Kargath Bladefist Boss Guide

Kargath Bladefist

Kargath Bladefist, Warlord of the Shattered Hand, honed his brutal skills as a slave in the ogres' gladiatorial games. He slaughtered countless opponents for the promise of freedom, but after winning, was locked away with the other retired "champions." Fueled by rage, Kargath tore off his own hand to escape and led a revolt that soaked Draenor in ogre blood. Now, he returns to the arena to teach you the true meaning of savagery.

Video Tactics

Icy Vein Tacts

Fatboss Tacts

Overview

The encounter against Kargath Bladefist is a single-phase fight. You engage Kargath inside a circular arena.

  • Inside the arena there are two important things to look out for.
  • There are 4 pits in the ground, each one containing a deadly, stationary mob. Players who come within range of these mobs (that is to say, who fall in the pit) are instantly killed.
  • There are 4 skulls on the ground, each one of them being raised up throughout the fight to turn into a Fire Pillar that constantly deals damage to players in an area around it.
  • In the stands surrounding the arena, adds will spawn throughout the fight. These adds cannot be attacked from within the arena, but they will cast spells at your raid, hindering your performance. At certain times in the encounter, Kargath will throw the 5 closest raid members to him in the arena's stands.
  • The Fire Pillars play an important role, because bringing Kargath inside the radius of a Fire Pillar will cause him to interrupt his current cast and smash the Pillar, disabling it.
  • Raid members sent up into the arena's stands will have a chance to reduce the number of adds present there.

Tactics

Tanks

  • Tank Kargath away from Fire Pillar and Ravenous Bloodmaws.
  • Perform a tank switch for every other Impale Icon Impale cast. Make sure to have an active defensive cooldown for each Impale you go through.
  • If in the stands, make sure to pick up any adds present there, and face the Drunken Bileslingers away from other raid members.

Healers

  • Beware of intense tank damage whenever Impale Icon Impale is being cast, and be prepared to use a defensive cooldown on the tank.
  • Be prepared to heal damage on random raid members during Blade Dance Icon Blade Dance, and increasing damage on random raid members as more Iron Bombers are present in the stands.
  • Be sure to stand away from Kargath, and to be somewhat spread out.
  • If in the stands, be prepared for unpredictable damage on the other players who are in the stands.

DPS

  • Ranged DPS should make sure to stand away from Kargath, and to be somewhat spread out.
  • If in the stands, kill as many adds as possible, ideally prioritising Drunken Bileslingers.

Everyone

  • If you are chased by Kargath during Berserker Rush Icon Berserker Rush, kite him into an active Fire Pillar to stop his chase. Tanks do not need to worry about this.
  • Make sure not to be close to Kargath at the end of his Chain Hurl Icon Chain Hurl, unless you are assigned to being sent up into to the stands, in which case be sure to be as close to him as possible.

Strategy example

The Arena

Before we discuss anything else about fighting Kargath, it is important to mention that your tanks will have to perform a regular tank switch because of  Impale. It should be possible for any tank to survive two consecutive Impales, especially if there is a defensive cooldown up on them. It may be possible for the same tank to survive more than two consecutive Impales, especially with cooldowns, but we currently see no reason not to switch sooner.

The most important part of fighting Kargath in the arena is proper positioning and movement. The following instructions should ensure that your raid is properly set up to handle everything Kargath can do.

  • Have Kargath tanked out of range of any Fire Pillars orRavenous Bloodmaws. A viable location is between one of the Fire Pillars and the adjacent wall, but other positions may work just as well.
  • Have your ranged DPS and healers stand away from Kargath, loosely spread out. This will minimise the damage your raid takes from Blade Dance.
  • Make sure everyone is aware of the locations of the Fire Pillars, and is ready to avoid taking damage from them if/when Kargath activates them.
  • Make sure that raid members who are targeted by Berserker Rush run away from Kargath. Normally, they should kite Kargath into an active Fire Pillars so as to stop the Berserker Rush.
  • Make sure that no raid members end up coming too close to theRavenous Bloodmaws.

If you follow the above advice, your raid should take minimal damage from Blade Dance, since it should not really get a chance to damage more than the intended target at any one time.

Furthermore, this positioning ensures that Kargath never deactivates a Fire Pillar without being purposefully kited into it. This point is important, because every Berserker Rush will have to be stopped by kiting Kargath into a Pillar, as otherwise it is practically impossible to avoid being caught by him for the full 20 seconds (outside of very specific cases where some specialisations, with external assistance, might be able to do it).

Avoiding the Ravenous Bloodmaws should not be a problem, since there are no abilities in the fight that knock players back or otherwise forcefully move them. Therefore, the Bloodmaws are simply there to restrict movement in the arena.

Finally, players will have to deal with the two abilities cast by the adds in the stands.  Mauling Brew void zones will simply have to be avoided, while the unavoidable damage random raid members take from  Iron Bombs will have to be healed through.

As you will have noticed, we have not talked about Kargath's  Chain Hurl, because we discuss this in the subsequent section. The only thing worth mentioning about it now is that when Kargath casts this, he will move to the center of the arena, and once the cast is done, you will have to move back to your designated tanking location.

The Stands

Another important element of the fight is dealing with the adds in the stands. These adds spawn throughout the fight, and so, as the fight progresses, their numbers will increase. This means that they will become more and more of a problem for your raid.

