Tempest Keep - The Eye

[yaZuo]

Tempest Keep is a former naaru fortress in the Netherstorm in Outland. This crystalline fortress is now ruled by Kael'thas Sunstrider, the lord of the blood elves, and dominated by scores of his brethren. The structure is divided into three wings - satellites of the gigantic structure - with the fourth wing, the Exodar, now in the world of Azeroth as the Draenei capital.

The mighty Tempest Keep was created by the enigmatic Naaru: sapient beings of pure energy and the sworn enemies of the Burning Legion. As a base of operations for the Naaru, the structure itself possesses the technology to teleport through alternate dimensions, traveling from one location to another in the blink of an eye.

With Outland serving as the strategic battlefront in the ongoing Burning Crusade, the Naaru recently used Tempest Keep to reach the shattered land. However, when the Naaru set out from their stronghold, Prince Kael’thas and his blood elves quickly raided the dimensional fortress and assumed control over its satellite structures.

Now, guided by some unknown purpose, Kael’thas manipulates the keep’s otherworldly technologies, using them to harness the chaotic energies of the Netherstorm itself.

Though Kael’thas and his minions maintain a tight hold on the keep, a band of Draenei recently hijacked one of its satellite structures, the Exodar, and used it to escape Outland. In seeking out other worlds, the Draenei, led by the ancient prophet, Velen, hoped to find allies who would stand with them against the Legion and its nihilistic Crusade.

[yaZuo]

Al'ar
Al'ar is the first seen boss of the Eye in Tempest Keep. It is Kael'thas Sunstrider's phoenix and pet. This boss is more often than not skipped at first and attempted after Void Reaver because of Void Reaver's lesser difficulty.

This is a heavy mobility fight. Contrary to popular belief, no amount of fire resistance is generally needed for the fight. It may help certain individuals (eg. the tank that handles the Embers) but you should avoid sacrificing more important statistics. Fire protection potions are helpful if their use is timed properly.

Phase I is straightforward.

Al'ar will always fly to the left ramp when pulled. A tank needs to wait there to avoid Flame Buffet.

During this phase it is impossible to draw aggro at range; like Ragnaros, Al'ar will not aggro on people outside melee range. Melee can draw aggro from tanks, however. Al'ar spends around 30 seconds on each platform, then moves on to the next, flying clockwise (W, NW, NE, E, repeat). Tanks should stay on the edge of their platform to maintain line of sight with the healers. Two tanks is enough for this simple rotation, but three makes it easier to react to Flame Quill.

Al'ar will summon an add every time it switches position. This add spawns at the very position it just left. The adds need to be off-tanked away from the rest of the raid and DPS'd down as soon as possible to keep the total number of spawned adds to a minimum. The adds do not deal much damage but explode on death for a significant amount of fire damage (healers should be prepared to respond as the adds approach death). They are immune to crowd control and fire damage.

The adds will generally fly to the healers, particularly if a paladin keeps Righteous Fury up; have an off-tank waiting downstairs to pick them up. It is usually a good idea to have the melee DPS take care of these adds, since they can't move fast enough to keep steady DPS on the boss herself, but be very careful with the explosions. Note that these adds can be stunned, and a useful technique is for a rogue to save up 5 combo points, wait for the add to get low on health (around 4%), stun the add while everyone else moves away, and then use Cloak of Shadows and finish off the add.

Occasionally when leaving a platform, Al'ar will fly to the center of the room and begin spinning, which signals the upcoming Flame Quills. Every person in the raid needs to be aware and fall down from the upper platform, especially the tanks, since anyone left there will take 6-8k fire damage per second. People standing on the outside of the room on the floor (south near the entry door) are also susceptible. Unobservant tanks will be killed very quickly by this ability, most likely causing a wipe (if no soulstone was set). So whenever Al'ar is about to leave a platform, rotate the camera appropriately to keep an eye on the movement. Don't just run blindly to the next platform, wait a bit to see where exactly Al'ar goes next.

