Flamebender Ka'graz Detailed Strategy Guide (Heroic+Mythic Modes included)

Table of Contents

• +1. General Information
  • 1.1. Normal, Heroic, and Mythic Difficulty
  • 1.2. Enrage Timer
• +2. Summing Things Up
  • 2.1. Tanks
  • 2.2. Healers
  • 2.3. DPS
  • 2.4. Everyone
• 3. Overview of the Fight
• +4. Abilities
  • 4.1. Flamebender Ka'graz
  • 4.2. Aknor Steelbringer
• +5. Strategy
  • 5.1. Aknor Steelbringer / Start of the Fight
  • 5.2. Ka'graz' Energy Cycle
    • 5.2.1. 0-25 Energy
    • 5.2.2. 25-50 Energy
    • 5.2.3. 50-100 Energy
    • 5.2.4. 100 Energy: Firestorm
    • 5.2.5. Post-Firestorm
• 6. When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp
• +7. Mythic Mode
  • 7.1. Differences From Normal/Heroic Mode
  • 7.2. Strategy
• 8. Learning the Fight
• +9. Loot
  • 9.1. Armor
  • 9.2. Weapons
  • 9.3. Amulets, Cloaks, Rings, and Trinkets
• 10. Concluding Remarks
• 11. Changelog

Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the encounter with Flamebender Ka'graz in Blackrock Foundry. It is targeted at anyone who desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.1.2.

Flamebender Ka'graz is a boss in the Black Forge wing of the Blackrock Foundry raid instance. This encounter presents no surprising new mechanics, but it will require raid members to have excellent reflexes for avoiding targeted abilities and ground effects. Correct target prioritisation is also important.

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 do not currently know what the hard enrage timer for this encounter is.

The fight has a soft enrage, as the weapons created by Summon Enchanted Armaments never despawn, and will eventually fill up the room.

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.

• Have one tank take Ka'graz, while the other tank takes Aknor Steelbringer and faces him away from the rest of the raid.
• When the Cinder Wolves are up, one tank should always tank the wolf that is Overheated. Each time the wolves swap roles (the other wolf becomes Overheated), the tanks should perform a tank switch between Ka'graz and the newly Overheated wolf.
• After Ka'graz finishes casting Firestorm, the two tanks will have to perform a tank switch to handle her temporary Flamefury ability (and the Rising Flames DoT that it applies).

• Beware of the very high raid-wide damage caused by Firestorm, when Ka'graz reaches 100 Energy.
• Also beware of the high damage that the players who are soaking the damage of Molten Torrent will take.
• Dispel any players who are affected by Singe (due to touching the fire line that links the two Cinder Wolves).
• In Mythic mode, beware of the high amounts of damage raid members will take while the Cinder Wolves are alive.

• At the start of the fight, focus on DPSing Aknor Steelbringer.
• When the Cinder Wolves are up, focus on killing them as quickly as possible. Keep in mind that they have to die at the same time.
• In Mythic mode, all 4 Cinder Wolves will be located in melee range, and you should use AoE damage to kill them quickly.

• Casters and healers should be spread out throughout the encounter.
• Avoid coming in contact with the fire lines created by Lava Slash, with the enchanted armaments caused by Summon Enchanted Armaments, and with the fire lines that link the two Cinder Wolves.
• If a Cinder Wolf is fixating on you, kite him (in such a way as to not damage other raid members with the fire line that links the wolves).
• If you are targeted by Molten Torrent, move into a group of players (such as the melee group) to have its damage split.
• If you are targeted by Blazing Radiance, move away from other raid members until it expires.
• Move out of the areas on the floor where Magma Monsoon will land.
• In Mythic mode, ranged raid members and healers should stand along the outside of the room, to prevent enchanted armaments from taking up too much space. Players fixated on by Cinder Wolves should stack in melee range.

The encounter against Flamebender Ka'graz is a multiple-target, single-phase fight. Flamebender Ka'graz has an Energy bar that increases slowly over time, granting her new abilities at various thresholds. At 100 Energy, this resource is reset and the abilities granted by it are lost, and the Energy begins increasing once again. This cycle continues until the end of the fight.

