Fan Raid Encounter: Doom Lord Intaritus

[Bruch 1]

Hello all once again,

So, as I asked about and explained in a thread a few days ago, I occasionally have ideas for raid encounters and write them down in the form of hypothetical strategy guides. Since people did not seem opposed to the idea of me submitting one, I would like to submit one now: One of my more basic, traditional ideas for an encounter with some sort of giant Doom Lord general wielding a sword made of Fel Fire.

Some preliminary notes first: The guide goes over the phases in the order in which they occur, with ability lists followed by a hypothetical strategy for dealing with them. The 'strategy' parts are the longest and are the easiest to be skipped, as they are mostly just there to give an idea of how I would like the fight to function, as I have not specified very many hard numbers for timers or damage outputs.

This does come with the necessary disclaimer that some of the mechanics I've specified may not work exactly as described in practice (if the numbers can't be made to work out and such), in which case, they would have to be revised. But there is not much doubt in my mind that the basic concept and spirit of the fight could be made to work as a functional and challenging encounter.

Any feedback, positive or negative, is welcome.

(The guide will be posted in the following post for the sake of readability)

[Bruch 1]

1. Introduction:

    The encounter with Doom Lord Intaritus takes place over two alternating phases (along with an enrage variation.) Phase 1 is a largely a tank and spank affair that requires only basic raid awareness and positioning. Phase 2, in contrast, emphasizes survival and add management. The principle challenge lies in a debuff that goes out throughout the fight and must be managed carefully to avoid excessive damage spikes

2. Summing Things Up:

2.1 Phase 1:

Tanks:

    -Taunt off on each Mark of Doom
    -Stand on different sides of Intaritus with one tank taking one Fel Cleave and the other tank
    the other Fel Cleave in each combo.

Healers:

    -Be prepared for large spikes of damage that can occur on each of Intaritus' raidwide
    damage abilities
    -Organize cooldowns for each Fire Bolt Volley, in case too many marks are detonated in one.

Damage Dealers:

    -Nothing special

Everyone:

    -Have soak groups assigned for each Fel Cleave combo with designated sides to stand for each
    -Avoid all avoidable damage under normal circumstances
    -Detonate Marks of Doom at appropriate times (typically on each Hell Flurry.)

2.2. Phase 2:

Tanks:

    -Pick up the Infernals and survive to the best of your abilities.

Healers:

    - Continue to be prepared for random spikes in damage from Marks being detonated and
    meteors striking Fel Burned targets

Damage Dealers:

    -Kill Infernals in the order they spawn so as to minimize the risk of them hitting 100% energy.

Everyone:

    -Detonate Marks in the order they are received from small meteors.
    -Interrupt Infernals casts of Chaotic Energies
    -Soak Fel Cleave intelligently in alternating groups     

3. Phase 1:

3.1. Abilities

Doom Lord Intaritus

    Presence of Doom: A passive ability that casts Mark of Doom on a random player every
    so many seconds (the exact timing depends on the difficulty.) It also causes
    Intaritus' auto-attacks to occasionally cast Mark of Doom on its target.

        Mark of Doom: A debuff cast on players throughout the encounter.
        It lasts for 20 seconds and does light to moderate ticking damage while active. As it expires,
        it will kill the holder instantly (no damageeffect, immunity, or cheat death ability
        can circumvent it). However, it can instead be dispelled through taking any
        damage whatsoever (other than shadow damage) whereupon it will deal a heavy amount
        of shadow damage to the entire raid.

    Energy Bar: As Marks of Doom expire or are dispelled, Intaritus' energy bar
    will fill by a set percentage per mark (this will most likely scale by the size of the raid
    and difficulty setting.) This will have no bearing on Intaritus' actions until it reaches
   100%, whereupon phase 2 will begin.

    Fel Cleave Combo: A chain of abilities that Intaritus will perform every 30
    seconds. The sequence always goes: Doom's Grasp, Fel Cleave, Hell Stomp, Fel Cleave.

