The Iron Maidens 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. Surroundings and Encounter Format
  • 4.1. The Bosses
  • 4.2. The Ship
• +5. Abilities
  • 5.1. Admiral Gar'an
  • 5.2. Enforcer Sorka
  • 5.3. Marak the Blooded
• +6. Strategy
  • 6.1. Tanking Concerns
  • 6.2. Admiral Gar'an
    • 6.2.1. Main Platform
    • 6.2.2. Ship Mini Boss
  • 6.3. Enforcer Sorka
    • 6.3.1. Main Platform
    • 6.3.2. Ship Mini Boss
  • 6.4. Marak the Blooded
    • 6.4.1. Main Platform
    • 6.4.2. Ship Mini Boss
  • 6.5. General Strategy
    • 6.5.1. Bomb Impact
    • 6.5.2. Boss Order
• 7. When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp
• +8. Mythic Mode
  • 8.1. Differences From Normal/Heroic Mode
  • 8.2. Strategy
• 9. Learning the Fight
• +10. Loot
  • 10.1. Armor
  • 10.2. Weapons
  • 10.3. Amulets, Cloaks, Rings, and Trinkets
• 11. Concluding Remarks
• 12. Changelog

Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the encounter with The Iron Maidens 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.

The Iron Maidens is a boss encounter in the Iron Assembly wing of the Blackrock Foundry raid instance. This council-style fight requires excellent coordination from your raid. Throughout the fight, some raid members will have to travel to a different fighting area to perform specific tasks.

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.

There are several soft enrage mechanics towards the end of the fight, which will eventually overwhelm the healers with raid-wide damage.

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.

• On the main platform, pick up the 3 bosses. One tank should take Sorka, the other tank should take Marak. Gar'an does not have a threat table and does not melee, but she can be taunted to have her focus her damage on tanks for limited amounts of time. This can be helpful, but it is not necessary. There is no need for a tank switch.
• Marak the Blooded should be tanked facing away from the raid, so that only her tank and the player targeted by Blood Ritual take damage from that cone attack.
• When tanking Marak the Blooded, after 100 Iron Fury, chain damage-mitigating cooldowns to reduce the damage the raid takes from Sanguine Strikes.
• Whenever a boss jumps to a ship, one of the two tanks must use a chain to go to the ship as well, and tank the mob(s) present there. Gorak, one of the 3 mini bosses, must be tanked facing the raid.

• Beware of the predictable damage that you can expect throughout the fight.
  • high damage on Marak's tank when Blood Ritual is cast;
  • high damage on the player targeted by Dark Hunt;
  • high raid-wide damage from Sanguine Strikes;
  • high damage on Gorak's tank (on the ship).
• In addition to this, watch out for players taking avoidable damage from abilities such as Rapid Fire and Bomb Impact.
• In Mythic mode, beware of the extreme damage suffered by the targets of Blood Ritual and Blade Dash. Also make sure to dispel Convulsive Shadows only when the affected players are out of the raid (ideally in a corner of the main platform).

• DPS the 3 bosses in a balanced way, following the priority given to you by the raid leader.
• If you are jumping on the ship, prioritise the adds over the mini bosses, and be sure to interrupt Battle Medic Rogg as much as possible.

• On the main platform
  • Be spread out at least 8 yards apart to minimise the damage from Blade Dash.
  • Move away from other players (and towards the edge of the platform) when you are targeted by Rapid Fire.
  • Move in front of Marak the Blooded if you are targeted by Blood Ritual.
  • Move in between Admiral Gar'an and the player targeted by Penetrating Shot, in order to split the damage.
  • Players targeted by Bloodsoaked Heartseeker must move away from one another.
• On the ship
  • Spread out around Uktar to minimise the damage from Grapeshot Blast.
  • Constantly move out of the void zones created under you by Uk'urogg's Blood Corruption Aura. Move in such a way as to conserve as much space as possible.
• In Mythic mode
  • If targeted by Blood Ritual, move out of the raid and use defensive cooldowns to soak the subsequent 2 casts of Blood Ritual, which will also target you.
  • If affected by Convulsive Shadows, move to a corner of the main platform and wait to be dispelled there. All players must avoid touching the Lingering Shadow void zones.
  • Avoid being hit by the Swirling Vortex tornadoes that result from Blade Dash.
  • Players targeted by Bloodsoaked Heartseeker should move away from both the raid and each other, and all raid members should stand as far as they can from Volatile Blood Orbs.