We have released a video preview of the encounter against Flamebender Ka'graz, based on our (Heroic) Beta testing. You can watch this video to get a good idea of how the fight works, but keep in mind that some things can still change before the fight goes live.

Flamebender Ka'graz has an Energy bar. The bar starts out empty, and it takes about 120 seconds for it to reach maximum capacity (100). She always gains Energy at a steady rate, independently of anything the raid does.

The boss has two abilities that she uses throughout the entire fight, and another 4 abilities that she gains at certain Energy thresholds (25, 50, 75, and 100). We describe all of these abilities below.

• Lava Slash is an ability that Ka'graz uses throughout the fight, regardless of her Energy level. This targets a random raid member (with overwhelming preference for ranged players) and creates a fire line between Ka'graz and that player's location. When the line reaches the player, it deals a high amount of Fire damage to anyone in a 7-yard radius. If any players other than the target of Lava Slash are hit by this damage, additional fire lines are created between Ka'graz and these players. The fire lines persist on the ground for some time and deal a moderate amount of Fire damage every second to anyone who comes in contact with them.
• Summon Enchanted Armaments is an ability that Ka'graz uses throughout the fight. She creates a weapon at a random location of the room, which persists until the end of the fight, and which damages players in a 6-yard radius every 3 seconds with Unquenchable Flame. The weapons cannot be attacked or damaged.
• Molten Torrent is the ability that Ka'graz gains at 25 Energy, and which she uses regularly as long as she has over 25 Energy. She targets a random raid member, and 6 seconds later a meteor falls on that raid member, dealing a massive amount of Fire damage split between all players in an 8-yard radius.
• Summon Cinder Wolves is the ability that Ka'graz gains at 50 Energy, and which she only uses once (exactly at 50 Energy). She summons two Cinder Wolves. The Cinder Wolves are attackable and killable mobs which have several abilities.
  • Fixate is an ability that one of the two wolves will always use, fixating on a random raid member and moving towards them. If the wolf reaches this player, it will simply melee them. A wolf will typically Fixate on two players in a row before becoming Overheated, which we explain below. When this happens, the other wolf (which had previously been Overheated) will begin using Fixate, and so on.
  • Overheated is a state in which one of the two wolves will always be. When Overheated, that wolf must be tanked, and it deals increased damage and it has increased movement speed. While Overheated, the wolf will use Charring Breath, which is a frontal cone breath attack that deals very high Fire damage and debuffs affected targets to take 200% increased damage from subsequent Charring Breaths, per stack. This ability requires a tank switch.
  • Fiery Link is a fire line that permanently links the Cinder Wolves. Any players who come in contact with this fire line become affected by Singe, a stacking Fire damage DoT that can be dispelled.
  • Rekindle is an ability that causes a Cinder Wolf that has been brought to 0 health to be healed to 100% health if the other Cinder Wolf is still alive. The ability has a tolerance of 8 seconds, meaning that the two Wolves have to die within 8 seconds of each other, otherwise the "dead" wolf will be fully healed.
• Blazing Radiance is the ability that Ka'graz gains at 75 Energy, and which she uses regularly as long as she has over 75 Energy. She debuffs a random raid member to deal a moderate amount of Fire damage every 2 seconds to all allies in a 10-yard radius, for 10 seconds. It is worth noting that the player targeted by Blazing Radiance also takes this damage, and that the effect cannot be dispelled.
• Firestorm is the ability that Ka'graz gains at 100 Energy, and which she uses only once, after which her Energy resets and the cycle starts over. This deals a small amount of raid-wide Fire damage every 0.5 seconds for 12 seconds. Additionally, any Cinder Wolves that are alive at this time will also deal the same damage to the raid. While the damage done every 0.5 is indeed small, the overall raid damage taken over 12 seconds is massive. Once Firestorm is over, Ka'graz will gain two temporary abilities.
  • Magma Monsoon lasts for 30 seconds. Ka'graz throws molten orbs at the locations of random raid members, which land a few seconds later and deal a high amount of Fire damage to all players in a 3-yard radius. The areas where the molten orbs will land are clearly indicated by a circle on the ground.
  • Flamefury is a buff that Ka'graz gains for 50 seconds. Her melee attacks apply a stacking Fire damage DoT called Rising Flames, which requires a tank switch.

