Obsidian Sanctum
Vesperon
In 25man Vesperon has about 2.2million hp and about 800,000hp in 10man. In both versions he will gain 25% more hp when engaged with Sartharion.
Abilities:
Shadow Breath - This ability has a 15 yard range and is a frontal cone attack. The drakes will use this roughly every 10-30secs and it has no cooldown which makes its use somewhat random. This attack hits for 8,500 - 10,000 (7-8k) Shadow damage. (The drake tank will need to be kept topped off and no one else should be getting hit by breath)
Shadow Fissure - This is a void zone attack and that has an obvious blue swirly animation before going off. It targets one random raid member and anyone caught in the blue swirls will have 5secs to move out of the animation before the Fissure "pops" and the damage is taken. They cause 9,500 - 13,500 (6-9k) Shadow damage to anyone caught in the blast after 5secs. The ability has a 5sec cooldown but is generally used every 8-10secs. (When you see the blue animation, IMMEDIATELY move out of the swirl and no damage will be taken)
Twilight Revenge - When attempting multi-drake Sarth, once the drake is killed Sartharion will gain 25% melee haste and 25% increased physical damage. This effect will stack up to 3 times.
Power of Vesperon - This aura reduces the health of all raid members by 25% for as long as Vesperon is alive.
Adds:
Acolyte of Vesperon - Inside the Twilight Portal Vesperon casts, these Acolytes will be waiting. They have roughly 325,000hp (100,000hp).
Twilight Torment - This debuff is applied to the entire raid, inside and outside of the portal and increases both Fire and Shadow damage taken by 75%. The debuff also causes anyone that deals dps to take 3-5k (2k) Shadow damage everytime they hit a mob, with a 1sec cooldown on the damage. (Healing through this becomes difficult but necessary since dps cannot slow down at this phase)
Shadron
In 25man Shadron has about 2.2million hp and about 800,000hp in 10man. In both versions he will gain 25% more hp when engaged with Sartharion.
Abilities:
Shadow Breath - This ability has a 15 yard range and is a frontal cone attack. The drakes will use this roughly every 10-30secs and it has no cooldown which makes its use somewhat random. This attack hits for 8,500 - 10,000 (7-8k) Shadow damage. (The drake tank will need to be kept topped off and no one else should be getting hit by breath)
Shadow Fissure - This is a void zone attack and that has an obvious blue swirly animation before going off. It targets one random raid member and anyone caught in the blue swirls will have 5secs to move out of the animation before the Fissure "pops" and the damage is taken. They cause 9,500 - 13,500 (6-9k) Shadow damage to anyone caught in the blast after 5secs. The ability has a 5sec cooldown but is generally used every 8-10secs. (When you see the blue animation, IMMEDIATELY move out of the swirl and no damage will be taken)
Twilight Revenge - When attempting multi-drake Sarth, once the drake is killed Sartharion will gain 25% melee haste and 25% increased physical damage. This effect will stack up to 3 times.
Power of Shadron - This aura will increase Fire damage taken by 100% across the entire raid for as long as Shadron is alive. (This will make Flame Tsunamis deadly and the Sarth tank will need to especially mind the Flame Breaths)
Adds:
Acolyte of Shadron - Inside the Twilight Portal Shadron casts, these Acolytes will be waiting. They have roughly 325,000hp (100,000hp).
Gift of Twilight - This ability will buff either Shadron (when killed alone) or Sartharon (in a multi-drake attempt) and reduces all damage taken by 100% as well as debuffing the mob's target (i.e. the MT) to take an additional 50% Fire damage. (Can be ignored and healed through until after Shadron dies, or the adds can be killed if you have enough dps to do so quickly)
Tenebron
In 25man Tenebron has about 2.2million hp and about 800,000hp in 10man. In both versions he will gain 25% more hp when engaged with Sartharion.