The encounter against the Iron Maidens is a complex council-style fight. You will face 3 bosses which do not share health, each with their own unique abilities. The fight takes place on a platform, but at certain fixed intervals in the fight, the lowest-health boss will leap to a nearby ship, where they will spawn certain adds. Some of your raid members will have to travel over to that ship and defeat the adds in a certain amount of time; otherwise, you will wipe.

The 3 bosses also have an Iron Fury resource that very slowly increases over time, granting the bosses a new ability at 30 Iron Fury and another at 100 Iron Fury.

We do not have a video preview of the Iron Maidens encounter, but we recommend this video by Method. Note that this is based on footage from the Warlords of Draenor Beta, so things can very well change before the fight reaches live servers.

It is important to understand both the setting and the format of the encounter, since these elements play a large role in the fight and in the way you will build your strategy. In this section, we will cover everything about the mechanics of the fight which does not have anything to do with specific abilities.

You will face 3 bosses in this encounter: Admiral Gar'an, Enforcer Sorka, and Marak the Blooded. The three bosses do not share health, and you will have to engage all 3 of them at once when you start the fight. Each boss has a set of several unique abilities.

The bosses have a resource called Iron Fury. This resource starts out empty, and it increases very slowly throughout the fight, independently of anything the raid does, at the same rate for all 3 bosses. It takes roughly 10 minutes for them to reach 100 Iron Fury.

Each of the bosses gains a new ability at 30 Iron Fury, and another new ability at 100 Iron Fury.

It is also worth noting that the bosses have a sort of passive ability called Iron Will, which is triggered when one of the bosses reaches 20% health. This instantly grants all 3 bosses 100 Iron Fury, and stacks a buff on them increasing their damage done by 5% every 20 seconds.

As we will see in the following section, at certain intervals in the fight, one of the 3 bosses will temporarily leave the fighting area.

The fight takes place primarily on a square platform. This is where the bosses are engaged at the start of the fight, and where the raid will spend most of their time. However there is another fight area that is sometimes accessible. A short distance from this platform, there is a large ship. At regular intervals in the fight (seemingly 1 minute after the start of the fight, and every 3 minutes and 20 seconds after that), one of the 3 bosses will temporarily leave the ship, jumping onto the ship.

The first boss to jump to the ship will be the one whose health is lowest at the time of the first jump. The second boss to jump will be the one whose health is lowest at the time of the second jump, out of the two bosses that had not jumped the first time. The third jump will be performed by the only boss who had not jumped in the previous two jumps.

When a boss jumps onto the ship, they will cease to use their normal abilities, and instead simply spam projectiles at the main platform. We will talk about this ability in the Abilities section. A number of chains at the edge of the platform become active at this time, allowing some raid members to travel to the deck of the ship. On the Beta, we experienced 6 chains (each one only allowing a single use), but this may depend on the raid size. As we are about to see, sending players to the shop is very important.

Once a boss jumps to the ship, they cannot be targeted or attacked, and they do not need to; the raid members who jump on the ship have a different task, instead. On the ship, each boss will summon a specific mini boss (which can, in turn, summon more adds). Additionally, a small bomb will appear on the deck of the ship, which can be clicked by raid members once the mini boss is dead. Clicking the bomb starts a short channel, which sabotages the main gun of the ship. Failing to do this before a certain amount of time (we are not sure how long this is, but it is between 85-95 seconds) causes the cannon to deal lethal damage to the entire raid. When the cannon is successfully sabotaged, all raid members on the deck of the ship are returned to the main platform, and boss that had jumped to the ship returns there as well, rejoining the fight.