    Doom's Grasp: Intaritus creates a shadow vacuum that sucks three random players
    to his current targets rotation, rooting them for 5 seconds and applying a small DoT
    every second that they are rooted. He also instantly applies Mark of Doom to the current target.
        (Combo note: Intaritus only ever uses this ability at the start of his Fel Cleave combo)
       (Mark of Doom note: The ability always targets players affected by Mark of Doom first.
       This carries the implication that the majority of the players stacked up will have Mark of
       Doom and can absolutely not be struck by the incoming Fel Cleave as the damage will
       kill them and likely wipe the raid.)

    Fel Cleave: Intaritus swings his mighty Fel sword, doing a cleave in an arc in front of him
    that deals fire damage split among all the targets within its range as well as physical damage
    to its primary target. It also applies a debuff
        Fel Burn that increases fire damage taken by 200% for 10 seconds.

    Hell Stomp: Intaritus slams his hoof to the ground in the direction of a random
    player, channeling hellish reverberations in an expanding cone. Any target caught in its
    range will take fire damage and be stunned for three seconds. Intaritus will do this ability
    around every fifteen seconds.

    Fire Bolt Volley: Intaritus conjures Fel magics into his hand and disperses them forth,
    dealing a moderate fire hit to every member of the raid, as well as splash damage to
    anyone else within five yards of their hit

    Hell Flurry: Intaritus calls forth a rain of meteors that will target random players, and begin to
     fall, making impact a few seconds later and dealing moderate fire damage. This ability will be
     cast roughly every 20 seconds and last 10.

3.2. Strategy:

Positioning:

    There are two ways to approach positioning for this phase: The first is to assign two camps  to
    stand on either side of Intaritus which roughly divide the raid in half, including one tank in each.
    This will make it easy to soak the Fel Cleaves as they come in. The downside to this however is
     that it will require fairly frequent movement as
    Hell Stomp always targets specific members. In addition, it will also mean far more people receive
    the Fel Burn debuff which can be disastrous during Fel Flurries.
    For this reason, the other method is more recommended: Simply spread loosely in a 10-15 yard
    radius around Intaritus.  This will require more movement for each Fel Cleave but less for each
    Hell Stomp which ultimately is less of a dps loss.

Dealing with Abilities:

    Hell Stomp and Hell Flurry are entirely avoidable and should be under normal conditions.

    Fel Cleave Combo: Two groups of players must be assigned in order to deal with this, with no 
    real requirements other than one tank must be in each. This is because of the Fel Burn debuff
    which will make the second cleave on the same group will have a huge damage spike, even if
    soaked by the entire raid. The exact number is entirely dependent on raid size, the strength
    of your healing, and availability of damage cds. As few as one or two others plus a tank can
    soak with proper use of cooldowns.

    Mark of Doom:  Dealing with the Marks requires a bit more complexity. Generally speaking,    
    raid members with it should try to detonate their marks by intentionally standing under Hell Flurry
    meteors as this is the least damaging way. However, since you will almost always have multiple
    marks up for each Flurry, the raid must be careful not to detonate them all at once. In addition,
    raid members must be especially careful if the Flurry comes out whilst they have the Fel Burn
    debuff as the combined damage can kill an untopped player.
    There are also may be cases in which a players mark will expire before another Flurry comes in.
    In this case, a player will have to either taunt the boss to receive a single melee attack (hopefully 
    surviving) or purposefully stand in Hell Stomp. Neither option is ideal and should be avoided
    whenever possible.
    It is never advised to detonate even a single mark in a Fel Cleave combo.

    Fire Bolt Volley: This ability functions as a Mark check. If too many Marks are up,
    it will simply be a wipe as the burst damage will be unhealable. This simply means
    that players will have to be diligent in clearing their marks quickly. However, this should rarely
    necessitate special attention as clearing the marks on each Hell Flurry should be enough.

Role Specific:

    Tanking: Intaritus will do regular and predictable damage to tanks for the most part and there is
     no great complexity to the task. Tanks however must be vigilant as they will only have roughly a
     1.5 seconds to taunt off after a Mark of Doom is cast on one of them.

