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Introduction
Obviously, Al'ar is a Phoenix. He's big. He's bad. And he's flaming. Like any good Phoenix, he has two phases. During the first phase, Al'ar is up in the air - tank-able via the four platforms around the side of the room. The first phase ends when Al'ar's hitpoints are reduced to zero. After a few seconds, he is "reborn" and heals himself for full - beginning phase two. Phase two is conducted primarily on the ground. Bringing his hitpoints to zero again will kill him for good.
First of all, I want to dispel one big myth about Al'ar. Contrary to popular opinion, he requires zero fire resistance.
Second of all, he is completely immune to fire damage. On your first kill at least, your fire mages will need to respec to Frost.
Raid Setup
5 Tanks. You need 4 minimum. 5 tanks are recommended. They can be any class: druid, warrior, and paladins are all fine. However, I recommend that paladin tanks don't tank Al'ar for Phase One. Feral Charge and Intercept are needed after a Fire Quill (4 tanks is all you need for Phase 1, by the way. 5 tanks is pretty much necessary for Phase 2, however, though I'm sure some guilds will disagree).
8 Healers. 7-8 healers is good (Phase one is really easy to heal - five healers could probably do it. It's Phase Two that you really need to pump out a ton of healing in).
12 DPS. Four melee DPS, eight ranged DPS, ideally.
Gear Requirements
You'll need decent gear on this one, but it isn't really a gear check. This is a fight about coordination and communication - not gear. No special resists sets are needed. Phase One is pretty straightforward and easy. But, you need high DPS for Phase Two. Everyone should be well over 8k health buffed.
Tanks: Shoot for around 17k HP fully buffed. No FR is needed.
Melee DPS: 10k buffed HP is almost a must here. 750 sustained DPS, minimum. You'll be downing the adds, and you'll need to survive their death blast and kill them before new adds spawn.
Ranged DPS: 8k buffed HP needed. 800-900 sustained DPS.
Healers: Though it varies depending on the class - 1450 +healing, 110 mp5 while casting, or thereabouts. 8k buffed HP or so is needed.
Buffs and Consumables
Buffs: Standard. Pallies should have Fire Resistance Aura, though Shamans don't really need to worry too much about keeping their fire resistance totem up. No fire resistance is needed for this.
Potions: Use your flasks. Use your special buff-food. Use your mana pots. You'll need them all.
Stamina Foodis nice, for those of you casters under 8k. Healers need to be popping mana potions. Three ranks of healthstones is really helpful. Other than that, no other potions are necessary. (Some say that you need Fire Protection Potions. However, Fire Protection Potions are on the same cooldown as mana potions. Many players will do better to have that potion cooldown used for other items.)
Boss Abilities
Health 2,500,000 (needs to be killed twice, so effectively 5 million total)
Melee Average hits on a decently geared tank are between 4,200 and 5,800
Phase One
Overview
Al'ar begins in the air. During phase one, he will move from position to position clockwise on the upper ring around the room (usually every 30 seconds or so, though sometimes he doesn't move) - there are four positions total, as indicated on the map. Occasionally, he will go into the middle of the room and cast Fire Quill.
Flame Buffet
triggered by player actions. If no one is in melee range of Al'ar, he will cast Flame Buffet every 1.5 seconds, dealing 2,000 fire damage per cast and causing a debuff that increases fire damage taken by 10%. A raid can survive 3 Flame Buffets at the most before they will start to kill people. You NEED to be able to survive three in a row, if it happens.
Fire Quill
Boss ability, on no clear cooldown. Usually cast 2-4 times over the course of Phase One. Occasionally, Al'ar will fly to the middle of the room and start spinning around, throwing quills all over the upper platform. If you're caught on the upper platform during the Fire Quill, you will die. If Al'ar ever flies up to the center of the room, jump down immediately. After he's done casting Fire Quill, he will go to either position 1 or 4 - tanks need to be ready to pick him up. (As a note, you can not be standing on the ramps, either - Fire Quill hits them too. Tanks need to stand at the bottom of the ramp, on the floor, without actually stepping on the ramp itself.)
Summon Adds
Boss ability, 35-45 seconds, usually after a transition, Al'ar will summon one additional phoenix. They have around 70k hitpoints and don't hit too hard. When they die, however, they explode for around 7,000 damage and knockback - frequently causing fall damage. Keep the adds away from the raid!
Keep in mind that ranged DPS cannot pull aggro off of the main tank - so you can go nuts with DPS, if you like, and not pull aggro. However, if you're a mana user, you should save as much mana as possible for Phase 2.