Abilities:
Shadow Breath - This ability has a 15 yard range and is a frontal cone attack. The drakes will use this roughly every 10-30secs and it has no cooldown which makes its use somewhat random. This attack hits for 8,500 - 10,000 (7-8k) Shadow damage. (The drake tank will need to be kept topped off and no one else should be getting hit by breath)
Shadow Fissure - This is a void zone attack and that has an obvious blue swirly animation before going off. It targets one random raid member and anyone caught in the blue swirls will have 5secs to move out of the animation before the Fissure "pops" and the damage is taken. They cause 9,500 - 13,500 (6-9k) Shadow damage to anyone caught in the blast after 5secs. The ability has a 5sec cooldown but is generally used every 8-10secs. (When you see the blue animation, IMMEDIATELY move out of the swirl and no damage will be taken)
Twilight Revenge - When attempting multi-drake Sarth, once the drake is killed Sartharion will gain 25% melee haste and 25% increased physical damage. This effect will stack up to 3 times.
Hatch Eggs - This ability is used to hatch all remaining eggs in the Twilight Portal and has a 5sec (2.5sec) cast time. Power of Tenebron - This aura will increase all Shadow damage taken by 100% for as long as Tenebron is alive. (Drake breath attacks become much hard hitting and Shadow Fissures will 1-shot anyone caught in them until Tenebron is downed)
Adds:
Twilight Eggs - These appear inside the Twilight Realm in place of Acolytes, 6 at a time and they have 81,000hp (27,000hp). When Tenebron finishes casting Hatch Eggs, each egg left alive will become a Whelp and exit the realm.
Twilight Whelps - Each egg left alive will become on of these and exit the Twilight Realm. They need to be OT'ed with the rest of the adds and burned down with AoE when time allows. They have 156,000hp (53,000hp) and apply a stacking debuff when they attack.
Fade Armor - This ability is applied on melee hits and reduces the target's armor by 1500/stack. It will stack up to 10x and lasts 15secs unless reapplied.
Sartharion the Onyx Guardian
In 25man Sarth has about 7.6million hp and in 10man he has about 2.5million health. When engaged with any of his drakes left alive, he will also gain 25% more hp until they die.
Abilities:
Cleave - This is frontal attack with a 5 yard range and hits up to 10 targets at once for 35% weapon damage. (This is actually one of the weakest Dragon cleaves but no one but the MT should be getting hit with it either)
Flame Breath - This is a frontal cone attack with a 45 yard range and has a 2sec cast time. Again, only the MT should be getting hit with it and it does 10-14k (9-11k) Fire damage (In multi-drake Sarth this attack can easily 1-shot tanks when multiple fire debuffs are active)
Tail Lash - This is a rear cone attack with an almost 180 degree range near Sarth's tail and has a 30 yard range. The attack is instant and causes 4,000-5,500 (3-4k) physical damage with a knock-back effect and a 2sec stun. (No one should stand near Sarth's tail; the damage isn't deadly but the knock-back + stun can cause people to be caught in Flame Tsunamis and kill them)
Will of Sartharion - While any of the drakes are alive, this ability increases both Sartharion's and all drake's health by 25% until all drakes are dead.
Pyrobuffet - This is an ability to ensure that no one cheats the encounter by pulling Sarth off of his island. Anyone that leaves the island will be shot with fireballs that do 3-4k damage and applies a debuff that causes the next one to 1k more damage each stack. It is cast every 10secs that someone is outside of the island.
Soft Enrage: Flame Cyclone Enrage - At 10% health Sartharion will call upon all of the Flame Cyclones to summon Lava Blazes on the Raid. At this point ignore the adds and burn Sarth down as quickly as possible.
Hard Enrage: Berserks at 10 or 15min (not 100% sure which, but if the raid can't beat him before enrage there's no reason to be trying the encounter) attacking 150% faster and causing 500% more damage.
Adds:
Lava Blaze - These fire elemental adds have 65,000hp (26,000hp) and are randomly summoned throughout the encounter when Sarth calls upon the Flame Cyclones. They have no special attacks and only hit for about 3k (1k) damage but will need a dedicated OT for them until Sarth is downed. If hit by a Flame Tsunami however, they will enrage, growing larger and dealing 400% more damage. When they enrage they should be immediately soothed by either a Hunter's Tranquilizing Shot or a Rogue's Fan of Knives with Anesthetic Poison applied or they can bring the OT down quickly.