Aknor Steelbringer is present at the start of the fight. His health is very low, and he only uses two abilities.

• Devastating Slam is a frontal cone attack that Aknor uses against his tank. It deals a very high amount of Physical damage.
• Drop the Hammer is an ability that Aknor uses against random raid members (with overwhelming preference for ranged players). He leaps towards the target, dealing a high amount of Physical damage in a 10-yard area when he lands, knocking back any affected players.

Throughout this encounter, you will have to go through several of Ka'graz' Energy cycles, handling her abilities correctly each time. In the sub-sections that follow, we will walk you through everything that you need to do. As we mentioned above, Aknor Steelbringer, another NPC, is also present at the start, and we will explain how to handle him as well.

When the fight starts, you will be faced with Flamebender Ka'graz and Aknor Steelbringer. Your raid's goal at this stage is to burn down Aknor Steelbringer as quickly as possible, ideally before Ka'graz even reaches 25 Energy.

Throughout the entire encounter, your casters and healers should be spread out around the room. This will minimise the damage taken from a number of abilities.

In this early stage of the fight, while killing Aknor, there are only 4 abilities to worry about.

Aknor Steelbringer will be casting Devastating Slam against his tank, so he must be faced away from any other raid members (including away from Ka'graz' tank). Aknor will also use Drop the Hammer to leap to the locations of random ranged raid members, but if players are spread out, this should not be a problem.

Ka'graz will be using Lava Slash and Summon Enchanted Armaments at this time. If players are spread out, Lava Slash should only result in a single fire line on the ground each time it is cast, which players will just have to avoid until it disappears. Regarding the Enchanted Armaments, whenever one spawns, the players who are around it should make sure to be at least 3 yards away from it so as not to take damage from Unquenchable Flame.

As we mentioned, you should do your best to kill Aknor before Ka'graz reaches 25 Energy. However, in the event that Ka'graz does get to 25 Energy, she will gain the Molten Torrent ability, which you will also have to handle. We explain how this ability should be handled below.

Once you are rid of Aknor Steelbringer, the rest of the fight revolves around Ka'graz' repetitive and predictable Energy cycle. We will walk you through it in the following sub-sections.

We will also repeat that casters and healers should be spread out around the room for the entire duration of the fight, as this will make handling many abilities much easier.

At the start of the fight, before Ka'graz has 25 Energy, you will still be fighting Aknor Steelbringer, as explained above. After Aknor is dead, subsequent 0-25 periods are different because the boss will be using her two post- Firestorm abilities, which we discuss below.

At 25 Energy, Ka'graz will begin using Molten Torrent. Players who are marked by this ability have 6 seconds to get into a position where there are several other raid members in an 8-yard radius in order to soak the otherwise lethal damage of the meteor. An easy tactic is for players to just run into the melee group, where there are bound to be many players stacked together. Alternatively, whenever a player is marked by Molten Torrent, the nearby players should stack on them to split the damage.

Players who have abilities that make them immune to damage can simply stand away from other players and survive Molten Torrent on their own. This can be beneficial because the raid has to move less and also because the raid takes less damage.

At 50 Energy, the most problematic ability of the encounter is used, namely Summon Cinder Wolves. Here is what your raid has to do to handle the two Cinder Wolves.

• Have a tank always tank the Overheated Cinder Wolf facing away from any other raid members.
• Have the player targeted by the Cinder Wolves' Fixate kite the wolf away. In the process of doing so, it is important to avoid hitting the raid with the fire line that links the two wolves.
• All raid members must be very careful not to come in contact with the fire line that links the two wolves.
• When the two wolves' roles switch (the Overheated wolf begins fixating, and vice versa), the tanks should perform a switch to handle the debuff applied by Charring Breath. The tank who had tanked Ka'graz should pick up the newly-Overheated wolf, and the wolf tank should take Ka'graz.
• The two wolves must be killed at the same time (within an 8-second) window. The wolves must die relatively quickly, because if Ka'graz gets to 100 Energy and begins casting Firestorm, the extra damage the ability does if wolves are alive will wipe your raid.

