Atramedes Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

• Melee DPS need to utilize Atramedes' giant hit box and attack him from maximum melee range.
• When a target is chosen for Sonic Breath, move away from them a bit to guarantee you are not hit by the breath.
• Ranged DPS can attack Atramedes during the air phase, but your first priority should be to dodge all of the Sonar Bombs and Roaring Flames.

• When a target is chosen for Sonic Breath, move away from them a bit to guarantee you are not hit by the breath.
• Rotate cooldowns for each of the Modulation casts as there is no other real need for them.
• Searing Flame will instantly deal 1 tick of damage, and will likely deal another tick before a gong is clicked. Quickly heal up the raid before and after this.

• Utilize Atramedes' giant hit box and attack him from maximum melee range.
• Atramedes does not have a tail swipe or frontal cleave attack, so do not worry about too much when moving him around.
• Try to use defensive cooldowns during Modulation as the healers will want to top the raid up.

Atramedes is blind and relies entirely on sound to sense his enemies. For this fight players will have a Sound Bar, which fills up whenever they take damage. If a player reaches 100 sound, Atramedes will cast Devastation on them, instantly killing them. Positioned on the outskirts of the room are 10 Ancient Dwarven Shield (only 7 on heroic difficulty), which can be clicked on to activate them. Activating a Ancient Dwarven Shield will reset all players Sound Bars to 0 and inflict Atramedes with Vertigo, stunning him for 5 seconds and increasing his damage taken by 50%. You will need to use these shields sparingly to stun Atramedes during key moments during the fight, explained further down below. This fight is broken down into two repeating phases, a 90 second ground phase and a 30 second air phase.

On the ground position your group as show, with ranged DPS and healers stacking together in a semi-loose spread. Atramedes will constantly use Sonar Pulse, throwing out pulsing sound waves that travel around the room, damaging any players they hit. Quickly move away from any of these that are nearby; you will need to be constantly dodging these throughout the fight. Every 15 seconds Atramedes will use Modulation, around 50,000 Shadow damage to all players and increasing their Sound Bar by 10.

Every 40 seconds Atramedes will use Sonic Breath on a random raid member, breathing fire as he turns towards that player, dealing Fire damage to all enemies in front of him and adding 30 sound. Sonic Breath will follow the player faster the higher their Sound Bar is. The targeted player should run away from the raid group while the raid group runs slightly in the opposite direction to guarantee no one is hit by the breath. Once per ground phase Atramedes will cast Searing Flame, dealing massive Fire damage to the entire raid every 2 seconds, and applies a stacking debuff that increases all Fire damage taken by 50% for 6 seconds. Have someone ready near a Ancient Dwarven Shield and have them click the gong as soon as this cast starts or you will wipe. Searing Flame will create Roaring Flame fire patches on the ground, dealing damage to anyone they touch and putting a DoT on them. Click the gong quickly on this and avoid the fire patches left behind.

On heroic difficulty, Lord Victor Nefarius will assist Atramedes by summoning in multiple Obnoxious Fiends. These imps will attach to a player and cast Obnoxious, increasing their Sound Bar by 10. Interrupt this cast whenever you can and quickly focus the Obnoxious Fiends down before they become a problem.

After 90 seconds on the ground, Atramedes will fly into the air for 30 seconds. While in the air he will bombard the room with Sonar Bombs, dropping dozens of these in random places every few seconds. These deal Arcane damage to anyone they hit and increase your Sound Bar moderately. As so many of these will be dropping, the best way to avoid these is to move back and forth between two spots, basically preemptively moving before you need to. Stand in one spot and do 1-2 casts, then move a few yards away and do another 1-2 casts, then move back to the first spot. Repeat this back and forth to help avoid as many Sonar Bombs as possible. If a Sonar Bomb hits a player Atramedes will throw a Sonic Fireball at the area, dealing further damage to anyone still there.

The main mechanic of the air phase is the Roaring Flame Breath. Atramedes will breath fire at a random player, creating a beam of fire behind them that will follow their movement, chasing them down. The higher the Sound Bar that the player has, the faster this beam will move, but it will also increase in speed over time. The targeted player must use any available movement speed, jumps, leaps, or anything of the sort to kite the beam around as long as possible. Classes like Paladin can use Divine Shield, or Mages Ice Block to immune the damage even longer if the beam catches up to them. Be sure to kite the beam around the outside of the room and never through the center as it will leave patches of Roaring Flame fire along its travel path. After kiting the Roaring Flame Breath for as long as possible, someone will need to hit a Ancient Dwarven Shield to stun Atramedes and stop the cast. He will then re-target whoever hit the gong and start a new Roaring Flame Breath beam that will chase them. Kite this again until the air phase ends and Atramedes lands. The air phase is mostly about avoided damage as the room will be covered in Sonar Bombs and Roaring Flame fire patches.

From here on the fight simply repeats, alternating between ground phases and air phases. As you have a limited number of gongs available, you must use them correctly. In the most ideal pull you will only activate a gong to interrupt either Searing Flame or Roaring Flame Breath. However, remember that hitting a gong will also reset all players Sound Bars, which you may need to do if some players get hit by too many mechanics.

Achievement	Description
Silence is Golden	Defeat Atramedes in Blackwing Descent without any raid member's sound bar going over 50%.
Heroic: Atramedes	Defeat Atramedes in Blackwing Descent on Heroic Difficulty.

Atramedes is just one of the six encounters present in the Blackwing Descent raid of Cataclysm. If you would like to learn more about the others, please see our other pages for the raid below.