Terrain Effects
Lava Moat - The island Sarth is fought on is surrounded by lava and standing in it will hurt. The damage only ticks for about 1k Fire damage, but this damage is also affected by the drake and acolyte debuffs. Stepping into it for a moment won't kill anyone, but prolonged exposure is highly not recommended.
Flame Cyclones - Inside of the lava moat surrounding the island are fiery cyclones. When called upon by Sarth, these cyclones will slightly enlarge and fire out 4-5 Lava Strike meteors into the air that will then arc and fall randomly into the Raid. When they strike the ground, they will cause a small explosion in a 4 yard range that deals about 3,500 (1,500) Fire damage to anyone close by. Each one also has roughly a 25% chance of becoming a Lava Blaze add.
Flame Tsunami - This is one of the main dangers of the encounter and occurs about once every 30secs, randomly moving either North to South across the island, or South to North. When you see the raid announcement of "The lava surrounding Sartharion churns!", Flame Tsunamis are about to occur. Walls of flame will begin rising to full height on one side of the island, taking about 2-3secs to form and then flow across the island in massive waves, fading away on the opposite side. Anyone hit by the waves will be knocked back roughly 15 yards, slowed for 2-3secs, and take 3,000 (1,500) Fire damage on impact, with an additional DoT applied that causes another 3,000 (1,500) Fire damage every second for 10secs. (These walls of fire are also affected by the boosted Fire damage from Shadron and the Acolytes so they become extremely deadly in multi-drake attempts; do NOT get hit by the walls)
Strategy:
The raid composition will depend a lot on whether you are fighting this in 10 or 25man and how many drakes you plan on leaving up, if any. If you plan on killing just Sarth alone, you will only need 2 tanks and 2/5 healers and the encounter is extremely easy. If you plan to leave multiple drakes up you will need more tanks and healers. 10man versions depend on how good everyone is, and can consist of 2/2/6 tanks/healers/dps, 2/3/5, 3/2/5, or 3/3/4. In 25man you will want at least 3 tanks and about 6 healers as a safe minimum, leaving about 14-16 slots for dps. Currently the best MT for Sarth in a mulit-drake attempt is a DK because of how many "oh-shit" cooldowns they have to keep themselves alive, and you will need a good AoE tank on all the adds. A Shaman for Heroism on Tenebron is also highly recommended and almost required to pull off 2-3 drakes. You should also have 2 healers on the MT, 2 healers on the drake tank at least until Tenebron is down, and at least 1-2 healers on the add tank until Tenebron is down. If you only have 6 healers, they will need to try to toss out raid heals between keeping their tank up. As the fight goes on, you will also need to increase to 3 healers on the MT since Sarth will be doing more and more damage as the drakes are killed (25% increase with each drake killed). One of the drake tank healers can break off after Tenebron and join the MT healers, or you can wait till after Shadron if the two MT healers are confident enough. After Tenebron is down there will be no whelp adds so healing on the add tank should also lessen. Assign at least 1-2 healers that can go into the later portals as well so that the raid isn't dropping from the Acolytes. You will still have tanks dealing with Sarth, drakes, and adds when the portals come up, so hopefully you have dps that can OT the Acolyte while it's burned down as well. A dps War in defensive stance, a dps DK in Frost Presence, or a Boomkin in bear form should all be doable for this role since it is a quick burn down, though any plate dps can probably tank it just fine.
On the initial pull, the entire raid - the MT should be standing on the NE corner of the island with the MT standing below them in the SE corner. When the MT pulls Sarth, they will back into their corner and slowly turn Sarth by moving along the small islands pictured above. The rest of the raid will head West and swing back towards the entrance as Sarth moves by; this is to avoid anyone other than the MT eating Cleave or Flame Breath, but be mindful of the tail as well.
This is the primary position the raid will take up while dps'ing Sarth down. If no drakes are left up, the raid pretty much stays in this area until Sarth is dead. If you are attempting multiple drakes, this position will only be used for the first 20 or seconds of the encounter and only returned to once all drakes are downed.