 Sending Players Up

The standard strategy for the fight is to make use of Kargath's  Chain Hurl to send a team of 5 players up into the stands to deal with (at least some of) the adds. The ideal set-up will probably be one tank (the one debuffed by  Open Wounds), one healer, and 3 DPS players with low ramp-up times. Depending on how much damage the adds do, you might be able to get away without sending a tank, and sending a 4th DPS player in the tank's stead, to increase the damage output.

In order to send your designated team up into the stands, make sure that they are the 5 nearest players at the end of Kargath's  Chain Hurl channel. Since the channel is quite long, melee DPS players (who are not part of the stands team) will probably want to spend a few seconds at melee range to do more damage, but it is important that they move away before the end of the channel.

In the Stands

There is no set rule about how long players should stay in the stands, or how many adds they should try to kill while they are there. This will depend on many factors, but the most important one will be your raid's overall DPS. If your raid's DPS is very high, you will be able to kill Kargath very quickly, before becoming overwhelmed by the adds. This allows players to spend less time in the stands, increasing DPS on Kargath even further. That said, raids that wish to play it safe will probably prefer to clear out as many of the adds in the stands as possible within 45 seconds.

Once in the stands, there is no set strategy to follow. Your DPS players should focus on killing the adds (where we believe that the Drunken Bileslingers are the biggest threat), while the tank will need to pick up any adds that are engaged, and face them away from the other players in the stands. All players in the stands will have to make sure not to be next to any dying Iron Bombers, so as to avoid taking damage from  Fire Bombs.

Abilities

  • Impale— Kargath skewers an enemy, inflicting 19,196 (LFR), 38,392 (Normal), 53,748 (Heroic) or 72,559 (Mythic) Physical damage every 1 sec. for 8 sec. If the target survives, they take increased damage from consecutive Impales.
  • Blade Dance — With blinding speed, Kargath rushes random targets every 2 sec. for 10 sec, doing 17,857 (LFR), 35,714 (Normal), 49,999 (Heroic) or 75,000 (Mythic) physical damage to anyone within 7 yards.
  • Berserker Rush — Kargath cuts his way towards you dealing 125% weapon damage to all targets in front of him, as well as increasing his physical damage done by 15% every 2 sec for 20 sec.
    • In Mythic difficulty, the raid gains favor for Roar of the Crowd the longer Kargath stays in Berserker Rush. However, if Kargath's fixate target dies, the raid loses a big chunk of favor.
  • Chain Hurl — Kargath uses his chain to lash the 5 closest enemies and toss them into the arena's stands.
    • In Looking for Raid difficulty, Kargath automatically tosses the tank with the highest amount of Open Wound stacks, one random healer, and three random DPS into the crowd.

Drunken Bileslinger

Drunken Bileslingers appear in the stands and throw Mauling Brew into the arena.

  • Mauling Brew — Hurls a mug of vile Mauling Brew into the arena, doing 37,265 (LFR), 56,551 (Normal), 81,551 (Heroic) or 136,549 (Mythic) Nature damage on impact and leaves a pool that inflicts 62500 Nature damage every 1 sec. for 30 sec.
  • Vile Breath — Vile Breath stuns targets located in front of the caster.
  • Heckle  — Reduces the favor within Roar of the Crowd.

Iron Bomber

Iron Bombers appear in the arena and hurl Iron Bombs into the raid.

  • Iron Bomb — Inflicts 11,372 (LFR), 21,193 (Normal), 29,049 (Heroic) or 44,551 (Mythic) Fire damage to an enemy and an additional 3,750 (LFR), 7,500 (Normal), 10,550 (Heroic) or 14,175 (Mythic) Fire damage every 2 sec. for 10 sec.
  • Fire Bomb — The bomb explodes, damaging everyone around it for 1,000 (LFR), 3,000 (Normal), 99,999 (Heroic) or 134,998 (Mythic) Fire damage.
  • Heckle  — Reduces the favor within Roar of the Crowd.

Iron Grunt

A seemingly endless throng of rowdy orcs.

  • In Mythic difficulty, killing Iron Grunts grants favor for Roar of the Crowd.
  • Grapple — Inflicts 7,150 (LFR), 14,300 (Normal), 20,000 (Heroic) or 27,000 (Mythic) Physical damage to the current target and reduces their movement speed by 25% for 4 sec.

Fire Pillar

A pillar of screaming skulls that belch a continuous stream of flames.

  • Flame Jet — Deals 31,500 (LFR), 62,500 (Normal), 87,500 (Heroic) or 118,125 (Mythic) Fire damage every 1 sec.
  • Flame Gout  — Inflicts 56,551 Fire damage to random targets every 5 sec.

Ravenous Bloodmaw (Normal, Heroic and Mythic)

Ravenous Bloodmaws prowl hungrily within their pits, waiting to maul anyone unfortunate enough to fall in.

  • In Mythic Difficulty, the Ravenous Bloodmaws are released from their pits. Setting these beasts on fire will gain favor for Roar of the Crowd.
  • On the Hunt  — The Ravenous Bloodmaw rushes towards its prey, intent on ripping flesh from bone.

Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp

At the start of the fight.

 

referene: icy-veins.com