Phase Two
Overview
After you "kill" Al'ar in Phase One, his body will teleport to the center of the room, and he will be reborn. He becomes a "normal" boss at this point, and tends to attack the person at the top of the aggro list from Phase One (usually a warlock). He is Taunt-able, however, so it shouldn't be a big deal to pick him up. He will summon adds when he casts his Dive Bomb ability, which need to be tanked: having two tanks is helpful here. When an add dies in Phase Two, Al'ar loses around 3% of his health.
Flame Buffet
Al'ar will chain-cast Flame Buffet as soon as he reappears after a Dive Bomb is cast, as well as after a random charge. (does 2,000 damage and increases fire damage taken by 10%). Make sure a tank is in melee range, targeting Al'ar, and attacking.
Dive Bomb (Formerly "Meteor")
30 second cooldown. Al'ar will occasionally fly up into the air and cast a meteor at a random target, dealing 5,000 damage, and summoning two adds. These adds are just like phase one adds. They need to be tanked and killed (when an add dies in Phase Two, Al'ar loses around 3% of his health). After casting Dive Bomb, Al'ar will reappear where it landed and cast Flame Buffet until tanked.
Flame Patch
30 second cooldown. Al'ar will occasionally summon patches of flames on a random target. It deals 2,000 or so fire damage every second, and adds a stacking debuff that increases fire damage taken by 10%. It's brutal - avoid it. Your average raider won't survive 3 ticks. The highest HP ones won't survive 4.
Random Charge
30 second cooldown. Al'ar will randomly charge people in the raid and then sometimes cast Flame Buffet. Heal back the damage.
Melt Armor
Cast every 60 seconds. Alar will cast Melt Armor (60 second duration) on his current target, which decreases the armor of the target by 80%. A tank can usually only take one hit after Melt Armor is applied before dying. It is absolutely crucial that another tank Taunt Al'ar after Melt Armor is cast.
Strategy
Starting Positions
Have your position 1 main tank stand at position 1. Have the add offtank(s) and the melee stand at position 1, with the main tank - they can DPS the boss until the first add is spawned (at which time, they need to break off to their area by the entrance)
Note: Melee can pull aggro off of Al'ar - your rogues, DPS warriors, and feral druids need to go easy in those first 30 seconds, or they will pull aggro and die.
Have all ranged DPS in range of position 1 and position 2, so they aren't forced to move when Al'ar moves to position 2. Your other main tanks should be ready at positions 2 and 3.
The Pull
The main tank should pull using his ranged attack (feral druid: Faerie Fire, warrior: your ranged weapon). Hunters can Misdirect, so that melee DPS can do more damage without pulling aggro, but it isn't really necessary (Phase one is not a DPS race). Pulling aggro by ranged DPS is impossible, so they can go all out right away.
Phase One - Al'ar
The way Al'ar moves is critical to mastering Phase One. He is tanked in four positions. He flies around the room in a very predictable way, as indicated in the diagram. You should pull him to position 1. From there, after 30-45 seconds, he will move to position 2 and summon an add. After 30-45 seconds, he will move to position 3 and summon an add. After 30-45 seconds thereafter, he will move to position 4 and summon another add. After 30-45 seconds, he will fly across the room to position 1 and summon an add. A new tank must be ready at each position. Having three tanks "up top" is the best solution - you can cover all your bases easily (tanks - see "Perfecting Your Tanking Rotation During Phase One" below). If Al'ar is ever not tanked, he will chain-cast Flame Buffet until either everyone is dead or someone is in melee range.
He will sometimes fly into the middle of the room and use his Fire Quill ability. Your tanks must jump off the top platform or they will die. They must stand on the floor - and not on the ramp. After the Fire Quill, Al'ar will move to either Position 1 or Position 4. A tank needs to immedidately run up the ramp and Intercept. The raid will take 1-3 Flame Buffets during the time it takes for a tank to get to Al'ar this way.
Tanks - See "Perfecting Your Tanking Rotation During Phase One" below.
Ranged DPS on Al'ar. Melee on the Adds.
The Adds
The Adds need to be tanked and killed in the southern part of the room (near the entrance, away from the raid). Keep your melee DPS on them: four DPS-ers should be fine. One or two tanks on the adds. This group tends to get separated from the rest of the raid, so you definitely need to give them a dedicated healer. When the adds die, they explode - dealing 7k damage or so and knocking everyone around them back a good deal. Only one person should be eating the explosion. Having a rogue finish off an add while using Cloak of Shadows is a good idea. The best way to kill them is to have a rogue save up combo points for a stun when the add is at 3-5% - saving a bit of energy too - then using Cloak of Shadows and killing the add. They will resist the explosion and save themselves from taking damage. Have your rogues coordinate (i.e., make a simple Cloak of Shadows rotation) so that most of the adds are able to be killed this way.