When working with drakes, they all have a set timer on which they join the fight. If you leave only 1-2 alive, kill order doesn't matter because they will still come down only at their scripted time to do so. Tenebron is the first to join and lands 30secs into the encounter (during a Flame Tsunami) and always lands at the far West side of the island. Shadron is the second to join and lands 75secs into the encounter, always landing near the center of the Southern side of the island. Vesperon lands last and joins the fight 120secs into the encounter (during a Flame Tsunami) and always lands near the center of the Northern side of the island.
Each drake left alive will significantly ramp up the fight's difficulty. The recommended learning curve is to start with +1 being Tenebron, +2 being Tenebron and Vesperon, and only adding in Shadron for the +3 encounter. If the raid has difficulty in bringing down Tenebron before Vesperon lands in a 2D attempt, then it is nowhere near ready to try 3D Sarth.
Tanks should pay special attention to the above two pictures. When holding onto Sarth or drakes, placement is extremely important for the Flame Tsunamis. Going by the pictures, you should place your back against the edge of the island where it will be safe to stand stationary when the flame waves come from behind you (notice this works for the Sarth tank as well). The only time you should have to move while tanking (other than a new drake landing) is when the flame waves come towards you. If you are standing in the proper position you should easily be able to see the walls forming across from you and have plenty of time to step out of the way. If you are tanking Tenebron and Shadron will be joining soon, it's best to tank Tenebron on the South side so that you can easily grab Shadron when he lands. Vesperon will land across the island from you, and it isn't likely that the raid will finish downing Shadron before Vesperon lands, so when it's about time for him to land, begin moving to the North safe zone and be ready to snag Vesperon (please remember not to run the drake straight the raid however since the shadow breath could kill people; wait for Shadron to use it and change positions while there's a break between Tsunamis).
There are a number possible ways to do this encounter, and a lot will depend on the strengths and weaknesses of each raid group. I'll go over 3D Sarth here, so anything a drake does should just be ignored if you kill that drake off before the encounter begins with Sarth. A few things to keep in mind though no matter how many drakes the raid is attempting: do NOT stand in void zones and do NOT stand in Tsunamis. The drakes are the only mobs that call upon Shadow Fissures, so once they are all dead there will be no more of them. The second you see a swirly blue animation spawn on or near you, you need to move away from it before it bursts or it will likely kill you. Always pay close attention to your surroundings as well, because you need to avoid Shadow Fissures as well as pay attention to when and where the Flame Tsunamis are coming from.
While Tenebron is alive, all Shadow damage will be doubled. This means that people caught in Shadow Fissures when they go off will almost always be 1shot by them. This also means that the drake tank will be taking double damage from Tenebron's breath attacks, which is one of the reasons that Tenebron needs to be burned down as quickly as possible, since the drake tank cannot take two Shadow Breaths from both Tenebron and Shadron at the same time while they cause double damage. As soon as the tank has hold of Tenebron, use Heroism and burn him down as quickly as possible. The add tank should drag the adds over towards Tenebron as well so that any AoE damage can burn down some of the whelps and fire elementals too. Once Tenebron is downed, the raid will no longer take 100% extra Shadow damage and no more eggs can be hatched into whelps.
While Shadron is alive, all fire damage will be doubled. This is especially dangerous for the MT since Sarth's Flame Breath will be dealing twice it's normal damage until Shadron is defeated. When Shadron opens portals, his Acolyte will make Sarth invulnerable as well as cause the MT to take an additional debuff boosting Fire damage an extra 50% again. The raid has two choices at this point: either each Acolyte can be killed as they spawn, or the raid can heal through it and wait until Shadron is killed before taking out his Acolytes. Killing the adds as they spawn is safer for the MT and their healers, but will also slow the raid's dps on Shadron so that there's no chance of finishing him before Vesperon lands. Most groups typically grin and bare the added damage and wait until Shadron is killed before going into the portal. The danger in waiting is that Vesperon's Acolytes will add an additional 75% debuff to Fire and Shadow damage, so it's usually easier to heal through the 150% boost and kill Shadron faster than risk the MT receiving a 175% boost for too long. Once Shadron is down, the raid will no longer take 100% extra Fire damage and no additional Acolytes will be summoned (the ones already up will still need to be killed however). If you make it this far, the fight becomes substantially easier to finish off.
