Today we're looking at Normal, Heroic, and Mythic Kazzara, the Hellforge in the new 10.1 raid Aberrus the Shadowed Crucible. I'll review all the new mechanics, how they work, and how to deal with them.
Kazzara Normal and Heroic Difficulty
The main mechanic of the fight is the
Dread Rifts and
Rays of Anguish. Dread Rifts target several players, and after a few seconds, they drop an amazingly looking rift on the ground dealing damage to anyone hit. The Rift itself also deals damage if you hug it.
Rays of Anguish targets several players, giving them an arrow above their head, and a few seconds later, a beam starts chasing them. On Heroic, this beam also leaves Shadowflame lob on its path. So if a Rays of Anguish travels through a Rift, the beam and the Rift disappear. Otherwise, both will last forever.
It's run out a bit with Dread Rifts, and clear them with Rays of Anguish. Ranges can run further and place their Rifts near the walls or edges. There's no need to run the race super far to clear.
On top of this, the boss damages the entire raid every 4 seconds from its
Infernal Heart. At 70, 50, and 30%, the boss will lose some armor dealing significant damage to the raid and making its infernal heart beat faster, which means it deals damage more often. Thus, the raid damage continues throughout the fight, making this boss a DPS check boss.
Also, whenever the boss loses an armor piece Dread Rift will target one additional player, so you'll constantly get more Dread Rifts than Rays of Anguish, so you're never going to be able to fully clear all Rifts, and you'll get more and more of them as the fight goes on.
There are also swirls and knockbacks. The Dragonflight standard small swirls will spawn throughout the fight from
Revenant's Blood. Don't take them to the face. You'll get more of these swirls as you break off more and more armor from the boss.
Following each armor break, many
Hellsteel Fragments will spawn, which are slightly bigger swirls also causing a slight case of death if you hug too many.
Then there is
Wings of Extinction ability - it knocks everyone back and applies a DoT. Just make sure to pre-heal and not get knocked into the flames or the lava.
At 100 energy boss will cast
Hellbeam - frontal cone breath that deals much damage. Don't stand in it.
Kazzara Mythic Difficulty
Kazzara, the first boss in the raid, doesn't get a ton of new mechanics. The new one we do get is
Infernal Fusion. If a Ray of Anguish touches a Molten Scar, which are the magma puddles on the ground, everyone in the raid takes a ton of damage, which means you will have to take extra care with how you place your
Dread Rifts since each Dread Rifts spawns a big magma scar once you put the array in it.
So if you put your Rifts and magma scores all over the place, it's gonna get a lot more interesting to kite the race into Rifts as you'll have to do so while playing an elaborate game of operation and pray that the rest of the melee DPS players don't accidentally drag it right through a Magma Scar and wipe the raid.
You should also watch the
Relentless Torment, which is a Heroic mechanic but is especially damaging in Mythic mode. If a Ray of Anguishes is up when new Anguishes spawn, they start to AOE everyone in the raid. The damage will increase with the amount of Dread Rifts you have up. Thus, if you have five Rifts up, you get five Rays on the next spot. The amount of Dread Rifts you get does increase at 70, 50, and 30 percent HP as you knock off armor pieces from the boss.
Regardless, you'll want to tank the boss near one of the walls - for example, near the entrance. Also, place your first Dread Rift near it. When Ray spawns, instantly kite it into Rifts. These subsequent Rifts you place near the old Rift magma scores. However, remember to leave space between so it's easier to kite the erase into the Rift without running Ray in the magma scars.
Then you want to move the boss and raid as needed as you get less and less space due to the magma puddles. You also want to pre-spread before every Ray of Anguish since they leave molten scars in their path. So if two melee-brain players like an Enhancement Shaman get targeted, they might instantly trigger the Infernal Fusion, and you all die. That likely happens if you don't spread.
That's pretty much it on Mythic for Kazzara in the Aberrus raid.
Closing Tip
Kazzara is really a simple fight:
- Run out with Dread Rifts;
- Put Rays of Anguish into Rifts;
- Don't get hit by swirls or breath;
- Don't get knocked into the lava and slap the boss;
- Prepare for raid damage at 70, 50, and 30 percent HP when the boss loses its armor;
- Even though it's fun, avoid chasing people with the Rays and put race into the poorly placed Rifts, like in the middle of the room, rather than Rifts near the walls.
That's it for Kazzara on Normal, Heroic, and Mythic difficulties. After reading this guide, this boss should be an easy fight for you. Also, check out the video below if you prefer video format better.