    Healing: Healing will be rather stop-and-go as there may be fairly long periods of time in which
    almost no raid damage is going out followed by a random spikes from Mark detonations and the
    Fel Cleave combo. If your raid is handling them properly, these spikes should only come in during
    Hell Flurries however.

    Damage Dealing: Intaritus is the only damageable target in Phase 1 and there is no great
    complexity to this task.

    Everyone: Beyond the mark detonations, the only thing to worry about is positioning.
    Simply put, stand where you are assigned to stand for Fel Cleave combo and otherwise, avoid
    taking any extra damage.

Phase 1 will continue until Intaritus hits 100% energy, whereupon he will fly up in the air and begin phase 2.

4. Phase 2:


4.1 Abilities:

Doom Lord Intaritus

    Mark of Doom: Mark of Doom continues through Phase 2 and works exactly the same. However
    the implications here are different as the refilling of his energy bar now extends the length of 
    Phase 2 rather than accelerates its arrival.

    Shroud of Fire: A passive ability that reduces all damage Intaritus takes by 75% for the entirety
    of Phase 2. This simply means that it is fruitless to put any damage on Intaritus in this phase.

    Hell storm: Intaritus will rain a relentless torrent of blazing meteors onto the raid in a scorch so
    intense that it deals a constant light ticking DoT.
        Small Meteors: These are identical to the meteors in Rain of Meteors
        Medium Meteors: These are bigger in size and target the current location of random
        players, landing a few seconds later. They deal more damage and have a larger AoE circle
        Infernal Meteors:  Even bigger than the medium meteors, they deal massive physical
        damage to anyone standing in their landing circle.
        A few seconds after landing, an Infernal add will spawn.
        (Note: Hellfire can be channeled indefinitely (due to its duration being dependent on Intiratus'
         energy) and the longer it is channeled, the more frequent drop rates of all three meteors.)

    Fel Cleave: Intaritus will do a variation of his Fel Cleave in Phase 2 on occasion. He will target a
    random player and after a few second cast, send a crescent of fire hurdling in their direction. The
    damage will be split among other players in the arc. This variation will not deal the physical
    damage component and therefore requires no tank. It will still give the Fel Burn debuff to all    
    inside.

Infernals

    Melee: Infernals melee their current aggro target for a moderate amount every few seconds.
   This means they will need to be tanked.

    Consuming Flames: A stacking fire DoT that has a random chance of being applied to the
    Infernal's current melee target every time they are struck by an auto-attack.

    Energy Bar: Every second, the Infernal will gain 5 energy. Upon reaching 100 energy, they will
    cast Overwhelming Energies.

    Overwhelming Energies: The unstable energies stirring within the Infernal come to boil,
    dealing large fire damage to the entire raid.
    This ability only occurs when the Infernal hits 100 energy and will most likely lead to a wipe if it
    combos with multiple Marks of Doom.

    Chaotic Energies: A two second interruptible cast that will deal a moderate AoE fire hit in a 10
    yard radius.

3.2. Strategy:

The goal of this phase is simply to survive its duration. This can be broken down into four aspects:

Positioning:

    To start off with, the entire raid should spread out as Intaritus enters phase 2 and stay as such
    whenever possible. This is to reduce the risk of the Medium Meteor strikes.
    Nonetheless, raid members should try to stay reasonably close together on one side of the arena
    so as to stay in healing range and make it easier for the tanks to pick up the adds.

Add Management:

    Killing the Infernals is always top priority in this phase. Players should make sure to always kill
    them off before their energy hits 100 as Overwhelming Energies will
    almost definitely cause a wipe if combo'd with a Mark of Doom. This should not be particularly
    difficult however as the Infernals are the only thing worth damaging in Phase 2. Intaritus can still  
    be hit by ranged but because of Shroud of Fire, it is a waste to do so (outside of multi-DoTers
    that can use him for extra procs and such.)
    Any tank or melee damage dealer should be prepared to interrupt the Chaotic Energies cast but
    because they can often be killed before they attempt to cast it, it should not be too big of a deal.
    Even if a cast is successful, it shouldn't be too big of a deal as long as it doesn't combo with
    multiple Marks of Doom.