Note: Never tank an add anywhere near the ramp. You'll cause yourself many headaches. Tanks run up that platform throughout the fight - and after a Fire Quill, they need to get there ASAP - you don't want to kill your tank by having an add die right as he's running by!
Killing Al'ar will trigger Phase Two. NOTE: When Al'ar rebirths, anyone around him gets punted a good distance. Don't stand on top of his body.
Phase Two
Phase two is VERY mobile. Tanks, healers, and DPS need to be moving the entire time. A diagram isn't really helpful here, because of the mobility of this phase of encounter. I've included an example of what Phase Two could look like. Here are the guidelines:
Tanking Al'ar
You need at least two tanks on Al'ar (three is best, in case one tank dies or a Taunt is resisted). One tank will hold aggro on Al'ar until he casts Melt Armor on that tank - another tank needs to Taunt the instant this happens. Due to resists on Taunts, three tanks is necessary for a reliable execution. Furthermore, these tanks need to be very vigilant on getting away from Flame Patches.
When a Tank gets a Flame Patch right on top of him, he needs to move himself out of it as quick as possible. Al'ar's movement is strange in Phase 2. The vast majority of the time, he is drag-able with no problem. Sometimes, however, a tank will attempt to drag him and he will start casting Flame Buffet. In that case, rotate around Al'ar, staying in melee range but strafing out of the fire. Al'ar's tank just needs to be on his toes and ready to react.
Also, after Al'ar charges, be sure to charge right back after him - he will usually cast Flame Buffet after a charge. After Al'ar casts Dive Bomb, he will reappear where the Dive Bomb landed and start casting Flame Buffet. Charge him and tank him.
Tanking the Adds
The Dive Bomb (30 second cooldown boss ability) will also summon two adds. These adds should be off tanked and DPS-ed down by the melee DPS in your raid. Ideally, have one tank grabbing adds when they spawn (look for where the Dive Bomb falls to find the add). Then, have a warrior or feral druid Taunt an add off the first tank and DPS it down separately - making sure not to get hit by the explosion. Out of anyone else in the entire raid, these people can never take more than a couple of Flame Patch ticks. The +fire damage debuff the Flame Patch gives you plus the Flame Buffet +fire damage debuff will cause you to get one-shotted by the explosion. Also, make sure you never ever let the adds blow up where the rest of the raid is standing.
Note: Adds are going to start adding up. That's okay. Do your best to DPS them down as the rest of the raid DPSes Al'ar. Killing an add in phase 2 will cause Al'ar to lose 3% of his health - it's an important part of the fight that both diminishes damage taken on your off-tanks and does DPS to the boss. Be sure to kill them in a controlled fashion - just the same as Phase One.
Healers: Be mobile. You need to stick with your assignments and make sure they don't go down because you didn't keep up. Don't get tunnel vision. Keep moving and watching. Don't just plant yourself in one spot and heal - you'll get destroyed by Flame Patch, or your tank will die because he moved out of range at a bad moment.
Ranged DPS: Be mobile! Run away from Flame Patch. Keep yourself up with healthstones, health potions, and bandages if you need to. But most of all, burn down Al'ar as fast as possible.
Melee DPS: Don't you ever get hit with the explosion, if you can help it. Don't ever get hit with the Flame Patch.
Everyone: Stay spread out! Dive Bombs shouldn't hit more than one person. Flame Patches shouldn't cause more than one person to move.
Note: After a Dive Bomb falls, Al'ar respawns on the impact crater, punting anyone who was there a good distance - possibly killing them. Don't have that happen to you - and run away if the Dive Bomb falls on you.
Other Points
Healers
In Phase One, each healer needs to basically heal the tanks, but have separate responsibilities that they need to keep an eye on. It's super light healing so save your mana! Phase Two - a ton of damage gets thrown around here. Keep on top of it. Don't be shy about using mana potions/Innervate/Mana Tide/Shadowfiend/etc.
Phase One
Go easy on mana here.
1 healer = responsible for keeping the raid topped off (shamans and druids are great here).
3 healers = responsible for each of the three Al'ar tanks (if ever your tank is separate from the raid and is next in line for tanking Al'ar, you need to be there).
1 healer = needs to solo heal the add tank and the melee DPS there (in the south). A strong, competent healer is needed here.
3 healers = follow the Phoenix and heal the raid.
Phase Two
3 healers = Main Tanks. These healers need to be able to switch off and heal another tank at a moment's notice.