It is important to note that if the player who is fixated on by a Cinder Wolf has an immunity active (such as Hand of Protection), the wolf will simply choose a new target. This is undesirable, since the new target could be located anywhere in the room, and the sudden movement can damage many players with the fire line between the two wolves.

At 75 Energy, Ka'graz gains the Blazing Radiance ability, which is extremely easy to handle. The player who is affected by this spell must move at least 10 yards away from other raid members until the debuff runs out.

At 100 Energy, Ka'graz will begin channeling Firestorm for 12 seconds. She does not use any other abilities during this time, and at the end of the cast, her Energy will be reset to 0, meaning that her arsenal of spells will be much smaller.

Firestorm is just a very damaging raid-wide Fire damage ability that the healers will have to use cooldowns for. If the Cinder Wolves are still alive when Firestorm is cast, each wolf will also cast an identical Firestorm. The combined damage of these abilities is so high that it is practically impossible to survive it, so it is important that the wolves die before Ka'graz reaches 100 Energy.

After Firestorm is over, Ka'graz returns to using just Lava Slash and Summon Enchanted Armaments, meaning that the fight is extremely easy during this time. However, she also gains two temporary abilities after the Firestorm cast is over, namely Magma Monsoon and Flamefury.

Whenever a player is targeted by Magma Monsoon, everyone should move out of the targeted area on the ground.

The tanks will have to perform a tank switch to handle the Rising Flames stacking DoT that Flamefury applies.

Once Ka'graz reaches 25 Energy, the cycle will re-start all over again as described above.

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp at the start of the fight, when all DPS players have their cooldowns and potions active. This timing is also good because there are few problematic mechanics in the fight before Ka'graz reaches 25 Energy.

The Mythic mode of the Flamebender Ka'graz encounter is extremely similar to the Normal/Heroic mode, but there are two small changes that end up having a considerable impact on the Cinder Wolves phases of the fight.

Ka'graz and the other mobs in the fight have more health and deal more damage than they do in Heroic mode, which is to be expected for a Mythic mode. In addition to this, there are two changes to existing mechanics.

First of all, Summon Cinder Wolves now summons 4 Cinder Wolves, up from 2. The Wolves still work in exactly the same way as before, with one of them being Overheated at any given time, while the other 3 fixate on players.

Second of all, the Enchanted Armaments created by Summon Enchanted Armaments now become empowered for 9 seconds if they are touched by the Fiery Link that connects the Cinder Wolves. While empowered, the Enchanted Armament deals very high Fire damage in a 6-yard radius around itself, and also damages random raid members every 0.5 seconds with Magma Eruption.

The greatest challenge of Mythic mode is handling the Cinder Wolves correctly. Not only does your raid have to handle the damage of 4 Wolves, and kill all 4 within 8 seconds of each other, but you must also take care not to touch any Enchanted Armaments with the Fiery Link.

In order to accomplish this, the best positioning is for all ranged raid members and healers to spread out around the edges of the room throughout the entire fight, in an effort to have all the Enchanted Armaments spawn near the edges. This will maximise the amount of space available, and it will reduce the changes that the Wolves' Fiery Link will accidentally touch any of the Armaments.

Then, whenever Ka'graz uses Summon Cinder Wolves, the fixated players should stack in melee range of the boss. This way, all the Wolves will be together, allowing your raid to efficiently use AoE damage to kill them. There are a few relevant implications of this tactic.

• Players stacked in melee range and fixated by the Cinder Wolves will be taking high damage, so it is important for healers to be aware of this.
• Players targeted by Molten Torrent should only move into melee range during this time if they have no means of soaking the damage on their own (such as through use of an invulnerability). This is because the melee group will already be taking high damage, so adding more damage to it should only be done if absolutely necessary.
• Any ranged raid members or healers who are fixated on by a Cinder Wolf should leave melee range as soon as the fixate is over. This is because, while fixated, players cannot be targeted by abilities such as the Enchanted Armament, but as soon as the fixate ends, they become viable targets. Remaining melee range, therefore, risks having such abilities used in melee range and causing a wipe.

