Kil'jaeden Strategy/Tactics for Normal/Heroic

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Contents
  • 2. Lore
  • 3. Outline
  • 4. TL;DR
    • 4.1. Tanks
    • 4.2. Healers
    • 4.3. DPS
    • 4.4. All Players
  • 5. Positioning
    • 5.1. Phase One
    • 5.2. Phase Two
    • 5.3. Phase Three
    • 5.4. Phase Four
    • 5.5. Phase Five
  • 6. Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp
  • 7. Changelog
• +Abilities
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Phase One: The Betrayer
    • 2.1. Felclaws
    • 2.2. Rupturing Singularity
    • 2.3. Armageddon
    • 2.4. Erupting Reflection
  • 3. Phase Two: Eternal Flame
    • 3.1. Nether Gale
    • 3.2. Armageddon
    • 3.3. Rupturing Singularity
    • 3.4. Bursting Dreadflame
    • 3.5. Focused Dreadflame
  • 4. Phase Three: Reflected Souls
    • 4.1. Bursting Dreadflame
    • 4.2. Focused Dreadflame
    • 4.3. Erupting Reflection
    • 4.4. Felclaws
    • 4.5. Rupturing Singularity
    • 4.6. Armageddon
  • 5. Phase Four: Deceiver's Veil
    • 5.1. Deceiver's Veil
    • 5.2. Choking Shadow
    • 5.3. Rupturing Singularity
    • 5.4. Shadowsouls
    • 5.5. Lord Illidan Stormrage
  • 6. Phase Five: Darkness of a Thousand Souls
    • 6.1. Tear Rift
    • 6.2. Darkness of a Thousand Souls
    • 6.3. Demonic Obelisk
    • 6.4. Flaming Orb
    • 6.5. Bursting Dreadflame
    • 6.6. Focused Dreadflame
    • 6.7. Felclaws
• ×Normal/Heroic Strategy/Tactics
  • 1. Positioning
    • 1.1. Phase One
    • 1.2. Phase Two
    • 1.3. Phase Three
    • 1.4. Phase Four
    • 1.5. Phase Five
  • 2. Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp
• +Mythic Strategy
  • 1. Mythic Mode Abilities
    • 1.1. Phase One: The Betrayer
    • 1.2. Phase Two: Eternal Flame
    • 1.3. Phase Three: Reflected Souls
    • 1.4. Phase Four: Deceiver's Veil
  • 2. Strategy and Positioning
    • 2.1. Phase One
    • 2.2. Phase Two/First Intermission
    • 2.3. Phase Three
    • 2.4. Phase Four/Second Intermission
    • 2.5. Phase Five
  • 3. Changelog

General Information

On this page, you will find a working strategy to defeat Kil'jaeden in Tomb of Sargeras for both Normal and Heroic modes, which usually only differ by the tuning of the boss.

Here, we assume that you have read our descriptions of the abilities for this encounter.

The other pages of our Kil'jaeden guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

This positioning is assumes the raid is attempting the boss on at least Heroic difficulty. If you are raiding on a lower difficulty there is no downside to following this strategy, however, certain mechanics only present on Heroic and higher require adjustments to positioning that would otherwise result in wipes on these difficulties.

The raid should prepare for the encounter by placing raid markers in the 4 corners of the arena. The raid leaders should distribute assignments to the raid so that an equal portion of the group will be responsible for these corners. These assignments will persist throughout the first 3 phases of the fight; these are the phases in which Armageddon occurs. It is preferable to have at least one or two immunities in each group to remove the Fire debuffs that will be applied, which will greatly assist with group healing.

The tanks should position the boss so that it is slightly ahead of the center circle, in any direction (it does not make a difference). The rest of the raid group should settle in behind the boss, favoring the side they will soak during Armageddon. See the image below.

The tanks will perform a taunt swap at 5+ stacks of Felclaws. Kil'jaeden will deal serious damage to the current tank while this ability is stacking, so be liberal with active mitigation and/or defensive cooldowns. The raid should take care to avoid being in front of the boss during this time (Heroic only); anyone caught will be killed by the conal AoE during this time.

When Rupturing Singularity spawns, everyone in the raid must gather close to the singularity zone. It is very important that no one is inside the zone, as it will instantly kill any player, regardless of role, if it connects. Any players too far away from the singularity will be knocked off the edge of the platform when the sphere lands. Mobility cooldowns such as Shadowstep and Transcendence: Transfer allow for a little more lax positioning, however, it is better to be safe than sorry in this case, as anyone knocked off will not be able to receive a combat resurrection.

Armageddon occurs periodically throughout the phase. The raid has 7 seconds to soak all meteors; if an Armageddon Blast occurs, a wipe is very likely. The current inactive tank should soak the Armageddon Hail, which will appear as a larger circle than the rest of the meteors. Armageddon Rain will appear as many smaller circles around the platform, and the rest of the raid should fan out to their assigned corners and soak them. This applies a heavy Fire DoT effect to the soaking players, so take care not to double soak the same meteor by accident. Armageddon occurs faster than the DoT expires, meaning if you soak 2 Armageddons in a row you will have 2 stacks of the debuff. This puts a lot of undue strain on the healers and may result in fatalities. Players should rotate soaking to avoid this, or use immunities such as Cloak of Shadows to clear the DoT. The currently active tank should also soak one of the smaller meteors. It is important it is the furthest meteor from the center on his/her assigned corner, ensuring no one will be hit by Felclaws while soaking.

Healer proximity is also important during Armageddon. The tanks will be taking heavy damage during this time, so it is important that they receive proper attention. The raid will also take heavy damage along upon impact along with heavy ticking damage, so a throughput cooldown might be useful during this time, such as Tranquility.