2 healers = Raid. The raid will take a ton of random damage. (Shamans/Druids/PoH Priest)
2-3 healers = Off Tanks. They will take a ton of damage, too.
Pop mana potions, be mobile, and listen to each other. Shamans - Chain Heal is your friend. Use it. Druids - Lifebloom is amazing now to keep multiple targets up. Use it.
DPS Warriors, Rogues, DPS Feral Druids
You're on the Adds. Always - except for the first 30 seconds of the fight, when no adds are up. If you've read this guide and don't get what you're supposed to do, there's something wrong with you.
Mages
Phase one has zero aggro for you. You can go nuts if you like. Save mana for Phase Two, though, where you really need to explode. Mages: Respec Frost for this.
Warlocks
Phase one has zero aggro for you. You can go nuts if you like. Please use an imp, if possible. The raid takes massive amounts of damage throughout the fight. The extra stamina from Blood Pact is quite nice here. Don't use fire spells. He's immune.
Hunters
Phase one has zero aggro for you. You can go nuts if you like. Save mana for Phase Two, though, where you really need to explode. You can use a pet for Phase One, but I advise you to not use it during Phase Two, where it will spawn Flame Patches near the tanks, which isn't a good thing.
Conclusion
This fight is all about execution. It's not really a gear check. If you can enter TK, you probably have good enough gear. If you understand the fight - and can run out of Flame Patches, not walk near an exploding add, not bunch up, heal who needs healing, and DPS what needs DPS-ing - you will win. Eventually, everything will come together, so long as everyone does their job.
Appendix: Perfecting Your Tanking Rotation During Phase One
The most important thing about positioning during Phase One is this: There MUST be a tank at any position Al'ar could fly to, so your three Al'ar tanks need to be communicating actively to make sure someone is going to be there, at each point.
Have your tanks coordinate before the fight. They should come up with an easy-to-use rotation to determine the location of each tank at any given moment. Here's what we did (but you don't have to copy it):
Ideally, rotation is: Tank A -> Tank B -> Tank C.
Pull: At the pull, Tank A should be at position one, Tank B should be at position two, and Tank C should be at position three.
Transition 1: (30-40 seconds into the fight) When Al'ar moves to position two, Tank B will pick him up there, Tank C will already be at position three, and Tank A should be in transit to position four (Note: it's usually faster for a tank who is at position one to get to position four by running down the ramp at position one, across the room, and up the ramp at position four).
Transition 2: (60-80 seconds into the fight) When Al'ar moves to position three, Tank C will pick him up there, Tank A will be ready at position four, and tank B should be in transit to position one.
Transition 3: (90-120 seconds into the fight) When Al'ar moves to position four, Tank A will pick him up there, Tank B should be ready at position one, and Tank C should be in transit to position two.
Transition 4: (120-160 seconds into the fight) When Al'ar moves to position one, Tank B will pick him up there, Tank C should be ready at position two, and Tank A should be in transit to position three.
And so on.
Flame Quill: When Al'ar moves to the center of the room, he will bombard the upper platform and ramps. Tanks must immediately get off the platform/ramps. After Al'ar is done bombing the upper room, he will move to either position 1 or 4. How do you know which tank should go where? Well, if a tank was at position 1 or 2 or moving to position 1 or 2, they need to be ready to charge up the ramp at position 1. If a tank was at position 3 or 4 or moving to position 3 or 4, they need to be ready to charge up the ramp at position 4.
How do know which tank (if there are two tanks at one ramp) should charge up? Make it easy on yourself and have both tanks charge up at the same time - there's no good reason not to, assuming you have healers with decent reaction times. Whichever tank gets ahold of Al'ar first should tank him, and the other tank should move on and be ready to tank Al'ar at the next unoccupied platform.
Here's an example: Let's say Al'ar is at position one being tanked by Tank C when he moves to the middle of the room (that means Tank A will be at position two and Tank B will be running to position three). Tank B should be at position FOUR, ready to charge up the ramp. Tanks C and A should be at position ONE, ready to charge up the ramp. Let's say Al'ar chooses to go to position one, and Tanks A and C charge up. Let's say Tank A gets ahold of Al'ar first. Tank C should then move to position two, and Tank B should be running to position three.
Make sense? Good! Don't worry too much, this sounds complicated, but it's actually quite simple. The moral of the story is to make sure tanks aren't doubling up on each other and that Flame Quill is taken care of. Communication is key here.
One final word on tanking in Phase One: Have your tanks use Ventrilo or Teamspeak. They need to be actively communicating and watching to make sure that every tank is where he needs to be.