Once the Quill ends, Al'ar will land on platform 1 or 4. One tank needs to be positioned on each side, at the base of the ramp, ready to quickly reach their platform before Al'ar does more than two buffets. Intercept is useful. A third tank can be helpful here; if you have only two tanks, and both are on the same side of the room as Al'ar leaves a platform to start Flame Quills, they may have trouble crossing the room to reach the far platform. Priests can summon their shadow fiend up to Al'ar if the tank is having trouble getting to the platform in time to minimize buffets.

Between handling adds and avoiding the Flame Quills, heavy DPS needs to be put out on the boss. In an ideal scenario, Al'ar should die within 2-3 flight cycles.

Alternatively, you can "save" the phase 1 adds for phase two (when the enrage timer becomes important). Have melee bring each add to 10% and have a warrior spam Demoralizing Shout and Thunderclap. If you have access to a Paladin tank, they can solo the adds from phase 1 to 10%-20% by spamming Consecration and Holy Shield. The tank will have about 10 adds on him by the end. The damage is difficult to heal through, but not dangerous if the healers pay attention. Once Al'ar has respawned at the start of phase 2, use AoE to kill all the adds simultaneously, and Al'ar will lose about 20% HP instantly. The add tank will usually be knocked away by the first explosion and should not take damage from any of the others; however it is possible to be hit by several and killed. Therefore, it is sensible to Soulstone him. The add tank could also use a Major Fire Protection Potion before the first add explodes, to avoid high peak damage.

Phase II begins right after Al'ar reaches 0%. At this point it will explode for ~5000 fire damage with AoE knockback and reappear roughly at the center of the room, where it will cast a powerful AoE knockback with fire damage. After this, it must be immediately tanked or it will start casting its flame buffets once again. Phase II is not an aggro wipe and Al'ar should fly to the top threat person. But it may decide to stay put and cast flame buffet if not picked up immediately. In case there are still some adds up from phase I, raid should focus on getting them down as soon as possible, preferably before Al'ar casts the first Dive Bomb. Other than that, phase II is all about survivability. Melee DPS should focus on the boss while ranged DPS focuses on the adds and then Al'ar if no adds exist.

While being on the ground, it will occasionally spawn flame patches on random people that work in a similar fashion to void zones. People need to be aware and move away from the fire trails as soon as possible. Al'ar can charge people for 5000 damage leaving them momentarily stunned. It usually flies back to its previous target but can sometimes remain next to the charged target and cast flame buffet until taunted.

It also casts a Melt Armor debuff on the current MT every 60 seconds. The other tank must taunt immediately when this happens. Having both tanks wear a high amount of +hit helps a lot. Al'ar's melee damage is fairly weak, so reaching the hit cap is more important than damage mitigation. Note that the current MT can use [Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch] every time the debuff is applied. After Dive Bomb, Al'ar sometimes targets the tank having Melt Armor, so the current MT should be ready to taunt, and never move too far away from the other tank. A Warrior MT can also Intervene. While most boss mods will announce when Melt Armor is cast and its duration, it will be beneficial to many to announce this over Vent or Teamspeak. Healers must be ready to change targets when needed.

Last but not least, while airborne, it will cast Dive Bomb on a seemingly random target. The Meteor does about ~5000 fire damage on a single target and should be survivable or avoided by running from the area. Using consumables/abilities that can mitigate this sort of damage (fire protection potions, ice barrier, mana shield, barkskin etc) is also recommended. People should be aware of the fact that Al'ar spawns with an AoE fire knockback where the meteor hits the ground as well as with two ember adds, so your raid should move away from that spot as soon as possible. The adds spawn immediately when the meteor hits the ground, whereas Al'ar spawns roughly 2 seconds afterwards, giving a small window to pull the adds out without accidentally hitting or taunting Al'ar. Failure to do so will result in them being knocked across the room taking both fire damage and potentially some falling damage. Also be sure to NOT kill adds during a meteor or Al'ar won't take the 2% damage from its death.

Note: Everyone should stay off the ramps and in the room completely, if Al'ar targets a person for Dive Bomb while they are on the ramps, Al'ar will evade glitch and go back to full health.