There is no way to get to the ship aside from using the chains we mentioned above, and players who are on the ship are out of range of the players on the platform, and vice versa.

In this section, we will look at the abilities of each of the 3 bosses, as well as of the specific mini boss that they summon when they jump to the ship. However, before we look at each boss specifically, we must talk about an ability that all 3 bosses share.

While a boss is on the ship, they spam an ability called Bomb Impact on the main platform, where the raid is located. Each cast of Bomb Impact fires a large barrage of bombs onto the platform, which deal a high amount of Fire damage in a small radius when they land. About 5 seconds after landing, the bombs explode ( Detonation Sequence), dealing a very high amount of Fire damage in a 7-yard radius. Each wave contains enough bombs to effectively fill up the entire platform (meaning that there are no safe spots between the bombs), but fortunately not all the bombs are launched at once. This means that the bombs that land first also explode first, creating a safe zone where players can move to avoid the explosions of the other bombs. Bombs that are about to explode grow in size and turn red.

Admiral Gar'an has two basic abilities, and two abilities that she gains at 30 and 100 Iron Fury, respectively.

• Iron Shot targets a random raid member, dealing a high amount of Physical damage to them. This ability cannot be avoided in any way. Gar'an spams this ability so much that she will very rarely melee her tank.
• Rapid Fire is an ability that Gar'an uses regularly throughout the fight. She targets a random raid member, and a few seconds later begins firing a barrage of projectiles at their location. These projectiles have a short travel time, and the area where they will land is indicated by a red circle. Each projectile deals a high amount of Fire damage in a 5-yard radius. It is important to mention that each projectile is fired at the updated location of the targeted player, meaning that players can determine where the projectiles will land by running in a certain direction.
• Penetrating Shot is the ability that Gar'an gains at 30 Iron Fury, and which she uses regularly after this time. She targets a random raid member, and begins the 6-second cast time of the spell. At the end of the cast time, she deals a massive amount of Physical damage to the target, split between any players who are located between Gar'an and her target at that time.
• Deploy Turret is the ability that Gar'an gains at 100 Iron Fury, and which she uses regularly after this time. The boss summons a turret that fires projectiles in a circular pattern. Any players who are hit by these projectiles have a stacking Fire damage DoT applied to them.

When Admiral Gar'an jumps to the ship, she summons a mini boss called Uktar on the deck of the ship. Uktar has a single ability, called Grapeshot Blast, which targets a random raid member (located on the deck of the ship) and deals a high amount of Physical damage in a cone (directed towards the targeted player). Uktar spams this ability, and he does not need to be tanked. Additionally, Uktar also summons an add called Battle Medic Rogg.

• Battle Medic Rogg has 3 abilities.
  • Earthen Barrier is an interruptible spell that places a damage absorption shield, either on Uktar or on Rogg himself.
  • Protective Earth is an interruptible spell that creates a pool on the ground, which applies a damage absorption shield to either Uktar or to Rogg, if they come in contact with it.
  • Chain Lightning is an interruptible spell that deals a high amount of Nature damage to a player (located on the deck of the ship), and which jumps to other nearby players.

Enforcer Sorka has only one basic ability, and two abilities that she gains at 30 and 100 Iron Fury, respectively.

