconds after being placed causes it to instead deal moderate damage and then moderate damage over time to all players with Shrapnel Bomb.
- On Heroic, when affected by Unstable Embers, stay more than 5-yards away from other players to avoid chaining the damage dealt.
- At 35-seconds into the encounter, and every 60-seconds after that, two to four Dragonfire Golems spawn.
- Dragonfire Golem
- Susceptible to most Stuns, Snares, and other crowd control.
- Only attacks players if all Dragonfire Traps are already active.
- Interrupt Activate Dragonfire Trap to prevent Dragonfire Traps from being activated.
- Once killed, players can interact with the corpse to gain Salvage Parts and the Deactivate Dragonfire Trap Extra Active Button, which is used to deactivate a targeted Dragonfire Trap.
- Dragonfire Golem
- At 100% Energy, 50-seconds into the encounter and every 60-seconds after that, during Tactical Destruction: avoid the blasts emanating from dragon statues near the edge of the platform. Players hit take likely-fatal damage.
- Stay more than 10-yards away from active Dragonfire Traps. Players hit take stacking light damage over time from Dragonfire Traps (dispel, magic).
- Every 35-seconds, deals moderate damage and then heavy damage over time to all players and knocks them back with Blast Wave.
Mythic Differences
- Avoid standing between Zskarn and players affected by Unstable Embers to avoid the Elimination Protocol beams when the effect expires. Players hit take moderate damage and greatly increased damage from subsequwent Elimination Protocol beams while the effect persists.
- Dragonfire Golem
- At 50% health or at 100% Energy (about 30-seconds), becomes immune to crowd control due to Reinforced.
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Healing Notes
Quick Notes, All Difficulties
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.
- Use Major Cooldowns on
- Blast Wave [occurs every 35-seconds]
- Use Minor Cooldowns
- Unstable Embers [occurs every 20-seconds]
- Pre-heal Before (mainly for heal over time classes)
- Blast Wave
- or, keep heal over time effects active due to the frequency of Unstable Embers
- Potion of Frozen Focus use
- in between Blast Waves, once safetly positioned for Unstable Embers
- Other things to watch for
- Healing required is relatively persistent throughout the encounter, with massive spikes during Blast Wave.
- Be prepared to use external defensive cooldowns on players affected by Shrapnel Bomb.
Debuffs to Track
Major
- Dragonfire Traps (dispel, magic) can be dispelled immediately.
- Several abilities cause players to need additional healing over time.
- Unstable Embers
- Shrapnel Bomb
- (Optional) Shrapnel Bomb - ideally this should never trigger, and if it does it will affect all players, possibly cluttering raid frames.
Minor
- Searing Claws causes the tanks to need additional light to moderate healing over time.
Useful Addons
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