Loot here is
Arcanite Steam-Pistol
Claw of the Phoenix
Gloves of the Searing Grip
Talon of the Phoenix

[yaZuo]

Void Reaver

Void Reaver is the second boss in the Eye of Tempest Keep. It is a Fel Reaver guardian. Since it is a rather simple fight (probably easier than High King Maulgar or Prince Malchezaar), it has earned the nicknames "Loot Reaver" and "lolcats Reaver". The only pre-condition is that the raid's total DPS be high enough to kill it prior to its enrage (after 10 minutes).

The melee group fights in the center of the room.

Ranged and healers stay in a wide circle around the boss, at the maximum range of their abilities, in order to maximize available space and travel time for the Arcane Orbs. Well-geared Resto Shaman can consider staying with the melee group - this means that they take Pounding damage too, but never have to interrupt their Chain Heal spam to evade Arcane Orbs. This tactic also works with a decently geared priest in the melee, as Prayer of Healing easily heals through the damage while conserving mana.

loot from him is
Pauldrons of the Vanquished Champion
Warp-Spring Coil

[yaZuo]

High Astromancer Solarian
High Astromancer Solarian is the third boss of the Eye in Tempest Keep. She is a level ?? (boss) mage, but is attired in Voidheart Raiment, the Tier 4 armor for warlocks, (most likely due to the fact that she transforms into a giant Voidwalker towards the end of her fight.)

Since most of the damage dealt to the raid is arcane, some arcane resistance will help. It's a good idea if everybody brings their Violet Badge. Players should not nerf themselves to obtain high amounts of resistance though.

Wrath of the Astromancer This is the main reason for wipes here. In irregular intervals, Solarian casts this debuff on a random raid member. The affected player immediately deals continuous AoE damage to others for 6 seconds, and then explodes. The AoE damage is a fixed amount, distributed evenly to all targets in range (thus if many raid members are close, they take only low damage). The explosion deals 5400-6600 arcane damage to everyone in a 10 yard radius, and throws everybody affected by it high enough into the air for about 90% falling damage. Upon landing, the person with the debuff is protected against falling damage, while everybody else is usually killed.

Raid members receiving the debuff must immediately get clear from all other raid members. This is the single most important aspect of this fight. If people are slow in noticing they are the bomb, then the addon SolarianAlarm which turns the entire screen blue for those with the debuff, may be helpful.

Note: A Rogue's Cloak of Shadows and a Paladin's Divine Shield no longer trigger the explosion instantly, so using these abilities is now perfectly safe.

Every 50 seconds, Solarian disappears and 12-15 non-elite adds spawn from three "light portals". After 15 seconds, she re-appears together with two elite priest adds, and Phase 1 starts again.

During the 15 seconds of phase 2, the whole raid should concentrate in the center of the room, and start all-out AoE. People need to be very quick here, because Solarian starts her usual phase 1 routine right after she reappears.

This need for high speed puts the AoE damage dealers at a high risk - they cannot allow a lot of time for the tanks to build aggro (but still need to do so, else they'll die right away).

After 15 seconds, Solarian and two priest adds spawn from the beams of light. It's possible to determine from which beam the boss spawns - it's the one which is exactly on the circular border, whereas the two other beams which are not exactly aligned with the border spawn priests.

The priest adds will begin casting either Holy Smite or a healing spell on themselves or Solarian. Two tank+rogue groups can split off on the priest adds and have the tank handle the damage from Holy Smites while the rogue uses Kick or Kidney Shot on any upcoming heals.

When Solarians health hits 20%, the fight turns into a simple "tank and spank" style combat (even if only a few raid members are alive the fight is usually won at this stage). She turns into a massive armored voidwalker and stops all of her former attacks. In that form, she has substantially increased armor, an arcane bolt attack and fears people in melee range. This fear can be avoided by the usual measures (Fear Ward, stance dance, tremor totem).

now for the Loot
Heartrazor
Vambraces of Ending

[yaZuo]

Kael'thas Sunstrider

LORE
The last of the Sunstrider dynasty, Kael'thas Sunstrider was the Prince of Quel'Thalas and a senior member of the Kirin Tor of Dalaran. After the death of his father, King Anasterian Sunstrider, and the destruction of most of Quel'Thalas, Kael'thas has led what remains of his people — first in the increasingly hostile Alliance, and then in the service of Illidan Stormrage — acting only for the benefit of his shattered homeland and its aggrieved people.

