Fel Lord Zakuun Encounter Mechanics

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Fel Lord Zakuun is a single-target fight with low to moderate movement requirements and high raid awareness demands. The encounter cycles between two phases: the long Armed phase, wherein Zakuun wields a powerful axe that cleaves his targets' souls from their bodies, and the brief Disarmed phase, wherein Zakuun strikes both tanks and spreads Seed of Destruction throughout the raid.

Tanks have a special mechanic in this encounter; during Phase 1, Zakuun will banish a tank to the Shadow Realm with Soul Cleave. The banished tank must avoid taking damage from the Wake of Destruction and Ring of Destruction abilities cast by the Residual Energy spheres that populate the Shadow Realm.

Phase 1: Armed

Fel Lord Zakuun begins the encounter in the Armed phase, and the central mechanic of this phase is the interaction between Rumbling Fissures, Fel Crystals, and Latent Energy.

Twice in the phase, Fel Lord Zakuun will summon Rumbling Fissures. The Rumbling Fissure marks the location where a Fel Crystal will erupt; the number of Rumbling Fissures formed depends upon the number of players in the raid.

  • When the Rumbling Fissures form, they will deal moderate to heavy Fire damage to the raid
  • After 10 seconds, a Rumbling Fissure will form a Fel Crystal that persists for 90 seconds
  • Fel Crystals deal light damage every three seconds to the entire raid; players standing very close to Fel Crystals will take more damage
  • Players may prevent some of the Fel Crystals from spawning by standing in a Rumbling Fissurefor five seconds, absorbing its energy
  • Absorbing a Rumbling Fissure deals periodic Fire damage
  • The last Rumbling Fissure present will always spawn a Fel Crystal, even if a player was in the process of soaking the Fissure
  • Soaking a Rumbling Fissure also debuffs the player with Latent Energy for 30 seconds
  • The Fel Crystal that spawns from the final Rumbling Fissure will also contain Latent Energy

While getting one Fel Crystal per Rumbling Fissures cast is inevitable, players can control where the Fel Crystal spawns by choosing one of the Rumbling Fissures and ignoring it, soaking the others. The Rumbling Fissures are distributed randomly throughout the encounter area, and the typical strategy is for players to ignore the Rumbling Fissure furthest away from the boss, near the entrance to the room, or closest to a pre-existing Fel Crystal. This keeps the Fel Crystals concentrated in one area, making it easier to avoid triggering their Latent Energy in later phases.

Players affected by Latent Energy will erupt with Unleashed Energy, dealing very heavy raid damage, if they come into contact with another Rumbling Fissure.

Periodically, Fel Lord Zakuun will cast Cavitation, which will create four Wake of Destruction projectiles that fly away from him toward random enemies.

  • Wake of Destruction will deal moderate to heavy damage to a player in its path and nearby allies, and then dissipates
  • If a player with Latent Energy is struck by a Wake of Destruction, Unleashed Energy is triggered
  • If a Fel Crystal is struck by a Wake of Destruction, Unleashed Energy is triggered
  • Tanks should move Fel Lord Zakuun away from nearby Fel Crystals so that Wake of Destruction does not immediately trigger Unleashed Energy

Players without the Latent Energy debuff must intercept the Wake of Destruction projectiles if their path will collide with a Fel Crystal. Wake of Destruction projectiles that are not likely to intersect a Fel Crystal can be ignored. Players with Latent Energy should stand far from the boss when possible, and move out of the path of Wake of Destruction.

Also twice per phase, Fel Lord Zakuun will cast Soul Cleave on the current tank, dealing heavy Shadow damage. The tank becomes Disembodied and is banished to the Shadow Realm.