Dealing with Fel Cleave:

    Dealing with Fel Cleave is potentially a bit more complicated in Phase 2, as it can now target any
    random member of the raid  (except for tanks.) The groups assigned for phase 1 can still soak
    the fire in Phase 2 but every member of the soaking group must have awareness of who is being
    targeted so they can reach each other in a reasonable amount of time. Speed cooldown usage
    may be necessary.
    In addition, it is not recommended for a tank to soak a Fel Cleave in this phase as
    the combination of Consuming Flames and Fel Burn debuffs can easily result in death.
    As such, it is also recommended the Fel Cleave target never panics and runs the Fel Cleave into
    the melee camp around the Infernals as this will most likely hit the tank.
    The two groups also must be still sure to alternate as the Fel Cleave will come in frequently
    enough to not allow the debuff to drop, and will therefore stack (though even one stack is
    enough to kill players that soak another.)

Dealing with Mark of Doom:

    Just as in Phase 1, the Marks are by far the most problematic part of Phase 2. They can     
    interfere with Fel Cleave soaking and can cause unwelcome damage spikes from unintentional
    meteor strikes. In addition, every detonation prolongs the phase and makes it harder to survive.
    Nonetheless, at least a few marks will have to detonated due to the phase having
    a longer timer by default than the debuff. With this in mind, the basic strategy is for players to
    simply detonate their marks as soon as they get them until it becomes possible to transition him,
    wherein players will have to intentionally not take damage.
    Finally, it should go without saying that, just as in Phase 1, a Marked player should never soak a 
    Fel Cleave nor should they detonate their mark when a Fel Cleave is  about to come out as the
    combo could kill the soaking players. Intaritus is also extremely unlikely to ever target a Marked
    player for Fel Cleave.

5. Transition Back into Phase 1:

This process will continue until Intaritus reaches 0% energy, wherein he will return to Phase 1. The phase will remain largely unchanged from there but because the transition back is the single deadliest part of the encounter (until the encounter), it is worth mentioning a few things.

Adds:

    It is entirely likely that a few Infernals may still be up when Intaritus returns. They must be
    dispatched immediately as having them still when the Fel Cleave combo starts is deadly.

Fel Cleave Combo:

    The timers are slightly altered at the transition so that Intaritus does his Fel Cleave combo much
    sooner than the first phase 1. This can be disastrous as the raid has likely held onto at least
    three Mark debuffs as well as designated members of the soaking groups possibly still having Fel
    Burn. For the first of these problems, debuff holders must simply try to detonate them before the
    cleave (as the meteors will continue to drop for a few seconds after Intaritus has returned.) You
    will likely need to reserve a healing output cd for this moment as the damage will be huge.
    For the second problem, you will either need to assign alternate soakers on the fly
    (not much of a problem if your soaking groups were not too large) or have fewer people soak
     them with damage reductions up.

Provided your raid can survive these ten or so seconds of intense damage however, the rest of the phase will remain entirely unchanged and will repeat from there.  This cycle will continue until Intaritus hits 30%, whereupon he will enrage.

6. Enrage (Sudden Doom) Phase:

6.1. Phase 1:

    When Intaritus hits 30% HP, he will enter his enrage phase. At this point, regardless of anything 
    else, his energy will reset to zero, all Mark of Dooms will be dispelled harmlessly, and his ability
    timers will reset. He will then cast a once over ability called Sudden Doom. It will give him a 20%
    Haste buff and most importantly, put Marks of Doom on every single member of the raid. The
    fight mechanics will also be altered at this point. Mark of Doom will deal slightly less damage and
    no longer grant Intaritus energy. Rather, his energy will now increase passively per second,
    giving the raid exactly 60 seconds to burn down as much of Intaritus' health as possible before
    he enters an enrage Phase 2.   
    Despite these changes, the strategy will remain almost exactly the same as the non-enrage with
    exception of dealing with the Marks.