But Kael'thas now acknowledges a more sinister being as his master. Subsequent events have led him to betray Illidan, his own people, and existence itself...giving himself willingly to the service of the Burning Legion and its lord, Kil'jaeden the Deceiver.

Prince Kael'thas was a powerful mage and member of the Six, the shadowy high council of the Kirin Tor. Prior to the Second War, he and the other members of the high council questioned Khadgar about the orcs and the events in Karazhan that led to the death of Medivh.

Compassionate and caring, Kael'thas spent most of his time in Dalaran. During the Third War, with the Scourge invasion of Quel'Thalas, he evacuated as many survivors as he could and burned many of the enchanted forests to spite the Scourge. He assumed command over the bulk of the surviving high elves (see the fall of Quel'Thalas and Splintering) and renamed his followers blood elves in homage to their murdered brethren. All he feels now is hatred for the undead that ravaged his homeland, rage for the Alliance he feels failed his people, desperation over his people's collective addiction to magic, and grief for his ravaged kingdom.

As the last known surviving member of the Sunstrider dynasty, Kael'thas is the heir to the high elven crown but has yet to take it. Instead, he styles himself as the "Lord of the Blood Elves". He is proficient in siphoning magical energies from demons to feed his addiction and has taught his brethren to do the same. He salvaged the skull of his father, Anasterian, from the ruins of Quel'Thalas, enshrining it in Tempest Keep. The skull is among the artifacts that the red and green dragonflights would need to restore the Sunwell.

In battle, Kael'thas naturally relies foremost on his magic. However, he is also a skilled swordsman and wields the Flamestrike sword, the ancient runeblade of the Sunstrider House that was first wielded by his ancestor, Dath'Remar

Kael'thas, his advisors, and the phoenixes are immune to Taunt, Crowd Control and all snare or slow effects. The Weapons are susceptible to all of these effects.

The advisors enter Phase 1 with half of their normal HP. After they are resurrected for Phase 3 they are at full health.

Thaladred the Darkener
~560k health (~280k in P1)
Melee – 3-4k on plate plus 2.5k every tick for 12 seconds
Gaze – Fixes aggro to a random person in raid; 9 second cooldown
Psychic Blow – 4-5k damage plus knockback to his current target, 30 yard range
Silence – Silences anyone within 8 yards
Lord Sanguinar
~580k health (~290k in P1)
Melee – 3-4k on plate
Bellowing Roar – 35 yard AoE fear centered on himself, 1.5 second cast, no aggro reset
Grand Astromancer Capernian
~400k health (~200k in P1)
Fireball – 6-7k single-target fire damage
Conflagration – Randomly targets players within 30 yards; causes disorient effect with 600-900 damage per second plus 300 damage per second to all players within 8 yards of the debuffed player. Capernian will not attack players afflicted by conflagaration.
Arcane Explosion – 4.5k Arcane damage plus knockback and slow debuff; only used if players are in melee range
Master Engineer Telonicus
~550k health (~275k in P1)
Melee – ~5700 pre-mitigation
Bomb – 7-9k fire in a small AoE centered on current target's location, 1.5 second cast; not subject to miss or resistance; cast takes the place of a melee attack
Remote Toy – 60 sec debuff placed on a random player, periodically stuns the affected player for 4 seconds
Kael'thas Sunstrider
~3.6 million HP
Melee – ~4k on plate
Fireball – 2.5 sec cast, ~16-20k fire damage, interruptible
Flamestrike – 3 sec cast, ~120k AoE in a 6 yard radius plus 3k fire damage per second AoE for 8 sec in a 10 yard radius
Summon Phoenix – periodically summon a Phoenix
Arcane Disruption – 1750-2250 Arcane damage and a 10 second disorient to every raid member, 20 sec cooldown
Shock Barrier – a shield which absorbs 80,000 damage, lasts 10 seconds and prevents spells from being interrupted
Phase 4 specific abilities:

