To summon Nightbane, one member of the raid needs to have done the quest line beginning with Medivh's Journal and ending with Nightbane. This means that the Shattered Halls and Sethekk Halls instances must be partially completed in heroic mode in order to obtain the [Blackened Urn], which is used to summon Nightbane. Note that the Urn can be used multiple times.
Special Abilities
Nightbane possesses two phases, which will be transitioned between several times during the course of the fight. During the first phase, the boss is tanked on the ground in a style reminiscent of Onyxia. At 75%, 50%, and 25% health, he will enter phase two and take to the sky, during which time the raid's attention will be focused elsewhere. Phase two lasts approximately 45 to 60 seconds.Ground Abilities- Bellowing Roar - Typical dragon fear; it has a 30-second cooldown. He casts this from time to time.
- Bone Shards - Don't get too close!
- Cleave - Typical dragon cleave, frontal arc. Hits for approximately 6,000 on plate; 11,000 on cloth.
- Charred Earth - Similar to a fire-based Void Zone.
- Distracting Ash - Reduces the range of spells and abilities by 50%. Can be dispelled.
- Smoldering Breath - 3700 to 4300 direct damage, plus 1688 to 1912 damage every 3 seconds.
- Tail Sweep - 450 direct damage, plus 2250 damage over time.
While in the air, Nightbane is not immune to damage. However, the raid may wish to (read: should definitely) kill off the Restless Skeletons which spawn due to Rain of Bones, which is casted upon one random player or pet. Restless Skeletons hit for approximately 400 damage to plate armor, and have roughly 17,000 to 18,000 health points.
Nightbane also possesses the powerful Smoking Blast, which, oddly enough, deals physical damage for the initial strike. This can be mitigated by armor; it strikes plate armor for approximately 2000. The damage over time component of Smoking Blast deals fire damage; it is dispellable. Note that the DoT stacks up to four times, so it is suggested that it actually be dispelled.
Targeting for Smoking Blast is determined by the individual with the highest healing threat after he goes into the air. He resets healing threat at some point in the air, be it right as he goes up or when he "takes in a deep breath". A way to deal with this is to have a Paladin chain cast heals with Righteous Fury active. Smoking Blast hits a Paladin with around 12000-13000 armor for 1900-2100, and the fire debuff when stacked can tick for similar amounts.
There is yet another ability that Nightbane uses, primarily to prevent exploitation: Fireball Barrage. If any member of the raid is too far away from Nightbane while he is flying he will begin pelting members of the raid with fireballs, each doing 2550 to 3450 damage. One comes per second until all members are within 40 yards. This spell should not be noticeable if the raid does the fight correctly.
The Ground Battle
Nightbane should be tanked midway down the terrace in such a place that there is a reasonable amount of space on either side of him. Tanks should consider picking a visible landmark to hold him there the entire fight, such as a lone skull lying on the ground. Splitting up the parties and sending Group 1 to the north side and Group 2 to the south side is a viable strategy. However, some raids have experienced better results keeping both groups on the same side, with Group 1 clustered near the dome, and with Group 2 clustered near the battlements. In either case, healers and ranged combatants should remain at max distance in order to avoid the occasional fear.
Healing in the first phase isn't particularly difficult, and the fight resembles a simple tank-and-spank. However, Nightbane has a lot of burst potential when his melee is combined with Cleave and Smoldering Breath. This means that healers need to be somewhat awake, even though they will have the opportunity to regenerate their mana outside of the five second rule quite often. The tank should stance dance whenever the ground begins to shake in order to avoid the fear. Fear Ward and Will of the Forsaken are viable alternatives. For the tank to be feared once during the encounter is usually recoverable for the raid; however, anything more will often end the attempt at Nightbane prematurely.
With exception to the fear, the only ability which might prove problematic is Charred Earth. Assuming Charred Earth appears underneath Group 1, Group 1 should briefly shift over to Group 2's position until the area is safe again, and vice-versa. Occasionally, both groups may fall victim to Charred Earth at the same time; if this happens, all healers and ranged must temporarily shift forward to remain in range of the tank and the boss. Consequently, both groups will be closer to the boss and as a result be vulnerable to the fear. The tank must be ready to take whatever preventative measures are necessary should the raid's healers suddenly find themselves incapacitated.To the Sky!
Once Nightbane takes to the sky, all healers and ranged need to collapse to where the main tank is standing in order to avoid Fireball Barrage. The player afflicted by Rain of Bones must immediately move away from the rest of the group to avoid spreading the AoE damage. Skeletons should be single target DPSed, and Blessing of Protection should be liberally dispensed in order to keep the cloth-wearing classes alive.Landing
Watch your head: Position your raid so that the tank can pick him up easily and a hunter can misdirect Nightbane onto the tank. Keep your healers and casters at max range for the landing.
Ten seconds before the boss lands, all members of the raid should fall back to their stage 1 positions, dragging whatever skeletons are still alive with them. Ideally, all adds will be dead at this point, but having one or two still up before Nightbane descends is fine. The tank must remember to stance dance to avoid the initial fear.DPS Nightbane down through two more transitions and the fight should be won. If not... consider the raid in trouble.
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