  • When the current tank becomes Disembodied, the off-tank must taunt the boss
  • Soul Cleave also inflicts Cloven Soul on the affected tank, causing them to take additional Shadow damage for 90 seconds
  • The Shadow Realm is a copy of the Mortal Realm, containing nothing but spheres of Residual Energy
  • Residual Energy casts Wake of Destruction or Ring of Destruction
  • The tank in the Shadow Realm must dodge these effects: step out of the way of Wake of Destruction waves, and jump over the expanding Ring of Destruction as it approaches
  • Being struck by Wake of Destruction or Ring of Destruction will deal heavy damage, and healers are unable to heal players in the Shadow Realm
  • If the tank is affected by Latent Energy while inside the Shadow Realm, being struck by Wake of Destruction/ Ring of Destruction will cause Unleashed Energy damage, but only to the tank in the Shadow Realm
  • Exiting the Shadow realm strips the tank of Latent Energy and leaves behind a sphere of Residual Energy where the tank was standing when Disembodied ended
  • The next tank to enter the Shadow Realm will have to dodge the effects from both Residual Energies, and will create a new Residual Energy upon leaving

The Wake of Destruction and Ring of Destruction spells cast within the Shadow Realm do not interact with the players and Fel Crystals in the Mortal Realm.

Finally, Fel Lord Zakuun will occasionally cast Foul, which will debuff random players with Befouled.

  • Befouled will absorb a large amount of incoming healing; as the affected player is healed, the debuff will change from Befouled to Befouled to Befouled
  • When Befouled absorbs enough healing, it will be removed
  • This causes a Foul Explosion, dealing damage to other players within 6 yards of the Befouled target
  • The Befouled target themselves does not take Foul Explosion damage
Players with the Befouled debuff should move more than 6 yards away from other players until the debuff has been removed. Melee DPS can wait until their debuff morphs into Befouled before moving, to limit downtime on the boss.
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Phase 2: Disarmed

After approximately 90 seconds, Fel Lord Zakuun will cast Throw Axe, hurling his axe into the ground and leaping away to a far corner of the room. Without his axe, Fel Lord Zakuun is Disarmed.

  • The axe will emit Fel Explosions, dealing moderate Fire damage to the entire raid every 3 seconds for 30 seconds
  • Fel Lord Zakuun becomes Heavy Handed, striking the current tank and the tank's nearest ally simultaneously for very heavy damage
  • If no other player is found within the Heavy Handed radius, Zakuun will strike the same target twice; this is typically fatal
  • Heavy Handed has a very small 5-yard radius; the tanks must stack tightly to ensure the Heavy Handed damage is split
  • Zakuun also gains 30% haste, striking the tanks more frequently

During this phase, Zakuun will target a few players with Seed of Destruction. After five seconds, these players will emit 8 waves of Wake of Destruction.

  • Players with Seed of Destruction must react quickly and move away from the Fel Crystals, spreading out to avoid hitting each other with multiple Wake of Destruction waves
  • As Seed of Destruction fades, the affected players should be careful to stand still; moving may cause the player to collide with their own Wake of Destruction projectiles and die
  • Other players must be prepared to intercept the Wake of Destruction projectiles if they approach a Fel Crystal
  • Seed of Destruction occurs twice per Disarmed phase

Disarmed will last for around 30 seconds, and during this time both the tanks and the raid will be taking very heavy damage. Players should coordinate raid CDs and tank CDs to try to cover as much of the Disarmed phase as possible.

Phase 3: Enrage

When Fel Lord Zakuun reaches 30% health, or at the end of his second Disarmed phase - whichever occurs first - he will gain an Enrage buff and begin to use some of the abilities from both phases of the encounter.

  • From Phase 1, he will use Rumbling Fissure, Foul/ Befouled, and Cavitation
  • From Phase 2, he will use Heavily Armed (similar to Heavy Handed), Fel Explosions, and Seed of Destruction
  • Tanks will no longer be banished to the Shadow Realm
Players must continue to soak Rumbling Fissures and move away from Fel Crystals with Seed of Destruction, and players who do not currently have the Latent Energy debuff must be vigilant in preventing Wake of Destruction waves (from Cavitation or from Seed of Destruction) from striking the Fel Crystals. Tanks should pull Fel Lord Zakuun away from any nearby Fel Crystals to make intercepting the Wake of Destruction easier.

Note that during the Enrage, Seed of Destruction has a 3-second duration rather than a 5-second duration. Players must react immediately to the Seed of Destruction debuff, especially as there may be 3 or more Fel Crystals spawning during this phase.

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