• Blade Dash is an ability that Sorka uses regularly throughout the fight. A temporary copy of the boss charges the raid member that is furthest away from her, dealing a high amount of Physical damage to them and to any allies within 8 yards of them.
• Convulsive Shadows is the ability that Sorka gains at 30 Iron Fury, and which she uses regularly after this time. She applies a dispellable Shadow damage DoT to a random raid member, which starts out with 4 stacks. The DoT deals damage to the target every 2 seconds, with each tick removing one of the stacks. The DoT deals a moderate amount of Shadow damage for each stack. If the DoT is dispelled, the player takes a much larger amount of damage per dispelled stack.
• Dark Hunt is the ability that Sorka gains at 100 Iron Fury, and which she uses regularly after this time. She targets a random raid member, and 8 seconds later she teleports to that player, dealing a high amount of Physical damage to them.

When Enforcer Sorka jumps to the ship, she summons a mini boss called Gorak on the deck of the ship. Gorak has a single ability, called Deadly Throw. He targets a random raid member (located on the deck of the ship), and he throws a knife in their direction. The knife damages the first player it comes in contact with for a very high amount of Physical damage, also slowing the movement speed of the affected player by 80% for 5 seconds. Additionally, Gorak regularly summons adds called Iron Eviscerators.

• Iron Eviscerators have 3 abilities.
  • Fixate causes the Eviscerator to fixate on a random raid member (located on the deck of the ship) and only attack that target.
  • Swiftness is a stacking self buff that increases the movement speed and haste of the Eviscerator by 10% per stack.
  • Expose Armor is an ability that the Eviscerator uses against its fixate target. This deals a high amount of Physical damage to the target, and debuffs them to take 10% increased Physical damage for 15 seconds.

Marak the Blooded has only one basic ability, and two abilities that she gains at 30 and 100 Iron Fury, respectively.

• Blood Ritual is an ability that Marak uses regularly throughout the fight. She targets a random raid member, and fires a cone attack in the direction of that player. This deals a high amount of Shadow damage to all affected players, and it also has a second component called Crystallized Blood, which deals a massive amount of Physical damage to the closest target within that cone. The same player is always targeted by 3 Blood Ritual casts in a row, after which time a new random player is chosen.
• Bloodsoaked Heartseeker is the ability that Marak gains at 30 Iron Fury, and which she uses regularly after this time. Marak marks 3 targets, and then throws an axe at one of them. The axe bounces between the 3 marked players, dealing Physical damage each time it hits one of them. The amount of Physical damage depends on the distance between the players, with the damage being massive if the players are very close to each other.
• Sanguine Strikes is the ability that Marak gains at 100 Iron Fury, and which she uses regularly after this time. Her melee attacks inflict raid-wide Shadow damage equal to a part of the damage they deal to her tank.

When Marak the Blooded jumps to the ship, she summons a mini boss called Uk'urogg on the deck of the ship. Uk'urogg has a single ability, called Blood Corruption Aura. This causes all raid members on the deck of the ship to spawn a damaging void zone at their location, every 2 seconds. These void zones, called Corrupted Blood, are not very large, but they remain on the ship for the entire duration of the ship phase, and they deal very high Shadow damage every 2 seconds to players who stand in them.

Your raid has to combine several different elements in order to successfully defeat the Iron Maidens.

• You will have to be able to correctly deal with the abilities used by the Iron Maidens on the main platform.
• You will have to send players to the ship each time a boss jumps to it, and these players will have to kill the adds on the ship in time to sabotage the ship's cannon. Each group of players that jumps to the platform should be comprised of 1 tank, 1 healer, and as many DPS players as you can send.
• You will have to bring the three bosses to low health at the same time, and kill them quickly once the first boss reaches 20% health and all bosses gain 100 Iron Fury. For this, you will need a correct general strategy.

In the following sub-sections, we will go into more details. We will start by explaining how to handle the abilities of each boss (on the main platform, as well as how to handle the mini boss they spawn on the ship), and then we will go over the general strategy for the fight.

One tank should pick up Sorka, while the other picks up Marak. There is no need for any tank switch. Gar'an will only rarely melee her tank, so tanking her results in very low damage, so either one of the two tanks can take her.