Other than this, there is no relevant change to the strategy for the fight, and you should still handle all other abilities as you did in Normal and Heroic mode.

The encounter against Flamebender Ka'graz does not present any new or peculiar mechanics that require special strategies, so the learning process is quite normal. The most difficult part of the fight is handling the Cinder Wolves correctly, and this is something you will have to emphasise, because failing to kill the two Wolves (at the same time, mind you) before Ka'graz reaches 100 Energy will most likely lead to a wipe.

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

In addition, Flamebender Ka'graz can drop tokens needed for the Chest items of the Tier 17 set:

• Chest of the Iron Vanquisher (Heroic, Mythic);
• Chest of the Iron Protector (Heroic, Mythic);
• Chest of the Iron Conqueror (Heroic, Mythic).

Item Name	Armor	Slot	Secondary Stats
Leggings of the Molten Torrent (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloth	Legs	Versatility Critical Strike
Fixated Treads — LFR	Cloth	Feet	Haste Mastery
Flamebender's Shoulderguards (Heroic, Mythic)	Leather	Shoulders	Mastery Critical Strike
Scorched Gauntlet Liners — LFR	Leather	Wrists	Versatility Multistrike
Cinderhide Belt — LFR	Leather	Waist	Haste Mastery
Grips of Rekindling (Heroic, Mythic)	Mail	Hands	Versatility Mastery
Bloodsteel Warbelt — LFR	Mail	Waist	Haste Multistrike
Magma-Mauled Leggings — LFR	Mail	Legs	Critical Strike Haste
Treads of Rekindled Flames (Heroic, Mythic)	Mail	Feet	Versatility Haste
Maw of Charring Breath — LFR	Plate	Head	Haste Critical Strike
Lava-Crushing Grips — LFR	Plate	Hands	Multistrike Haste
Flamefury Gauntlets (Heroic, Mythic)	Plate	Hands	Mastery Haste
Firestorm Legplates (Heroic, Mythic)	Plate	Legs	Versatility Haste

Item Name	Type	Main Stats	Secondary Stats
Steelbringer's Polished Shield — LFR	1H Sword	Intellect	Haste Mastery
Magma Monsoon Mace — LFR	1H Sword	Agility	Mastery Multistrike
Molten Edge Eviscerator (Heroic, Mythic)	1H Sword	Agility	Mastery Haste
Ka'graz's Burning Blade (Heroic, Mythic)	1H Sword	Strength	Multistrike Mastery

Item Name	Type	Main Stats	Secondary Stats
Choker of Bloody Flame (Heroic, Mythic)	Amulet	Intellect	Haste Versatility
Choker of Oozing Wounds — LFR	Amulet	Agility Strength	Bonus Armor Multistrike
Fiery Links of Courage (Heroic, Mythic)	Amulet	Agility Strength	Bonus Armor Versatility
Charbreath Firecloak (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloak	Strength	Critical Strike Haste
Cinderwolf Signet (Heroic, Mythic)	Ring	Agility	Multistrike Versatility
Seal of Unquenchable Flame (Heroic, Mythic)	Ring	Agility Strength	Bonus Armor Haste
Captured Flickerspark — LFR	Trinket	Spirit Mastery
Horn of Screaming Spirits (Heroic, Mythic)	Trinket	Strength	Mastery on proc

This concludes our raid guide for Flamebender Ka'graz. We hope you have found it helpful. Please do not hesitate to post any feedback you may have on our forums.

• 12 Apr. 2015: Added Mythic mode strategy.
• 05 Feb. 2015: Added a mention of a soft enrage timer (the raid being eventually overwhelmed by the weapons from Summon Enchanted Armaments), added a mention that using an immunity when fixated upon by a Cinder Wolf simply causes the wolf to choose a new target, and clarified that the overall damage done by Firestorm is very high (despite each tick dealing a small amount of damage).

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