Introduction
Obviously, Al'ar is a Phoenix. He's big. He's bad. And he's flaming. Like any good Phoenix, he has two phases. During the first phase, Al'ar is up in the air - tank-able via the four platforms around the side of the room. The first phase ends when Al'ar's hitpoints are reduced to zero. After a few seconds, he is "reborn" and heals himself for full - beginning phase two. Phase two is conducted primarily on the ground. Bringing his hitpoints to zero again will kill him for good.
First of all, I want to dispel one big myth about Al'ar. Contrary to popular opinion, he requires zero fire resistance.
Second of all, he is completely immune to fire damage. On your first kill at least, your fire mages will need to respec to Frost.
Raid Setup
5 Tanks. You need 4 minimum. 5 tanks are recommended. They can be any class: druid, warrior, and paladins are all fine. However, I recommend that paladin tanks don't tank Al'ar for Phase One. Feral Charge and Intercept are needed after a Fire Quill (4 tanks is all you need for Phase 1, by the way. 5 tanks is pretty much necessary for Phase 2, however, though I'm sure some guilds will disagree).
8 Healers. 7-8 healers is good (Phase one is really easy to heal - five healers could probably do it. It's Phase Two that you really need to pump out a ton of healing in).
12 DPS. Four melee DPS, eight ranged DPS, ideally.
Gear Requirements
You'll need decent gear on this one, but it isn't really a gear check. This is a fight about coordination and communication - not gear. No special resists sets are needed. Phase One is pretty straightforward and easy. But, you need high DPS for Phase Two. Everyone should be well over 8k health buffed.
Tanks: Shoot for around 17k HP fully buffed. No FR is needed.
Melee DPS: 10k buffed HP is almost a must here. 750 sustained DPS, minimum. You'll be downing the adds, and you'll need to survive their death blast and kill them before new adds spawn.
Ranged DPS: 8k buffed HP needed. 800-900 sustained DPS.
Healers: Though it varies depending on the class - 1450 +healing, 110 mp5 while casting, or thereabouts. 8k buffed HP or so is needed.
Buffs and Consumables
Buffs: Standard. Pallies should have Fire Resistance Aura, though Shamans don't really need to worry too much about keeping their fire resistance totem up. No fire resistance is needed for this.
Potions: Use your flasks. Use your special buff-food. Use your mana pots. You'll need them all.
Stamina Foodis nice, for those of you casters under 8k. Healers need to be popping mana potions. Three ranks of healthstones is really helpful. Other than that, no other potions are necessary. (Some say that you need Fire Protection Potions. However, Fire Protection Potions are on the same cooldown as mana potions. Many players will do better to have that potion cooldown used for other items.)
Boss Abilities
Health 2,500,000 (needs to be killed twice, so effectively 5 million total)
Melee Average hits on a decently geared tank are between 4,200 and 5,800
Phase One
Overview
Al'ar begins in the air. During phase one, he will move from position to position clockwise on the upper ring around the room (usually every 30 seconds or so, though sometimes he doesn't move) - there are four positions total, as indicated on the map. Occasionally, he will go into the middle of the room and cast Fire Quill.
Flame Buffet
triggered by player actions. If no one is in melee range of Al'ar, he will cast Flame Buffet every 1.5 seconds, dealing 2,000 fire damage per cast and causing a debuff that increases fire damage taken by 10%. A raid can survive 3 Flame Buffets at the most before they will start to kill people. You NEED to be able to survive three in a row, if it happens.
Fire Quill
Boss ability, on no clear cooldown. Usually cast 2-4 times over the course of Phase One. Occasionally, Al'ar will fly to the middle of the room and start spinning around, throwing quills all over the upper platform. If you're caught on the upper platform during the Fire Quill, you will die. If Al'ar ever flies up to the center of the room, jump down immediately. After he's done casting Fire Quill, he will go to either position 1 or 4 - tanks need to be ready to pick him up. (As a note, you can not be standing on the ramps, either - Fire Quill hits them too. Tanks need to stand at the bottom of the ramp, on the floor, without actually stepping on the ramp itself.)
Summon Adds
Boss ability, 35-45 seconds, usually after a transition, Al'ar will summon one additional phoenix. They have around 70k hitpoints and don't hit too hard. When they die, however, they explode for around 7,000 damage and knockback - frequently causing fall damage. Keep the adds away from the raid!
Keep in mind that ranged DPS cannot pull aggro off of the main tank - so you can go nuts with DPS, if you like, and not pull aggro. However, if you're a mana user, you should save as much mana as possible for Phase 2.
