The second wing of Blackrock Foundry LFR, The Black Forge, opens up today. It consists of 3 bosses: Hans’gar and Franzok, Flamebender Ka’graz, and Kromog. Our bosses in 5 seconds series focuses on the core points you need to know going into these fights. Last week we covered wing 1, The Slagworks. Keep in mind that you’ll need a minimum item level of 635 to queue for Blackrock Foundry LFR.
- Hans’gar and Franzok have a shared health pool, so it is best to tank them on top of each other to maximize cleave damage. Periodically, one of the bosses will leave and activate environmental hazards.
- When Hans’gar leaps out of the encounter area, he will activate the 5 conveyor belts in the room and Searing Plates. Avoid the Searing Plates by moving between belts. The plates move slowly and are easily avoidable.
- When Franzok leaps out of the encounter area, he will activate the Stamping Presses which crash down from the ceiling. The areas about to be hit light up a couple of seconds before it happens. You cannot stand in the small area between two stamps or else you’ll get hit by both.
- During the last 15% of the fight, both bosses will be present but the conveyor belts will keep moving and Stamping Presses will be active.
- This fight is all about dodging the Searing Plates and Stamping Presses. If you find yourself having motion sickness on the fight, see this post for some tips.
- At the start of the fight, focus damage on Aknor Steelbringer to get him out of the way. Ranged and healers should spread out around the room 7+ yards away from each other. Flamebender Ka’graz will slowly gain energy throughout the fight, gaining more abilities.
- Avoid standing in Lava Slash (fire lines) and Enchanted Armaments (spinning weapons).
- 25 energy: Players who get Molten Torrent (a big orange circle around them) should move into the melee group or another large group to split the damage of the meteor.
- 50 energy: When the boss casts Summon Cinder Wolves, one of the wolves can be tanked (faced away from the raid) and the other will fixate on a random player. Melee should focus on the tanked wolf, and ranged should focus on the fixated wolf. Kill them as fast as possible, and make sure they die within 8 seconds of each other or else the first one to die will begin to heal.
- 75 energy: Stand 10 yards away from anyone when afflicted by Blazing Radiance.
- 100 energy: The boss will channel Firestorm, dealing raid-wide damage. It is beneficial to stack up for healing and damage reduction cooldowns.
- After Firestorm, the boss will go back to 0 energy and the fight repeats. The only difference is the boss will be buffed with Flamefury. Tanks should swap after 4-5 stacks of Rising Flames.
- Tanks need to stay within 15 yards of each other to share Fists of Stone damage. Swap to keep Warped Armor stacks low.
- Melee should be far away from tanks and stand at max melee range from the boss to reduce Slam damage.
- Ranged and healers need to avoid standing in Rune of Crushing Earth (red runes).
- Everyone needs to avoid Rippling Smash and Reverberations (yellow orbs).
- The most important part of the fight is when Kromog begins Rune of Grasping Earth. A bunch of small orange runes will appear on the ground. Players must stand on top of them quickly (only one player per rune). Players who do not stand in a orange rune by themselves will be launched into the air and take heavy damage (and probably die).
- Each player in an orange rune will be encased by Grasping Earth. Use AoE damage to help break others out. Get tanks out first if possible, and give healers a helping hand. If you stay inside too long, you’ll eventually be killed by ramping damage.
- At 30% health, Kromog will cast Frenzy. This is a good time to use Heroism/Blood Lust/Time Warp.
The next wing (Iron Assembly) is due to open on March 10.