On the main platform, Admira Gar'an has to be tanked, but she will very rarely melee her tank. Instead, she will spam Iron Shot on random raid members, something which cannot be avoided or prevented in any way, and the damage of which just has to be healed.

Rapid Fire, however, is an ability that must be handled very carefully. The player who is targeted by it has to quickly move away from other raid members, preferably to one of the edges of the platform, and they have to keep moving in order to avoid being hit by any of the projectiles.

At 30 Iron Fury, Gar'an will start using Penetrating Shot. To handle this ability, whenever a player is targeted by it, as many raid members who are not being damaged by another ability (and who are not very low on health) as possible should move in between that player and the boss, so that the damage is split between as many player as possible.

Finally, at 100 Iron Fury, Gar'an will start using Deploy Turret. Players will simply have to avoid the blasts from the turret while it is up.

When Gar'an jumps to the ship, she will summon Uktar, who does not need to be tanked. This means that sending 1 healer and 5 DPS players (or as many as there are chains) is viable. Players who are on the ship should spread out, so as to ensure that only the target of Grapeshot Blast takes damage from its cone attack.

Battle Medic Rogg is a higher priority than Uktar, and your raid should try to kill him off as quickly as possible. While he is alive, he should be interrupted as much as possible. The most important spell to interrupt is Earthen Barrier, followed by Chain Lightning, and finally Protective Earth. If a Protective Earth cast does go through, just make sure that neither Rogg nor Uktar are moved into the pool that is created on the ground, so that they do not receive a damage absorption shield.

Keep in mind that Rogg does not need to be killed for your raid to be able to sabotage the ship. It is enough to kill Uktar, so as an alternative strategy you can just interrupt Rogg and kill Uktar. Doing it this way can be quicker and more efficient.

On the main platform, Enforcer Sorka must be tanked, and she deals a fair amount of damage to her tank. While Sorka is on the platform, raid members should be spread out at least 8 yards apart, so that Blade Dash does not damage more than one player. After Blade Dash is cast, players will have to avoid being hit by the (rather slow moving) tornadoes that the spell leaves behind.

At 30 Iron Fury, Sorka will begin applying Convulsive Shadows to random raid members. In principle, healers should not dispel this, and heal the players as the debuff ticks and removes its stacks. The damage of the first tick will be highest, so it is useful if players can use a defensive cooldown or a self heal to ensure that they do not die. Dispelling the debuff should only be done if the debuffed player has a very strong defensive cooldown active (such as Dispersion).

At 100 Iron Fury, Sorka will begin using Dark Hunt. Healers have to be aware of players who are targeted by Dark Hunt. At the end of the 8-second duration of the ability, these players will take a lot of Physical damage, so it is important that they are topped off.

When Sorka jumps to the ship, she will summon Gorak, who needs to be tanked. When fighting Gorak, the players on the ship should be grouped together behind the tank (with Groak essentially facing all the players on the ship), so that no matter who Gorak targets with Deadly Throw, the tank will be the first player to be hit by it, thus soaking the very high amount of Physical damage that this deals.

While fighting Gorak, the Iron Eviscerators that he constantly summons are a top priority. These adds easy to handle as long as they have not been alive for a long time, since otherwise their stacking Swiftness buff can become too dangerous. Players who are Fixated on by the Eviscerators should move and kite them. It is best if players kite the adds in tight circles around Gorak, so that cleave damage hits both Gorak and the Iron Eviscerators.

On the main platform, Marak the Blooded must be tanked, and she deals a fair amount of damage to her tank.

While Marak is on the platform, players have to be prepared for her casts of Blood Ritual, since these require special handling. Whenever a player is targeted by Blood Ritual, they must quickly move in front of Marak, in such a way that Marak's tank is located between the player and the boss. The goal is to have only the tank and the targeted player in front of Marak, so that the cone attack of Blood Ritual only hits the two of them, with the tank being the closest player to the boss, so that they soak the Physical damage element of the ability ( Crystallized Blood).