Overview
After you "kill" Al'ar in Phase One, his body will teleport to the center of the room, and he will be reborn. He becomes a "normal" boss at this point, and tends to attack the person at the top of the aggro list from Phase One (usually a warlock). He is Taunt-able, however, so it shouldn't be a big deal to pick him up. He will summon adds when he casts his Dive Bomb ability, which need to be tanked: having two tanks is helpful here. When an add dies in Phase Two, Al'ar loses around 3% of his health.
Flame Buffet
Al'ar will chain-cast Flame Buffet as soon as he reappears after a Dive Bomb is cast, as well as after a random charge. (does 2,000 damage and increases fire damage taken by 10%). Make sure a tank is in melee range, targeting Al'ar, and attacking.
Dive Bomb (Formerly "Meteor")
30 second cooldown. Al'ar will occasionally fly up into the air and cast a meteor at a random target, dealing 5,000 damage, and summoning two adds. These adds are just like phase one adds. They need to be tanked and killed (when an add dies in Phase Two, Al'ar loses around 3% of his health). After casting Dive Bomb, Al'ar will reappear where it landed and cast Flame Buffet until tanked.
Flame Patch
30 second cooldown. Al'ar will occasionally summon patches of flames on a random target. It deals 2,000 or so fire damage every second, and adds a stacking debuff that increases fire damage taken by 10%. It's brutal - avoid it. Your average raider won't survive 3 ticks. The highest HP ones won't survive 4.
Random Charge
30 second cooldown. Al'ar will randomly charge people in the raid and then sometimes cast Flame Buffet. Heal back the damage.
Melt Armor
Cast every 60 seconds. Alar will cast Melt Armor (60 second duration) on his current target, which decreases the armor of the target by 80%. A tank can usually only take one hit after Melt Armor is applied before dying. It is absolutely crucial that another tank Taunt Al'ar after Melt Armor is cast.
Strategy
Starting Positions
Have your position 1 main tank stand at position 1. Have the add offtank(s) and the melee stand at position 1, with the main tank - they can DPS the boss until the first add is spawned (at which time, they need to break off to their area by the entrance)
Note: Melee can pull aggro off of Al'ar - your rogues, DPS warriors, and feral druids need to go easy in those first 30 seconds, or they will pull aggro and die.
Have all ranged DPS in range of position 1 and position 2, so they aren't forced to move when Al'ar moves to position 2. Your other main tanks should be ready at positions 2 and 3.
The Pull
The main tank should pull using his ranged attack (feral druid: Faerie Fire, warrior: your ranged weapon). Hunters can Misdirect, so that melee DPS can do more damage without pulling aggro, but it isn't really necessary (Phase one is not a DPS race). Pulling aggro by ranged DPS is impossible, so they can go all out right away.
Phase One - Al'ar
The way Al'ar moves is critical to mastering Phase One. He is tanked in four positions. He flies around the room in a very predictable way, as indicated in the diagram. You should pull him to position 1. From there, after 30-45 seconds, he will move to position 2 and summon an add. After 30-45 seconds, he will move to position 3 and summon an add. After 30-45 seconds thereafter, he will move to position 4 and summon another add. After 30-45 seconds, he will fly across the room to position 1 and summon an add. A new tank must be ready at each position. Having three tanks "up top" is the best solution - you can cover all your bases easily (tanks - see "Perfecting Your Tanking Rotation During Phase One" below). If Al'ar is ever not tanked, he will chain-cast Flame Buffet until either everyone is dead or someone is in melee range.
He will sometimes fly into the middle of the room and use his Fire Quill ability. Your tanks must jump off the top platform or they will die. They must stand on the floor - and not on the ramp. After the Fire Quill, Al'ar will move to either Position 1 or Position 4. A tank needs to immedidately run up the ramp and Intercept. The raid will take 1-3 Flame Buffets during the time it takes for a tank to get to Al'ar this way.
Tanks - See "Perfecting Your Tanking Rotation During Phase One" below.
Ranged DPS on Al'ar. Melee on the Adds.
The Adds
The Adds need to be tanked and killed in the southern part of the room (near the entrance, away from the raid). Keep your melee DPS on them: four DPS-ers should be fine. One or two tanks on the adds. This group tends to get separated from the rest of the raid, so you definitely need to give them a dedicated healer. When the adds die, they explode - dealing 7k damage or so and knocking everyone around them back a good deal. Only one person should be eating the explosion. Having a rogue finish off an add while using Cloak of Shadows is a good idea. The best way to kill them is to have a rogue save up combo points for a stun when the add is at 3-5% - saving a bit of energy too - then using Cloak of Shadows and killing the add. They will resist the explosion and save themselves from taking damage. Have your rogues coordinate (i.e., make a simple Cloak of Shadows rotation) so that most of the adds are able to be killed this way.
Note: Never tank an add anywhere near the ramp. You'll cause yourself many headaches. Tanks run up that platform throughout the fight - and after a Fire Quill, they need to get there ASAP - you don't want to kill your tank by having an add die right as he's running by!
Killing Al'ar will trigger Phase Two. NOTE: When Al'ar rebirths, anyone around him gets punted a good distance. Don't stand on top of his body.
Phase Two
Phase two is VERY mobile. Tanks, healers, and DPS need to be moving the entire time. A diagram isn't really helpful here, because of the mobility of this phase of encounter. I've included an example of what Phase Two could look like. Here are the guidelines:
Tanking Al'ar
You need at least two tanks on Al'ar (three is best, in case one tank dies or a Taunt is resisted). One tank will hold aggro on Al'ar until he casts Melt Armor on that tank - another tank needs to Taunt the instant this happens. Due to resists on Taunts, three tanks is necessary for a reliable execution. Furthermore, these tanks need to be very vigilant on getting away from Flame Patches.
When a Tank gets a Flame Patch right on top of him, he needs to move himself out of it as quick as possible. Al'ar's movement is strange in Phase 2. The vast majority of the time, he is drag-able with no problem. Sometimes, however, a tank will attempt to drag him and he will start casting Flame Buffet. In that case, rotate around Al'ar, staying in melee range but strafing out of the fire. Al'ar's tank just needs to be on his toes and ready to react.
Also, after Al'ar charges, be sure to charge right back after him - he will usually cast Flame Buffet after a charge. After Al'ar casts Dive Bomb, he will reappear where the Dive Bomb landed and start casting Flame Buffet. Charge him and tank him.
The Dive Bomb (30 second cooldown boss ability) will also summon two adds. These adds should be off tanked and DPS-ed down by the melee DPS in your raid. Ideally, have one tank grabbing adds when they spawn (look for where the Dive Bomb falls to find the add). Then, have a warrior or feral druid Taunt an add off the first tank and DPS it down separately - making sure not to get hit by the explosion. Out of anyone else in the entire raid, these people can never take more than a couple of Flame Patch ticks. The +fire damage debuff the Flame Patch gives you plus the Flame Buffet +fire damage debuff will cause you to get one-shotted by the explosion. Also, make sure you never ever let the adds blow up where the rest of the raid is standing.
Note: Adds are going to start adding up. That's okay. Do your best to DPS them down as the rest of the raid DPSes Al'ar. Killing an add in phase 2 will cause Al'ar to lose 3% of his health - it's an important part of the fight that both diminishes damage taken on your off-tanks and does DPS to the boss. Be sure to kill them in a controlled fashion - just the same as Phase One.
Healers: Be mobile. You need to stick with your assignments and make sure they don't go down because you didn't keep up. Don't get tunnel vision. Keep moving and watching. Don't just plant yourself in one spot and heal - you'll get destroyed by Flame Patch, or your tank will die because he moved out of range at a bad moment.
Ranged DPS: Be mobile! Run away from Flame Patch. Keep yourself up with healthstones, health potions, and bandages if you need to. But most of all, burn down Al'ar as fast as possible.
Melee DPS: Don't you ever get hit with the explosion, if you can help it. Don't ever get hit with the Flame Patch.
Everyone: Stay spread out! Dive Bombs shouldn't hit more than one person. Flame Patches shouldn't cause more than one person to move.
Note: After a Dive Bomb falls, Al'ar respawns on the impact crater, punting anyone who was there a good distance - possibly killing them. Don't have that happen to you - and run away if the Dive Bomb falls on you.
Other Points
Healers
In Phase One, each healer needs to basically heal the tanks, but have separate responsibilities that they need to keep an eye on. It's super light healing so save your mana! Phase Two - a ton of damage gets thrown around here. Keep on top of it. Don't be shy about using mana potions/Innervate/Mana Tide/Shadowfiend/etc.
Phase One
Go easy on mana here.
1 healer = responsible for keeping the raid topped off (shamans and druids are great here).
3 healers = responsible for each of the three Al'ar tanks (if ever your tank is separate from the raid and is next in line for tanking Al'ar, you need to be there).
1 healer = needs to solo heal the add tank and the melee DPS there (in the south). A strong, competent healer is needed here.
3 healers = follow the Phoenix and heal the raid.
Phase Two
3 healers = Main Tanks. These healers need to be able to switch off and heal another tank at a moment's notice.
