Introduction
Since it makes perfect sense to have the torture chamber right near the entrance so as to facilitate more efficient rescue attempts on the poor drakes of Azeroth, as opposed to.. say.. a guard room with a spikes dropping from the roof whenever someone shorter than a medium sized building steps in, Halfus Wyrmbreaker stands as the first obstacle into Cho’galls new digs.
Role-Specific Tactics
Tank:
Tank the drakes close to to Halfus to maximize dps time. If the Slate Dragon is up, switch tanks after the first add dies. After that, try to switch at around 8 stacks of the debuff to make life easier for tanking and healing.
DPS:
Regardless of which drakes are up, your primary job on this boss is to maximize your output. With the exception of the interrupts needed to get rid of Shadow Nova, just concentrate on doing as much damage as you can as quickly as you can. Just don’t pull off the tank.
Healer:
This encounter is very intense at the start, but becomes easier the longer it progresses as long as you don’t completely run out of mana. Don’t be afraid to use your most effective heals to start with, and coordinate CD usage with the tanks.
Special case – Paladin: Your Divine Shield and Hand of Protection can clear the healing debuff applied on both you and the other tank on weeks where Slate Dragon is active. This is very helpful to buy precious time during those instances where a tank switch would be unfeasable or impractical.
Strategy
This boss can best be described as a variable council style encounter. You have 4 different drakes in varying states of unconciousness, 1 pack of whelps, and of course Halfus himself. Depending on a set rotation, only 3 of the drakelings are available in any one week, the remaining two are knocked out.
Description:
Each active drake (and the whelp pack) confers its own damaging mechanic to the fight. Release the drake/whelps to apply a helpful mechanic, but doing so also turns them hostile.
The drakes are:
Nether Scion: confers a 100% haste buff on the boss. Release the drake to apply a -25% modifier to his hitrate, damage and attack speed.
Slate dragon: allows the boss to cause stacking debuffs on the tank. Release the drake to randomly stun the boss.
Storm Rider: allows the boss to cast Shadow Nova with a cast time of ca 0,1 secs. Release the drake to up the cast time to 1,5 secs.
Time Warden: Makes the large red proto drake in the background throw huge barrages on almost instantly hitting fireballs on the raid. Release the drake to turn the fireballs into avoidable badshit.
The whelp pack: Allows the red proto drake to breathe fire on the whole raid. Release the pack to heavily reduce this damage (this also reduces damage of the fireballs)
Killing a drake, or the whelp pack, will also apply a +50% damage taken debuff on the boss called Dragons Vengeance.
At 50% HP, Halfus will start to roar 3 times every 30 or so seconds. This will stun everyone for a short while.
Tactic:
As this fight will play itself out differently each week, the way to defeat him depends on which drakes you have up.
Generally, though, you will want to kill them in this priority order: Storm Rider, Time Warden, Slate Dragon, Nether Scion, Whelp pack.
Storm Rider is always the most important, because the encounter becomes completely unhealable without the ability to interrupt Shadow Nova (AoE, knockback). Tank the Boss where he stands, and Storm Rider where he is unchained. Burn Heroism right at the start. Have two interruptors ready on Halfus at all times during the whole fight, everyone else kills the drake.
Time Warden is the second most important, since those fireballs will cause huge amounts of raid damage that will quickly drain the healers’ mana to zero. Just release & kill.
Slate Dragon comes third. The -healing debuffs Halfus can stack on the tank when this drake is up are devastating. With him randomly being stunned, he becomes much easier to handle. Do a tank switch at roughly 3 stacks.
Nether Scion is fourth. If the boss hits 100% faster, then the tank will theoretically take double the damage. Releasing this drake will help tank healers alot.
The Whelp Pack is the last to go, since while the reduced damage from fire breath (and fireballs) is very helpful, it’s not as debilitating as the other abilities should they be left unchecked.
Since there are only 3 drakes up at any given week, just ignore the ones that arent up.
Don’t damage Halfus too much until all the drakes/whelps are dead. You dont want to contend with the extra damage from his roars AND a drake add at the same time.
Ability Reference (What’s this?)
Halfus Wyrmbreaker:
Malevolent Strikes (Debuff) – Healing Effects -6%, Slate Dragon
Frenzied Assault (Buff) – Attack Speed +100%, Nether Scion
Shadow Nova (Shadow) – Nova & Knockback, Storm Rider
Furious Roar (Physical) – Nova & Stun
Proto Behemoth:
Fireball Barrage (Fire) – AoE, Time Warden
Scorching Breath (Fire) – Cone, Orphaned Emerald Whelp
Slate Dragon:
Stone Touch (Debuff) – On Halfus, 12s Stun
Dragon’s Vengeance (Debuff) – On Halfus after Death, Damage Taken +100%
Nether Scion:
Nether Blindness (Debuff) – On Halfus, Hit Chance -25%, Attack Speed -25%, Damage Done -25%
Dragon’s Vengeance (Debuff) – On Halfus after Death, Damage Taken +100%
Storm Rider:
Cyclone Winds (Debuff) – On Halfus, Cast Speed -500%
Dragon’s Vengeance (Debuff) – On Halfus after Death, Damage Taken +100%
Time Warden:
Time Dilation (Debuff) – On Proto-Behemoth, Slow Motion Fireball Barrage
Dragon’s Vengeance (Debuff) – On Halfus after Death, Damage Taken +100%
Orphaned Emerald Whelp:
Atrophic Poison (Debuff) – On Proto-Behemoth, Damage Done -6000
Dragon’s Vengeance (Debuff) – On Halfus after Death, Damage Taken +100%
Boss Kill: