Fel Lord Zakuun Detailed Strategy Guide (Heroic+Mythic Modes included)

Table of Contents

• +1. General Information
  • 1.1. LFR Difficulty
  • 1.2. Normal, Heroic, and Mythic Difficulty
  • 1.3. Enrage Timer
• 2. Overview of the Fight
• +3. Summing Things Up
  • 3.1. Tanks
  • 3.2. Healers
  • 3.3. DPS
  • 3.4. Everyone
• +4. Preliminary Mentions
  • 4.1. Phases of the Fight
  • 4.2. The Shadow Realm and Latent Energy
• +5. Phase One: Armed
  • 5.1. Abilities
  • 5.2. Strategy
    • 5.2.1. Tanking Concerns
    • 5.2.2. Positioning
    • 5.2.3. Handling the Mechanics
• +6. Phase Two: Disarmed
  • 6.1. Abilities
  • 6.2. Strategy
• +7. Phase Three: Enrage
  • 7.1. Abilities
  • 7.2. Strategy
• 8. When to use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp
• 9. When to use the Legendary Ring
• 10. Learning the Fight
• +11. Mythic Mode
  • 11.1. Differences From Normal/Heroic Mode
  • 11.2. Strategy
• +12. Loot
  • 12.1. Armor
  • 12.2. Weapons
  • 12.3. Amulets, Cloaks, Rings, and Trinkets
• 13. Concluding Remarks
• 14. Changelog

Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the encounter with Fel Lord Zakuun in Hellfire Citadel. It is targeted at anyone who desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.2.

Fel Lord Zakuun is a boss encounter in the Hellfire Citadel raid instance. This single-phase fight requires excellent positioning and raid awareness if you are to succeed, and it also features a number of unique and creative mechanics.

This guide is written and maintained by Azortharion, a top Hunter with 6 years of raiding experience, who currently raids in Ðanish Terrace, a world top 20 guild.

For the Looking for Raid version of the fight, we provide you with a special LFR guide. This will tell you everything you need to know in order to complete the encounter, in a quick and concise way.

This main part of this guide covers both the Normal and Heroic versions of the encounter, as far as mechanics and general strategy is concerned. The only difference between these two modes is found in the tuning, with Heroic being more difficult.

When we speak of extreme situations (such as the difficulty of a soft enrage timer, or damage from a certain source being too high to survive), we mostly refer to Heroic mode.

In addition to this, we have a specific Mythic mode section, where we present all the differences between Normal/Heroic and Mythic, as well as the strategy to defeat the Mythic encounter.

We are not sure about the Normal/Heroic mode hard enrage timer, but it appears to be at least 8 minutes. In any case, it should not pose problems unless several of your raid members are already dead.

In Mythic mode, the fight has a hard enrage timer of 5 minutes and 30 seconds.

Fel Lord Zakuun is a three-phase, single-target encounter.

Phases One and Two alternate for most of the fight. During this time, the raid has to deal with Zakuun using a variety of abilities.

When Zakuun reaches 35% health, or when two cycles of Phase One and Two have finished, which ever happens first, Zakuun enters Phase Three, at which point he uses all abilities from the previous two phases, becoming much more dangerous. This phase lasts until the end of the fight.

It is also worth mentioning that your raid's tanks will have to contend with a special Shadow Realm, an alternate version of the room where your raid is fighting Zakuun. Although this is an important part of the fight, it is not very complex, mechanically.

In this section, we will very briefly summarise what the players belonging to each of the three roles have to do during this fight. This is by no means meant to provide sufficient information to master the encounter, and it is only supposed to give you a very rough idea of what to watch out for.

• Perform a tank switch when Fel Lord Zakuun uses Soul Cleave.
• Avoid all avoidable damage within the Shadow Realm for 15 seconds. Move out of the patches of Wakes of Destruction and jump over Rings of Destruction.
• In Phases Two and Three, have both tanks stand close together to take the damage from Heavy Handed and Heavily Armed equally.

• Save healing cooldowns for Fel Explosions during Phase Two and Three.
• In Mythic mode, beware of the high damage during Phase Two, when Seed of Destruction is cast and when players must soak Wakes of Destruction.

• DPS Zakuun.

• Avoid taking damage from Wakes of Destruction twice within 1.5 minutes at all costs, to avoid triggering unnecessary Foul Explosions.
• Absorb Rumbling Fissures by standing them for 5 seconds.
• When targeted by Seed of Destruction, move as far away from everyone else as possible, preferably in a corner of the room.
• In Mythic mode, pay attention to assignments for groups to soak the Rumbling Fissures, and do what is asked of you. In particular, this means making sure to soak Rumbling Fissures at the right time, and to stack next to the tank in order to be sent into the Shadow Realm.

Before discussing the different phases of the fight, there are two important elements we must explain, namely the phases of the fight and the Shadow Realm.

At the beginning of the fight, Zakuun is Armed and will be using his axe to attack your raid. When using the axe, Zakuun's melee attacks are slow, but powerful.

After roughly 1.5 minutes, Zakuun enters Phase Two. He throws his axe on the ground and becomes Disarmed. While disarmed, Zakuun attacks 30% faster. After another 45 seconds, Zakuun picks up his axe and begins the initial Phase One once again.

This cycle repeats until Zakuun reaches 35% health, or when two cycles of Phase One and Two have finished, which ever happens first. At this time, the boss enters Phase Three, during which he uses his abilities from both previous phases. This lasts until he dies or until the raid wipes.

The Shadow Realm is an important part of the Fel Lord Zakuun encounter. This is an alternate version of the room in which the raid fights the boss. Only tanks can access this realm throughout the fight (whenever they are hit by Soul Cleave, one of Zakuun's abilities).

Tanks who are sent to the Shadow Realm return to the normal room automatically after 15 seconds. When exiting the Shadow Realm, the tank gains Invigorated, increasing their Mastery, Versatility, and Haste by 30% for 20 seconds. On Heroic mode, they also send out Wakes of Destruction in several directions from the location where they reappear in the normal realm.

Inside the Shadow Realm, there is nothing do to, initially. Tanks sit in an empty room and wait to be sent back. Each time a tank leaves the Shadow Realm, they spawn an add called Residual Energy in the Shadow Realm.

Residual Energy adds are unattackable NPCs that constantly cast Wake of Destruction and Rings of Destruction in all directions. Both of these spells only affect players inside the Shadow Realm.

• Wake of Destruction sends out a number of purple waves that deal heavy Shadow damage to anyone they come in contact with, debuffing them with Latent Energy. Zakuun also uses this same ability during Phase One.
• Rings of Destruction are rings that the Residual Energy adds create around them, which travel outward fairly quickly, dealing moderate Shadow damage to anyone struck by them, and applying the Latent Energy debuff. Rings of Destruction can be avoided by jumping over them.

Residual Energy adds never despawn, which means that it will become increasingly difficult to avoid the rings and waves in the Shadow Realm and that more and more adds will spawn, eventually killing the tanks.

Phase One lasts 1.5 minutes, after which time Zakuun will enter Phase Two.

• Latent Energy is a debuff that a number of abilities in the encounter can apply on players. It increases the affected player's damage and healing done by 30% for 1.5 minutes, and also causes players to take extra damage from a number of abilities in the encounter.
• Unleashed Energy deals moderate Fire damage to all raid members if a player debuffed with Latent Energy takes damage from Rumbling Fissures or Wake of Destruction, or if a Fel Crystal is hit by Wakes of Destruction (all of these are described below).
• Soul Cleave is an ability that Zakuun occasionally uses on his current tank. It deals heavy Shadow damage in a single hit, and teleports the tank to the Shadow Realm. Additionally, the tank gains the Cloven Soul debuff, which increases their Shadow damage taken by 100% for 1.5 minutes.
• Rumbling Fissures is an ability that Fel Lord Zakuun regularly uses. He spawns a number of void zones on the ground that persist for a short time, or until absorbed by raid members. If a Rumbling Fissure is not absorbed for some time (we are not yet sure how long), a Fel Crystals spawns from it. These are stationary NPCs that do not attack, but which deal low Fire damage to the raid every second while they are alive. They cannot be damaged or killed. Rumbling Fissures can be absorbed by having a raid member stand in them for 5 seconds. Doing so causes the fissure to despawn without creating a Fel Crystal, and affects the raid member with the Latent Energy debuff. Note that one Fel Crystal will always spawn each time Rumbling Fissures are created, even if they are all soaked. If all are soaked, then the Crystal will appear at the location of a random fissure.
  • If a player debuffed with Latent Energy stands in a Rumbling Fissure, they trigger a Unleashed Energy.
• Cavitation is an ability that Fel Lord Zakuun regularly uses. He throws purple Wakes of Destruction waves towards random raid members, which deal heavy Shadow damage. Players hit by this ability when they are already debuffed with latent Energy trigger Unleashed Energy. The same Unleashed Energy is triggered if a Wake of Destruction comes in contact with a Fel Crystal.
• Befouled is an ability that Fel Lord Zakuun regularly targets a random raid member with. It places a healing absorption shield on the target, which absorbs a modest amount of healing. When the affected raid member has received enough healing for the shield to fade, a Foul Explosion is triggered.

The strategy for Phase One revolves around avoiding as much damage as possible by correctly avoiding Wakes of Destruction and by correctly handling Rumbling Fissures.

The raid will also have to minimise the amount of Unleashed Energy explosions that happen.

A tank switch must be performed for each Soul Cleave, as the tank who is struck is sent to the Shadow Realm. It does not matter which tank enters the Shadow Realm first, as there will be nothing to do that time, as no Residual Energy will have spawned.

Eventually, Residual Energy adds will spawn inside the Shadow Realm, caused by tanks returning to the normal realm. From here on, the objective is to avoid Rings of Destruction and Wakes of Destruction, continuously cast by the Residual Energy. In order to avoid Rings of Destruction, the tank must jump over the ring's edge as it passes under them to avoid taking damage. Wakes of Destruction must simply be dodged.

As the fight goes on and tanks spawn more adds, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to survive their 15-second trial in the Shadow Realm.

For Phase One, we recommend having a loose spread of 6 yards around the room. This will ensure that no additional players are hit by Foul Explosions, and it will also minimise the chance of multiple players being struck by Wakes of Destruction.

For Cavitation, avoid being struck by the Wakes of Destruction. Being struck when already affected by the Latent Energy debuff almost certainly results in death, so do not get hit more than once. Avoiding the Wakes of Destruction is up to the ability of individual raid members. That said, raid members who are not affected by Latent Energy will have to protect Fel Crystals from being hit by Wakes of Destruction, since this also triggers an explosion. On Heroic mode, you must pay attention to the Wakes of Destruction coming from the location where the tank has re-entered the normal realm.

Raid members must absorb Rumbling Fissures by standing in them for 5 seconds in order to prevent any Fel Crystals from spawning. Reliable players that are sure not to get themselves killed by being struck with Wakes of Destruction, or further Rumbling Fissures, are the best choice for this. Due to their spawn rate, however, it is likely that everyone will have to absorb at least one Rumbling Fissure throughout the fight.

Once a player has absorbed a Rumbling Fissure, they must avoid re-entering a Rumbling Fissure before 1.5 minutes. Doing so will trigger Unleashed Energy because they are affected by Latent Energy.

All but one of the Rumbling Fissures that spawn each time must be soaked — as stated earlier, even if all the fissures are soaked, one Fel Crystal will still spawn. Therefore, it is recommended to simply not soak the fissure that is closest to the entrance, causing a Fel Crystal to spawn there (since, as we said, if all the fissures are soaked, then the Crystal will spawn at the location of a random one).

Finally, as far as Befouled is concerned, players who are affected by this debuff will simply have to be healed up until the healing absorption shield disappears. This will unavoidably trigger a Foul Explosion, so these players must make sure to be at least 6 yards away from other raid members.

Phase Two lasts for 45 seconds, after which Zakuun returns to Phase One.

During Phase Two, Fel Lord Zakuun stops using any abilities from Phase One, and instead has a very limited number of new abilities.

For the first 30 seconds of the phase, his axe (which he has thrown to the ground) channels Fel Explosions. This deals heavy Fire damage to the entire raid every second.

Heavy Handed is a buff that Zakuun has throughout Phase Two. It causes all of his melee attacks to strike the closest player to him within 5 yards for the same amount of damage dealt to the tank. If there is no other player within 5 yards, then the tank is hit twice.

Seed of Destruction is an ability that Zakuun frequently uses. He chooses 5 random raid members, and causes them to unleash 8 Wakes of Destruction all around them after 5 seconds. Wakes of Destruction is the same as in Phase One.

Zakuun also gains 30% haste during Phase Two.

The main challenge of this phase is avoiding damage from Seed of Destruction. When this ability is cast, the targeted players should attempt to stand in separate corners of the room, as this will cause most of the Wakes of Destruction that they create to harmlessly flow away outside the room, as opposed to towards its center. Raid members who are not affected by Latent Energy should try to intercept some of these Wakes of Destruction, in order to prevent them from touching Fel Crystals or other players affected by Latent Energy.

During this phase, Zakuun does not use Soul Cleave. However, since his melee attacks all strike the tank and the closest target to Zakuun, we recommend that that second tank stand on top of the first tank, as close to Zakuun as possible.

As far as positioning is concerned, we recommend stacking up at a central spot in the room, as heavy raid cooldowns will be needed to survive Fel Explosions.

When Zakuun reaches 35% health, or when two cycles of Phase One and Two have finished, which ever happens first, Zakuun becomes Enraged. This phase lasts until the end of the fight.

During this phase, Zakuun uses all abilities from the previous two phases, except for Soul Cleave, meaning that tanks are no longer sent to the Shadow Realm. The only other change is that Seed of Destruction has a 3-second duration, instead of a 5-second one.

This is an extremely intense and chaotic phase, during which the raid will have to perform most of the previous tasks while finishing Zakuun off as quickly as possible. Most notably, Rumbling Fissures must be soaked, and Wakes of Destruction must be avoided and intercepted (to prevent them from hitting Fel Crystals), as the case may be.

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp when Fel Lord Zakuun enters Phase Three, as it is here that the most healing will be needed, and this is also when the boss must die as quickly as possible.

We recommend that DPS players use the Legendary Ring when it is the most beneficial to the raid. This will generally be on cooldown, as there are no particular DPS requirements for this encounter. However, one usage should be saved for when Fel Lord Zakuun uses Enrage, to get the phase over with quicker.

We recommend that healers use their Legendary Ring for each time the Fel Explosions is cast in Phase Two, and to save it for Phase Three.

Finally, we recommend that tank players use their Legendary Ring when they must have to deal with Heavy Handed, during Phases Two and Three.

Learning Fel Lord Zakuun will largely be down to your tanks' and healers' ability to perform very well, and perform duties that they may not be used to. This is particularly true for tanks dealing with the Shadow Realm.

Phase Two is short, but exceptionally demanding in terms of healing done. It is important that as few raid members as possible are struck by the high number of Wakes of Destruction, especially since anyone being struck twice can result in the death of several players.

Additionally, the Shadow Realm is very sensitive to error. This part of the fight phase becomes harder each time a new tank gets sent inside, and towards the end of the fight it will be more difficult to survive.

The Mythic mode of the Fel Lord Zakuun encounter is similar in basics to the Normal/Heroic mode of the encounter, but the strategy required to execute it is different.

Aside from everything dealing more damage and the mobs having more health, the Mythic version of this encounter introduces a number of changes to mechanics faced on Normal and Heroic.

First of all, Soul Cleave now no longer only affects Zakuun's tank, but instead it hits up to 4 additional players located within 5 yards of the main target. Only the main target is affected by the Cloven Soul debuff, but all players are Disembodied and sent to the Shadow Realm.

Secondly, the Latent Energy debuff that is applied after soaking a Rumbling Fissure does not fade on its own. The only way for it to be removed is for the affected player to be sent into the Shadow Realm (so, hit by Soul Cleave) and to survive there.

Since a lot more people will be entering the Shadow Realm at regular intervals, the amount of Wakes of Destruction and Rings of Destruction to avoid inside of it is vastly increased.

Another important addition is the Exhausted Soul debuff, which is applied to any players who exit the Shadow Realm, provided that they had been affected by Latent Energy when entering it. Exhausted Soul prevents the affected player from soaking a Rumbling Fissure for 2.5 minutes.

Given the Mythic raid size of 20 players, each Rumbling Fissure wave consists of 5 Fissures.

There are two additional changes. The fight has a much tighter enrage timer of 5 minutes and 30 seconds, and whenever Zakuun casts Cavitation during Phases Two and Three, he summons 8 Wakes of Destruction, up from 4.

The strategy for the Fel Lord Zakuun encounter does have a number of new changes in Mythic mode, compared to the Normal/Heroic strategies.

The main challenge of the fight is having a proper strategy for soaking all the Rumbling Fissures and clearing the Latent Energy debuffs of the players who soak these fissures. For this purpose, you should create four groups consisting of 4 raid members each (plus a tank per group, with the raid's two tanks alternating this task. These groups will be used to soak the first, second, third, and fourth waves of Rumbling Fissures (the tanks will not soak).

The entire raid should be stacked up roughly 30 yards from the boss, and relatively close to the entrance. From this position, raid members affected by Befouled move out to get healed and explode as usual. Additionally, whenever Rumbling Fissures is cast, the group assigned to soak them (excluding the tank) moves out to soak 4 of the 5 Fissures, leaving up the one closest to the entrance. Right after this, the boss will cast Soul Cleave, and the same players who had soaked Rumbling Fissures, and who are not afflicted with Latent Energy, must stack in front of the boss with the tank, and be sent into the Shadow Realm.

Once inside, everyone inside must find a safe spot to unleash Wakes of Destruction from, since Cavitation is triggered from the location of the raid members exiting the Shadow Realm.

For the first group, we recommend stacking up in one corner of the room and using all immunities as needed not to get struck by anything. This minimises the amount of Wakes of Destruction and Rings of Destruction for subsequent groups to avoid.

Group two should move to another spot on the same wall, but spread out slightly so as to not get hit by any of the Wakes of Destruction that are immediately released. They must only be in a safe spot from the Wakes of others for roughly a second, before they are safely transitioned into the main phase again.

This process repeats for groups three and four, after which time the debuff of the first group should have expired, and the cycle repeats. Ideally, though, the boss should have been pushed past 30% health before this time arrives, preventing him from using Soul Cleave any more times.

For Seed of Destruction in Phase Two, we recommend using this WeakAura. Additionally, along the back of the room, 5 world markers should be placed around 8 yards from each other. The markers should be, in any order, Star, Circle, Diamond, Triangle, Moon. The WeakAura displays an icon on the screen of each player targeted by Seed of Destruction that corresponds to one of those world markers. They must react quickly and get to their assigned marker before the debuff expires.

The rest of the raid must then ensure that none of the many unleashed Wakes of Destruction strike any active Fel Crystals. This is particularly difficult during the Enrage phase, as the raid damage here will be extremely high, on top of raid members having to soak the Wakes of Destruction. Immunities, healing cooldowns, and personal cooldowns should be saved to scramble through this final part of the fight.

On Mythic mode, we recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp when the boss reaches 30%. We also recommend saving all DPS cooldowns and Legendary Rings for this point in the fight, despite lost usages of those cooldowns in the fight as a whole due to this.

DPS players should use their Legendary Ring together with all 2-minute DPS cooldowns, notably in the start of the fight, and when the Enrage phase begins at 30%.

Healers should use their Legendary Rings during the first Phase Two, for the Seed of Destruction and subsequent soaking, as well as for the Enrage phase.

Tanks should use their Legendary Rings in the final Enrage phase, as they will both be taking equal, heavy damage at this point in the fight.

In this section, you will find the loot table for Fel Lord Zakuun. The section is divided in 3 subsections: armor, weapons, and the rest (neck, back, finger, and trinket items).

Item Name	Armor	Slot	Secondary Stats
Bindings of Imminent Fury — LFR	Cloth	Wrists	Critical Strike Mastery
Sash of Unending Anguish (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloth	Waist	Mastery Haste
Bloody Dagger-Heeled Pumps (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloth	Feet	Critical Strike Versatility
Manacles of the Multitudes (Heroic, Mythic)	Leather	Wrists	Critical Strike Mastery
Manacles of the Demon General — LFR	Leather	Wrists	Mastery Haste
Brittleskin Wraps — LFR	Leather	Hands	Critical Strike Multistrike
Leggings of Eternal Terror (Heroic, Mythic)	Leather	Legs	Haste Critical Strike
Ringmail of Madness Accordant (Heroic, Mythic)	Mail	Chest	Haste Multistrike
Girdle of the Legion General (Heroic, Mythic)	Mail	Waist	Mastery Haste
Withering Waistwrap — LFR	Mail	Waist	Haste Critical Strike
Imp-Infested Legplates — LFR	Mail	Legs	Multistrike Critical Strike
Gaze of Superiority — LFR	Plate	Head	Haste Critical Strike
Befouled Demonhide Belt — LFR	Plate	Waist	Haste Multistrike
Legguards of Grievous Consonances (Heroic, Mythic)	Plate	Legs	Haste Multistrike

Item Name	Type	Main Stats	Secondary Stats
Mindscythe of the Legion (Heroic, Mythic)	Fist Weapon	Intellect	Mastery Haste
Ironblade Knuckles — LFR	Fist Weapon	Agility	Haste Mastery
Demonblade Eviscerator (Heroic, Mythic)	Fist Weapon	Agility	Haste Multistrike
Hellrender (Heroic, Mythic)	2H Axe	Strength	Multistrike Mastery

Item Name	Type	Main Stats	Secondary Stats
Chain of Agonizing Woe — LFR	Amulet	Intellect	Multistrike Critical Strike
Choker of Whispered Promises (Heroic, Mythic)	Amulet	Intellect	Spirit Critical Strike
Voidswirling Throat-Globe — LFR	Amulet	Intellect	Spirit Multistrike
Chain of Lidless Eyes (Heroic, Mythic)	Amulet	Agility	Haste Mastery
Cloak of Hideous Unity (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloak	Intellect	Haste Multistrike
Bloodcrystal Chaincloak — LFR	Cloak	Agility Strength	Bonus Armor Critical Strike
Zakuun's Smoldering Seal — LFR	Ring	Agility	Multistrike Mastery
Zakuun's Signet of Command (Heroic, Mythic)	Ring	Agility Strength	Bonus Armor Multistrike
Discordant Chorus (Heroic, Mythic)	Trinket	Strength	Damage on proc

This concludes our raid guide for Fel Lord Zakuun. We hope you have found it helpful. Please do not hesitate to post any feedback you may have on our forums.

• 16 Aug. 2015: Added Mythic mode strategy.
• 12 Aug. 2015: Added link to LFR guide.
• 03 Aug. 2015: Updated the Phase Three section to correctly reflect the fight mechanics used, and slightly tweaked the strategy for Phase One.
• 24 Jun. 2015: Fixed a few issues with the guide, mostly related to the Shadow Realm. Also clarified that it is impossible to prevent at least one Fel Crystal from spawning each time Rumbling Fissures are created.

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