2 healers = Raid. The raid will take a ton of random damage. (Shamans/Druids/PoH Priest)
2-3 healers = Off Tanks. They will take a ton of damage, too.
Pop mana potions, be mobile, and listen to each other. Shamans - Chain Heal is your friend. Use it. Druids - Lifebloom is amazing now to keep multiple targets up. Use it.
DPS Warriors, Rogues, DPS Feral Druids
You're on the Adds. Always - except for the first 30 seconds of the fight, when no adds are up. If you've read this guide and don't get what you're supposed to do, there's something wrong with you.
Mages
Phase one has zero aggro for you. You can go nuts if you like. Save mana for Phase Two, though, where you really need to explode. Mages: Respec Frost for this.
Warlocks
Phase one has zero aggro for you. You can go nuts if you like. Please use an imp, if possible. The raid takes massive amounts of damage throughout the fight. The extra stamina from Blood Pact is quite nice here. Don't use fire spells. He's immune.
Hunters
Phase one has zero aggro for you. You can go nuts if you like. Save mana for Phase Two, though, where you really need to explode. You can use a pet for Phase One, but I advise you to not use it during Phase Two, where it will spawn Flame Patches near the tanks, which isn't a good thing.
Conclusion
This fight is all about execution. It's not really a gear check. If you can enter TK, you probably have good enough gear. If you understand the fight - and can run out of Flame Patches, not walk near an exploding add, not bunch up, heal who needs healing, and DPS what needs DPS-ing - you will win. Eventually, everything will come together, so long as everyone does their job.
Appendix: Perfecting Your Tanking Rotation During Phase One
The most important thing about positioning during Phase One is this: There MUST be a tank at any position Al'ar could fly to, so your three Al'ar tanks need to be communicating actively to make sure someone is going to be there, at each point.
Have your tanks coordinate before the fight. They should come up with an easy-to-use rotation to determine the location of each tank at any given moment. Here's what we did (but you don't have to copy it):
Ideally, rotation is: Tank A -> Tank B -> Tank C.
Pull: At the pull, Tank A should be at position one, Tank B should be at position two, and Tank C should be at position three.
Transition 1: (30-40 seconds into the fight) When Al'ar moves to position two, Tank B will pick him up there, Tank C will already be at position three, and Tank A should be in transit to position four (Note: it's usually faster for a tank who is at position one to get to position four by running down the ramp at position one, across the room, and up the ramp at position four).
Transition 2: (60-80 seconds into the fight) When Al'ar moves to position three, Tank C will pick him up there, Tank A will be ready at position four, and tank B should be in transit to position one.
Transition 3: (90-120 seconds into the fight) When Al'ar moves to position four, Tank A will pick him up there, Tank B should be ready at position one, and Tank C should be in transit to position two.
Transition 4: (120-160 seconds into the fight) When Al'ar moves to position one, Tank B will pick him up there, Tank C should be ready at position two, and Tank A should be in transit to position three.
And so on.
Flame Quill: When Al'ar moves to the center of the room, he will bombard the upper platform and ramps. Tanks must immediately get off the platform/ramps. After Al'ar is done bombing the upper room, he will move to either position 1 or 4. How do you know which tank should go where? Well, if a tank was at position 1 or 2 or moving to position 1 or 2, they need to be ready to charge up the ramp at position 1. If a tank was at position 3 or 4 or moving to position 3 or 4, they need to be ready to charge up the ramp at position 4.
How do know which tank (if there are two tanks at one ramp) should charge up? Make it easy on yourself and have both tanks charge up at the same time - there's no good reason not to, assuming you have healers with decent reaction times. Whichever tank gets ahold of Al'ar first should tank him, and the other tank should move on and be ready to tank Al'ar at the next unoccupied platform.
Here's an example: Let's say Al'ar is at position one being tanked by Tank C when he moves to the middle of the room (that means Tank A will be at position two and Tank B will be running to position three). Tank B should be at position FOUR, ready to charge up the ramp. Tanks C and A should be at position ONE, ready to charge up the ramp. Let's say Al'ar chooses to go to position one, and Tanks A and C charge up. Let's say Tank A gets ahold of Al'ar first. Tank C should then move to position two, and Tank B should be running to position three.
Make sense? Good! Don't worry too much, this sounds complicated, but it's actually quite simple. The moral of the story is to make sure tanks aren't doubling up on each other and that Flame Quill is taken care of. Communication is key here.
One final word on tanking in Phase One: Have your tanks use Ventrilo or Teamspeak. They need to be actively communicating and watching to make sure that every tank is where he needs to be.