Mind Control – Mind controls 2-3 people in the raid
Pyroblast – 4 sec cast, 45k-55k fire damage, interruptible, 60 sec cooldown; begins casting immediately after casting Shock Barrier
Phase 5 specific abilities:

Gravity Lapse – All members of raid are teleported to him and then swim in the air for 30 sec
Nether Beam – 1850-2150 arcane damage to a random target, jumps to nearby players, damage doubled for each jump (similar to C'Thuns eye beam)
Nether Vapor – Small black clouds floating in the air near Kael'thas. If touched they add a stacking debuff which reduces max health by 10% each time, stacking up to 9 times, to 90% reduction.

This fight favors ranged damage dealers because there are mobs which are highly dangerous for melee (Thaladred and Capernian), and the Phoenix eggs are much easier killed by ranged (only 15 sec time to do 70k damage), melee lose too much time running to the egg.

The raid can leisurely kill each advisor. To make phase 3 easier, each advisor should be killed in a pre-planned location.

The advisors engage in the following order:

Thaladred the Darkener fixes aggro on ("sets his gaze on" emote) a raid member at all times, and, for the duration of the gaze, walks toward that target, who must run away and thus kite him while ranged DPS attack Thaladred. For brief intervals between gazes, or if the gaze target dies, Thaladred may melee or follow the target with the most threat. Nobody should be closer than 10 yards when a gaze shift takes place.
Lord Sanguinar is a simple tank and spank boss, made interesting only by his fear ability (which no longer resets aggro).
Grand Astromancer Capernian casts Arcane Explosion if there are people in melee range, making this another ranged-only fight. Conflagrate must be avoided by everybody except her tanks. One possible setup is to have a fire resist tank stand rather close to her (about 15 yards, still outside Arcane Explosion range) to eat the conflagrations, while a Warlock kills her from 30 yards away. Such a setup needs two healers on the warlock, and one on the fire tank. Alternately, she can be tanked by two warlocks which take turns - when one is conflagrated, the other takes over. Warlocks tanking her must not have Nether Protection, or she closes range, melees and casts Arcane Explosion after one of her spells is resisted.
Master Engineer Telonicus is probably the least dangerous of the advisors. His Remote Toy debuff is potentially fatal if active on a tank during phase 2 (significantly hampering threat generation and making positioning difficult), so delay killing Telonicus until no tank has the debuff. In phase 3, the debuff is made irrelevant by the staff's anti-stun aura.

After all advisors are dead, Kael'thas summons his arsenal of seven legendary weapons. By killing and looting these weapons all raid members can equip themselves with legendary weapons for the rest of the fight (the weapons are multi-drop but unique; one player can theoretically pick up one copy of each). Killing the weapons is a mixture of AoE and focus fire. There should be an AoE kill zone, where most of the weapons are held, while the remaining DPS concentrate on one weapon after the other. Here's an overview of the weapons in a reasonable kill order:

[Netherstrand Longbow] ~210k HP
Has a Multi-Shot attack, drops aggro if any melee or pet attack it. Preferably tanked by a hunter facing it away from the raid to avoid Multi-Shot hitting others. This is the most dangerous weapon and should be killed first by all hunters and ranged DPS which do not take part in the AoE.

[Staff of Disintegration] ~170k HP
Low melee damage, attacks with Frostbolt and Frost Nova. It likes to cast a Frost Nova, run away 10-15 yards and then start to Frostbolt. It's a highly desirable item because its "use" ability grants immunity to the Remote Toy debuff, and it increases the damage output of casters. It also has low HP and dies faster than the other weapons.

[Cosmic Infuser] ~280k HP
Low melee damage. Heals itself and friendly targets, which must be interrupted. The melee damage dealers should control and kill this first.