An alternative strategy, which is especially effective on higher difficulties, is to have a player with a Physical damage immunity (for example, Ice Block) soak the Armageddon Hail, as this allows the other tank to soak an additional Armageddon Rain. This puts the Fire DoT on a beefier target and avoids the heaviest damage meteor entirely. If you choose to do this, you should set up a soaking rotation in advance so nothing goes awry.

Erupting Reflections are the final mechanic in this phase. Groups with very high DPS, or groups on normal and LFR, should stack right behind the boss with the debuffs so that they can be immediately cleaved down. On Heroic and above the afflicted players should form a triangle around the boss, at least 20 yards apart, taking care not to be in the Felclaws cone. Once they spawn they are highest priority and should be eliminated before they can get more than one or two casts of Erupting Dreadflame off. Note that it is possible to stack and cleave them down on Heroic, however, if they get their casts off and stack Eruption then the second cast will likely result in the raid getting flattened.

Phase Two begins at 80%. Kil'jaeden will wing away into the air and shield himself with Nether Gale. The phase lasts 60 seconds.

When Bursting Dreadflame is applied, the afflicted players should spread spread to the edges of the platform, ensuring no other players are within the blast radius. This will often overlap with Armageddon in this phase, further complicating positioning as you do not want to explode on players that are soaking. Ideally, the Bursting Dreadflames will be taken to the middle of each edge where Armageddon is least likely to spawn, however, the raid must be ready to quickly adjust in the event that meteors do spawn there. See the image below for example positioning.

Focused Dreadflame will target a single player. This player should not move laterally along their line between them and the boss, but they should move away from the boss' current position to give the rest of the raid more space to soak along their line. On Heroic difficulty, everyone splitting the damage will also trigger a Focused Dreadburst. If anyone is caught within 5 yards of the other players soaking, they will likely kill each other, so it is imperative to spread out along the line. You will want at least 5-6 players soaking Focused Dreadflame or casualties may ensue. If the targeted player has an immunity available, it is safest for everyone to get out of the line and have the targetd player immune the damage.

Armageddon should be handled the same way in this phase, though everyone must be conscious of the additional mechanics explained above.

Finally, Rupturing Singularity will also make a return in this phase. This time, it will spawn in the corners of the room. Once the spawn is detected, the entire raid must get to that corner as fast as possible to avoid a lethal knockback.

This phase is a combination of the previous two phases. All the mechanics from Phase One return, and are dealt with in identical fashion to the first phase. In addition to this, Focused Dreadflame and Bursting Dreadflame are both present in this phase.

There is no special trick to this phase. Immunities are of paramount importance as they allow you to effectively eliminate mechanics such as Focused Dreadflame from the fight, removing the threat from the raid. Rupturing Singularity returns to the center of the room.

This phase begins when Kil'jaeden reaches 40% health.

Phase Four is extremely unique. The entire raid will be shrouded in the shadow of Deceiver's Veil. No one will be able to target any foes or allies within 8 yards. Additionally all spells and abilities will miss, and healing is reduced by 100%. The entire raid will be affected by Choking Shadow, which continually reduces the healing received by players within range throughout the phase.

Shadowsouls will spawn throughout the platform at the start of the intermission. The raid will continually take damage from their casts of Destabilized Shadowsoul throughout the phase.

The raid should group up in the center of the platform so that everyone can receive healing. During this time, the healers will want to ensure that no one dies but conserve Mana by not overhealing, as the healing is continually reduced. For this reason, alacrity in this phase is very important. Lord Illidan Stormrage will fly to the platform. The raid must find him in the fog to receive Illidan's Sightless Gaze; the raid will be granted vision within a 40 yard radius, the ability to heal allies and damage foes, but at at cost. The raid will take ticking Fire damage for 20 seconds in addition to the constant damage from Destabilized Shadowsoul.

Once Illidan's Sightless Gaze is obtained, the raid should eliminate the Shadowsouls as quickly as possible. Once they are all dead the phase ends and the fight against Kil'jaeden resumes.

Kil'jaeden re-enters the fight, bringing his full power to bear. The only returning mechanics from previous phases are Felclaws, Bursting Dreadflame, and Focused Dreadflame, and they are all dealt with in the same fashion as before.

The key mechanic in this phase is Tear Rift. These will be periodically spawned by Kil'jaeden, and draw in nearby players. These can be used to avoid Darkness of a Thousand Souls and the Burning pools from Flaming Orb. When Darkness of a Thousand Souls is cast, all players must gather inside the rift to avoid the damage. Anyone not inside the rift is guaranteed to die eventually as they will take heavy ticking damage for the rest of the encounter.

The caveat to Tear Rift is that anyone inside the rift will take very heavy Shadow damage from Gravity Squeeze. The damage occurs every second and increases with each tick, meaning the group will have to time their rift entry carefully (as late as possible) and get out immediately after the Darkness of a Thousand Souls cast concludes. At least one raid cooldown will also be necessary to ensure no fatalities.

Flaming Orbs will also spawn throughout the phase and chase players. The targeted players should take them to the corners of the room before letting them impact, as they deal damage to everyone nearby when they cause a Flaming Detonation upon impact. They also leave behind a pool of Burning fire, which can be sucked up by nearby Tear Rifts. The size of the flame pool is reduced based on the duration of time the orb chased the player.

We advise you to use Bloodlust/ Heroism/ Time Warp in the final phase, as this is the longest and most punishing part of the fight. Raid damage throughout this phase is also quite high, giving the cooldown dual benefit as a damage and healing cooldown.