While Vesperon is alive, the entire raid will have 25% reduced health. This is what makes the 2D/3D encounter especially difficult, since a tank with 36,000hp normally will only have 27,000hp instead, and those Flame Breaths that should only hit for ~14k normally will be doing 28k damage instead and up to 38.5k damage if Shadron is still up when Vesperon's Acolyte spawns. During the window where both Shadron and Vesperon are both up, the MT and healers will need to cycle in every "oh shit" ability they have in order for the MT to survive Flame Breaths. Once Shadron is down, the fight becomes much easier to manage with only a 75% increase to Fire and Shadow damage. Since the raid is no longer in a mad dps race, the dps should run inside each of Vesperon's portals and take down the Acolytes as they spawn in order to give the healers a break (especially since Sarth will be attacking 24/50% faster and harder at this point as well). Once Vesperon is down, no more Shadow Fissures will spawn and the raid can move back to the Sartharion position and finish him off.
Tanks: You will want your best geared and highest hp tank on Sarth. Most of the fight for them will simply be to move back and forth during Tsunamis and is a fairly easy fight until the Shadron/Vesperon period where the MT will need to cycle cooldowns and communicate with their healers in order to survive each Flame Breath. The drake tank will need to know how to avoid Tsunamis and will constantly have to watch their surroundings for when to move and to avoid Shadow Fissures. Once all drakes are down you can help dps or better yet, help the add tank hold everything, especially for that final 10% push on Sarth. The add tank in this fight will need to stay mobile almost nonstop throughout the encounter, and they will need to be a good AoE tank class. Not only will you need to pick up every stray add that spawns, but you also need to keep an eye on Shadow Fissures and not stand in them or run through them, avoid Tsunamis, and snag adds off of the MT and any healers that pick up aggro. You also need to try and avoid dragging Lava Blazes through a Tsunami so that they don't all enrage and kill you. When you have most of the adds on you, try to position yourself near the drake tank (NOT close enough to eat Shadow Breath however) so that AoE damage can help burn some of your flock down. During the final 10% do everything you can to keep the adds off of healers and dps, even if you have to sacrifice yourself in doing so, blow cooldowns if needed during this final push.
Melee: This fight can be especially dangerous for melee. You need to watch positioning on everything you fight and try not to cluster up behind the drakes. When Shadow Fissures spawn amongst the melee while fighting a drake, they can be extremely hard to see, so stay spread out some and move immediately away from them. If moving costs you dps, so be it, it's better to lose a few seconds than be dead the entire fight. Also keep an eye out for the Tsunamis; unlike the drake tank you will have your back to the walls coming towards the tank, so you will need to know where to move to (do NOT simply stand behind the drake and keep dps'ing since the drake may partially be in a wave). Rogues can use Anesthetic Poison in combination with Fan of Knives to remove enrage from multiple Lava Blazes at once also.
Ranged DPS: The fight is a little easier to see as ranged, but you will still need to keep an eye on your surroundings and move out of Shadow Fissures and Tsunamis. If a Shadow Fissure spawns on you, immediately stop what you are doing and move; do not wait to finish casting. Whenever there is a break, help to AoE down some of the adds that the add tank is holding onto as well. Hunters, try to single target some enraged Lava Blazes for a Tranq Shot whenever one hasn't been soothed or if only 1-2 are enraged. At 10% health on Sarth, ignore the adds and focus fire Sarth down.
Healers: Assignments on healing can be a little confusing and manic for this fight. Even though your healing is extremely important, you will also need to stop casting and avoid Shadow Fissures and Tsunamis however, since a dead healer is a major problem for this fight. Even if you get battle rez'd or have a soul stone on, the massive hit you take to your mana will make the fight much more difficult for you. All healers should try to find somewhat safe spots to stand so that they will barely need to move when avoiding Tsunamis. The healers on the add tank should try to stay close to their tank as well, since it will make it easier to pick up adds that gain healing aggro. Some healers will probably be assigned multiple duties as well, such as 1 of the drake healers probably breaking off after Tenebron and moving to the MT, and a number of healers splitting duty between one of the tanks and healing the raid. Do the best you can to keep everyone alive and always be mindful of your surroundings.
Video:
Tankspot's Original Sarth GuideTankspot's Guide to 3D Sarth