[Infinity Blade] ~210k HP
Hits normal but attacks very fast. Has a Thrash ability (similar to Prince Malchezaar's phase 2 ability) that grants it two extra attacks.

[Warp Slicer] ~290k HP
Hits for 1-1.5K every 2s on plate. Applies a stacking Rend DoT. Each stack ticks for an additional 500 damage every 3s for 15s; the Rend attack that applies the DoT can miss, be dodged or parried.

[Devastation] ~230k HP
Frequently Whirlwinds, which one-shots any non-tanks. Must be tanked slightly away from the other weapons, near the edge or even outside the AoE zone. Not very useful for most raid members, therefore it's not a problem if it doesn't die quickly.

[Phaseshift Bulwark] ~290k HP
Does high damage. Has a "shield spike"-like ability which when activated can reflect a lot of damage to a fast attacking melee DPSer. Also has much higher HP and armor than the other weapons. The tanks can manage phase 3 without it, but they must absolutely have it to tank Kael'thas in phase 4.

Weapon tank list:

Main Tank: Axe [Devastation]
Main Tank: Sword [Warp Slicer] + Shield [Phaseshift Bulwark]
Offtank #1: Mace [Cosmic Infuser] + Dagger [Infinity Blade]
Offtank #2: Staff [Staff of Disintegration]
Hunter: Bow [Netherstrand Longbow]
The weapon corpses despawn after 60 seconds, and the looted weapons disappear 15 minutes after being looted. Players also lose them when releasing (after a death) or when the encounter is reset.

It's not a big problem to have two weapons alive (e.g. the [Phaseshift Bulwark] and [Devastation]) when phase 3 starts.




Alternative Strategy for Phase 2: Some guilds believe that managing to get all weapons down before phase 3 is the basis for a perfect Kael'Thas kill. Suggested raid composition for this is 3 tanks 6 healers and 16 DPS players. The DPS composition should include at least 2 hunters, 3 mages and 3 warlocks.


As soon as the weapons spawn the main tank should grab the axe. The bow should be tanked by 2 hunters. The staff should be tanked by your off tank (A good position is behind Kael'Thas). A paladin tank can and should tank all the other weapons.


The Two hunters should be left alone to kill the bow. The mages and warlocks should start by nuking the axe. The Melee should take care of the staff very very fast. As soon as the staff is down the DPS you have assigned to the axe should change their focus to the group of weapons tanked by the protection paladin regardless if the axe is down or not (it will be finished later by the hunters). Additionally they should proceed in good order to loot the Staff one by one (if all of them rush to get it then the AoE on the group of weapons will be too low to take them down in time). At the same time the melee should focus on the cosmic infuser which will now be tanked by the tank that was on the staff (assign a rogue or two to stop it from healing).


As soon as the two hunters finish with the bow they should proceed to loot it and then finish off the axe (hence freeing the main tank for phase 3)


The AoE group should by now have started their AoE (with at least 40 seconds remaining). The moment the cosmic infuser comes down the tanking paladin should move a few yards back to allow the healers to loot easily at this point melee and the mace tank should nuke the shield.


The AoE should continue non stop with the addition that the mages and warlocks should now target the Phaseshift Bulwark (shield) and cast any instant spells they have (such as fire blast or a curse) so the can hasten the downing of the shield. Each time a weapon goes down the tankadin should move another 3 yards backwards to allow for easier loot.


The last two weapons that will go down are the Infinity blade and warp slicer (in that order). Two rogues and possibly a DPS warrior or an enhancement shaman should loot the infinity blade to use it in the mind controlled of the raid during phase 4.


If you have followed this tactic then the last weapon should go down just about the moment phase 3 starts. Such a smooth handling of weapons is the half of a very smooth performance in phase 3 and hence a very promising phase 4 and 5.

Loot?
Netherstrand Longbow
Infinity Blade
Warp Slicer
Chestguard of the Vanquished Champion
Band of the Ranger-General
Leggings of Murderous Intent
Twinblade of the Phoenix
Thalassian Wildercloak
Ashes of Al'ar