6.2 Dealing with Marks:

    Though they will deal somewhat decreased damage, the heavy influx still makes them utterly
     lethal. And because of the imminent Fel Cleave Combo, your raid will have no choice but to
     detonate at least 6 - 8 marks. How to and how many to deal with at each ability timer is therefore
     important to coordinate:

Tank Marks:
    The tank marks will be by far the simplest. Intaritus' first melee hit will dispel one, and after that,
     the other tank is free to taunt off to detonate his as well. This can be done within a few seconds
     with no real damage (as no raid damage will yet be out.)

First Hell Flurry:

    Besides tanks, everyone who needs to soak will have to do it on the next Hell Flurry as it will be
    the only raid damaging ability between the start of the Enrage and the next Fel Cleave combo. It
    at this point that at least two raid cooldowns should be set aside: Either a damage reduction 
    then a healing output, or two healing outputs back to back; whatever it takes to detonate as
    many marks as possible without any deaths.

Soaking The Fel Cleave Combo:
    It is advised your raid have at least 6 non-marked members available to soak the incoming
   combo, though even this number will likely require damage reductions.
   Ultimately however, there should be as many soaking as can be available through.

Second Hell Flurry:

    At this point, nearly everyone who has a mark left must detonate on this Flurry as it will be the
    last chance before Fire Bolt Volley. Depending how many there are and  how good your spot
    healing is, this may necessitate yet another cooldown.

Fire Bolt Volley:

    There's nothing special to be done with this ability itself but it is important to be aware of. Almost
    all marks must be cleared by this point or it is a wipe.

After Fire Bolt Volley:

    If your raid has survived these 30 seconds of chaos, then the rest of phase 1 should be     
    smooth sailing. Intaritus will deal some more damage from the haste buff but otherwise, the
    strategy will proceed exactly as normal. This is the best point to hit Blood Lust and do the most
    damage to him possible.

After another 30 seconds, Intaritus will fly up in the air and begin his Phase 2 Enrage Variation.

5.3. Phase 2:

    There is only one change to this entire phase: Namely, it will not end. Intaritus' energy stays at
    100% for the rest of the fight and consequently, he will never stop casting Hell Storm. This means
    that your raids' success here will be dependent on how much damage you were previously able
    to do to him in Phase 1. If he is still above 10% when Phase 2 starts, it is very unlikely you'll be
    able to kill him before the damage overwhelms your raid.

5.4. Strategy for Phase 2:

Add management:

    Unless your damage is good enough to kill Intaritus within 20 or so seconds of Phase 2, you will
    have to kill Infernals off just as before to prevent Overwhelming Energies.
    This shouldn't be much of an issue with a fairly balanced raid composition as melees can devote
    all their energies to the Infernals and ranged to Intaritus. However, it is likely that they will fall
    behind as Infernals will likely spawn faster than just the melees can kill them. Whether ranged
    should help out or simply tunnel Intaritus as fast as possible is a situational call.

Tanking:

    As the number of Infernals is likely to only increase on each tank, it is advisable to     save
   whatever damage cds possible for this point as to help with the Consuming Flames debuffs

Stacking Ranged:

    Because only ranged can damage Intaritus in Phase 2, it is certainly possible to stack ranged
    dds simply to make the fight end sooner. This is a viable strategy but it should not be necessary
    if dps is decent. In addition, it may also require slightly better tanks as it will mean the Infernals
    will be killed off slower and therefore, they     will take more damage.

Intaritus should be killed by about the 60 second mark if the raid hopes to survive. Ultimately however, if your raid is having repeated wipes on this final phase, then the changes should most likely occur in the Enrage Phase 1 as this is where most of the damage must be done to defeat the encounter.



(Apologies for any possibly typos or layout issues. The text document didn't copy very cleanly and I had to make a ton of edits on the fly.)

Edited December 30, 2015 by Bruch

[Bruch 1]

If there were any interest, I could add the proposed hard mode ('mythic' or whatever it should come to be called) in the next few days.