At 30 Iron Fury, Marak will being casting Bloodsoaked Heartseeker. The players who are marked by this ability will have to quickly move as far away from one another as they can, in order to minimise the damage of the ability.

At 100 Iron Fury, Marak will begin using Sanguine Strikes. This causes each raid member to take part of the damage that the tank takes, as Shadow damage. When this happens, the Marak's tank should try to chain as many damage-mitigating abilities as possible, in order to reduce the damage that the raid takes. Healers must also be prepared for this part of the fight, and save some raid cooldowns. Since it comes in at 100 Fury, the fight will be close to its end, so this is the time to go all out as far as healing goes.

When Marak jumps to the ship, she will summon Uk'urogg, who needs to be tanked. When fighting him, essentially the only concern of the players on the ship is correct management of the space on the deck of the ship, as far as the Corrupted Blood void zones are concerned. Every player on the ship will create a small void zone under their location every 2 seconds, so even though the deck of the ship is large, it is possible to almost run out of space, depending on the DPS of the players on the ship. So, it is important the players begin on one end of the ship (opposite to the end where the bomb to sabotage the cannon is located), pack the void zones neatly next to each other, and slowly work their way to the other end of the ship by the time that Uk'urogg dies.

On the main platform, players will essentially be spending their time handling the combined abilities of all 3 bosses, in the ways that we have described above. Before 30 Iron Fury, this means mostly staying spread out, moving out of the raid when targeted by Rapid Fire, and moving in front of Marak when targeted by Blood Ritual.

After 30 Iron Fury, additional movement is required to move in and soak the damage of Penetrating Shot, and for the players targeted by Bloodsoaked Heartseeker to spread out. Healers will also have to find the best way to deal with Convulsive Shadows.

After 100 Iron Fury, the fight will enter its most intense phase. It is most likely (and probably required, from a DPS check perspective) that at this point the bosses be around 20% health, which means that the 100 Iron Fury could well be triggered by Iron Will. What this means is that the bosses will not only use their 100 Iron Fury abilities, but also receive a stacking buff increasing their damage dealt. The combination of these two factors will create an extremely stressful environment, with increasing raid-wide damage from Sanguine Strikes, which will eventually overwhelm the healers and lead to a wipe.

What we have described above, however, is not everything. As we mentioned, whenever a boss jumps to the ship, she will no longer use her normal abilities on the platform, which will give the raid a small respite. However, when this happens, she will be spamming Bomb Impact on the platform. Below, we will tell you how to handle Bomb Impact, and then we will tell you in which order the bosses should be killed.

When a boss jumps to the ship and begins casting Bomb Impact, the entire platform will be hit by bombs. Avoiding the initial impact of these bombs can be difficult, but their damage is not very high, so this is not a great concern. The great concern is making sure not to take damage from their subsequent explosions. There is a reliable way to do this.

When the bombs begin to land on the platform, you must pay attention to which bombs land first. Then, you should move close to these bombs (but outside of the 7-yard radius of their impending explosion), and wait for them to explode. As soon as they explode, move into the area where they were, and you will be safe there from the explosions of the subsequently-landed bombs.

Remember that you will still have to deal with the abilities of the remaining 2 bosses while Bomb Impact is being cast.

Since the bosses do not share health, it is tempting to think that you can just focus on a single boss and kill her, thus taking her out of the fight early on and eliminating a number of abilities. However, the effect of Iron Will prevents this, because as soon as one boss reaches 20% health, all of them instantly gain 100 Iron Fury, meaning that surviving for an extended period of time, even against 2 bosses, is impossible.

Instead of this, the bosses should all be damaged simultaneously, so that they all reach 20% around the same time. Then, when they are at 20%, you can use all DPS cooldowns to finish them off quickly, and all healing cooldowns to survive this intense period of the fight. At this time, you can kill off the most problematic boss first, and this will probably be Marak the Blooded, in order to get rid of the AoE damage that her Sanguine Strikes causes.

There is more thing that must be mentioned regarding how to damage the bosses. Whenever it is time for a boss to jump to the ship, as we have explained, the lowest health boss will jump (provided that that boss had not already jumped to the ship). This means that you get to control the order in which the bosses jump to the ship. The order in which you choose to do this will depend on which bosses are giving your particular raid a harder time, with the idea being to send the one that is proving easiest on the main platform first, so that he is on the platform later on in the fight when the Iron Maidens have over 30 Iron Fury. By doing this, you will have about 1 minute when the other, more difficult bosses will be gone to the ship, at a time when the fight is more difficult, because the bosses have over 30 Iron Fury.

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp when the first of the Iron Maidens reaches 20% health. At this time, the bosses' Iron Will will cause all of them to have 100 Iron Fury, and this will trigger a soft enrage that will quickly overwhelm your healers. This is, therefore, the moment when the raid has to maximise DPS and finish off the bosses as quickly as possible.

The Mythic mode of the Iron Maidens encounter is similar to the Normal/Heroic mode, but there are several additions to existing mechanics that have important consequences for your raid's strategy, and that also make the fight significantly more difficult.

As with all Mythic modes, all the mobs in the encounter have increased health and deal increased damage, as compared to their Normal/Heroic mode counterparts. Aside from this, there are several additions and changes to existing mechanics.

• The stacking damage increase granted by Iron Will is now 10%, up from 5%.
• Players hit by Marak's Blood Ritual are debuffed by Marak's Bloodcalling, causing them to take 180% increased damage from Blood Ritual for 1 minute. Subsequent applications of this debuff only refresh its duration, and it does not stack.
• There are two additions to Sorka's Blade Dash.
  • Players hit by Blade Dash are debuffed by Sorka's Prey, causing them to take 180% increased damage from Blade Dash, for 4 minutes. Subsequent applications of this debuff only refresh its duration, and it does not stack.
  • After Blade Dash, a Swirling Vortex will spawn that follows the path Sorka took during the Blade Dash. Players who are hit by the Vortex take a moderate amount of Nature damage, and they will be stunned for 1.5 seconds.
• Whenever Convulsive Shadows ticks, a Lingering Shadow void zone spawns at that location. The void zone lasts until the end of the fight, and any players who come in contact with it are debuffed by Convulsive Shadows.
• When players are hit by Marak's Bloodsoaked Heartseeker, a Volatile Blood Orb spawns at the location where player were hit. These orbs last until the end of the fight, and they regularly cast Volatile Bloodbath, dealing raid-wide Shadow damage. The damage is lower the farther away raid members are from the orb.

Despite the large number of changes to abilities, the strategy does not change drastically. It is important to mention, before anything else, that the way the raid handles the ship phases does not change, and the only differences are on the main platform.

Since Blade Dash always targets the player that is furthest away from the boss at the time of the cast, the ideal way to handle Blade Dash (and the Sorka's Prey debuff) is to have a designated ranged raid member always be the furthest away player from Sorka. They should have a dedicated healer prepared to focus on them, and defensive cooldowns (both internal and external) should be used to ensure the survival of this player.

All raid members should make sure to avoid being hit by the Swirling Vortex tornadoes.

Since Blood Ritual always targets the same player 3 times in a row, when a player is hit by the ability for a first time, they should move out of the raid and use any defensive cooldowns needed to survive (and the healers will, obviously, have to help as well).

Players who are targeted by Bloodsoaked Heartseeker will have to move away from the raid and away from each other, and to use defensive cooldowns. It is ideal if these player find locations that are somewhere along the outside of the platform, to make it easy for the rest of the raid to remain away from the resulting Volatile Blood Orbs.

The Lingering Shadow void zones left behind by Convulsive Shadows ticks must be avoided by all players at all costs, because even one additional Convulsive Shadows application will often result in a wipe. As such, players affected by Convulsive Shadows should move away from the raid, ideally in a corner of the platform, and be dispelled when they are there.

Aside from these elements, the fight against the Iron Maidens plays out the same as in Normal and Heroic mode.

There are many abilities in the fight that require correct movement and fast reactions, such as Blood Ritual, Rapid Fire, and Penetrating Shot. However, none of these abilities present any real complexity, so as long as your raid members are paying attention, they should be fine.

The aspect of the fight that is most likely to cause you casualties is Bomb Impact. Taking the unnecessary damage that these bombs deal is simply unacceptable, especially later on in the fight, so all raid members have to avoid them almost flawlessly throughout the fight. This is an ability that happens often enough that players should be able to get a lot of practice, but it is important that you stress the correct way to do so (move close to one of the initial bombs, wait for it to explode, then move into the space left behind where you will be safe from the other bombs).

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

In addition, The Iron Maidens can drop tokens needed for the Hands items of the Tier 17 set:

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

Item Name	Armor	Slot	Secondary Stats
Deckhand's Cord — LFR	Cloth	Waist	Haste Mastery
Deckhand's Rope Belt (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloth	Waist	Multistrike Critical Strike
Incendiary Leggings — LFR	Cloth	Legs	Mastery Critical Strike
Turret Mechanic's Legwraps (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloth	Legs	Critical Strike Mastery
Grapeshot Hood — LFR	Leather	Head	Multistrike Mastery
Sorka's Nightshade Cowl (Heroic, Mythic)	Leather	Head	Multistrike Mastery
Gauntlets of Flickering Blades — LFR	Leather	Hands	Critical Strike Haste
Treads of the Dark Hunt (Heroic, Mythic)	Leather	Feet	Multistrike Mastery
Bombardeer's Targeting Helm — LFR	Mail	Head	Critical Strike Haste
Bloodwhirl Bracers (Heroic, Mythic)	Mail	Wrists	Multistrike Mastery
Rogg's Earthen Legguards — LFR	Mail	Legs	Critical Strike Mastery
Vortex Plate Helm — LFR	Plate	Head	Haste Mastery
Bloodsoaked Heart Protector (Heroic, Mythic)	Plate	Chest	Mastery Critical Strike
Uktar's Belt of Chiming Rings (Heroic, Mythic)	Plate	Waist	Mastery Haste
Impaler's Greatboots — LFR	Plate	Feet	Mastery Critical Strike

Item Name	Type	Main Stats	Secondary Stats
Battle Medic's Wand — LFR	1H Sword	Intellect	Haste Critical Strike
Sorka's Chainfist (Heroic, Mythic)	1H Sword	Agility	Mastery Haste
Gar'an's Brutal Spearlauncher (Heroic, Mythic)	1H Sword	Agility	Mastery Multistrike

Item Name	Type	Main Stats	Secondary Stats
Sorka's Ear Collection — LFR	Amulet	Strength	Multistrike Mastery
Drape of the Dark Hunt (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloak	Agility	Multistrike Critical Strike
Cloak of Sanguine Terror (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloak	Strength	Mastery Critical Strike
Uk'urogg's Corrupted Seal (Heroic, Mythic)	Ring	Intellect	Haste Mastery
Blackheart Enforcer's Medallion — LFR	Trinket	Agility	Multistrike on proc
Vial of Convulsive Shadows (Heroic, Mythic)	Trinket	Strength	Multistrike on use

This concludes our raid guide for the Iron Maidens. 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.
• 06 Feb. 2015: Added a mention that Gar'an's mini boss does not need to be tanked, and that therefore it is possible to send only a healer and DPS players to the ship at that time. Also specified the duration of the ship's main cannon warming up (85-95 seconds). Clarified that only Uktar needs to be killed on Gar'an's platform for you to be able to sabotage the ship, so it is possible to leave Battle Medic Rogg alive and interrupt him, instead of killing him.

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