Nefarian Tactics pulled from many sources

[Stevonivich]

Nefarian Tactics:

Nefarian tactics combine 2 main factors to overcome.

1. Positioning:
This encounter is VERY unforgiving to anyone accidentally standing where they shouldn't be.

2. Add handling:
Nefarian will raise from the dead and animate various adds threw this 2 phases fight. In the first phase he will actually resurrect Onyxia, and a bunch of Animated Warrior adds that can not be killed (read below). In the seconds phase we will animate Chromatic Prototype adds, and in the final phase all the warriors will raise again while you DPS Nefarian himself.
Also, since this IS the last encounter of blackwing descent, he does hit like a truck.

Nefarian main abilities:
Tail Swipe:
Both Nefarian and Onyxia have powerful tail swipe attack that does high damage and stuns enemies behind them for 2 seconds.

Cleave:
Both Nefarian and Onyxia have Cleave attack that do damage to the Tank and anyone near him

Breath attack:
Both Nefarian and Onyxia have a cone shape breathe attack in front of them, that also animates the warrior adds for a fixed time (until they run out of energy).

Children of Deathwing:
If Nefarian and Onyxia stand closer then 60 yard apart they both gain a 100% damage buff.

Animated Warrior Adds:
These adds have very big health pools, so don't bother DPSing them down. They will only live until their "energy" runs out, and will resurrect from the flame breath of Nefarian and Onyxia, and the targeted flames left on the floor in phase 3.

They grow in damage and power when you hit them, so they can't really be tanked. They can be CCed though.

Hunter tips: Use glyph of raptor strike and aspect of the wild every 10% it really helps your healers and guarantees you don't die. Without those two things crackle hits for 80-90k, with them its 58-67k. At the start of Phase 2 use deterrence.

Prototype Adds:
Simple tank and spank adds. They do nasty novas that must be interrupted.

Healing Hints:
Make sure to heal everyone to full just before he hits 90% / 80% / etc

Everyone should have and use http://www.wowhead.com/item=62471 for Electrocute!

When Nefarian calls out for Electrocute:
•Use available lightwells
•Use aura-mastery (paladin)
•Use power-word: barrier (discipline priest)
•Use healthstones/bandage
•Druids use tranquillity
•Everyone should be using their resistance trinket (Baradin’s Warden)
•Druids should be using Barkskin
•Priests have their bubble (for raid)
•Deathknights have their bubble (for raid)
•Warriors should Shield Wall (do not glyph), Shield Block (4.1 = 20% magic mitigation) and/or Intervene (with 2/2 Safeguard) their personal healer on Phase 3
•Mages should Ice Block (assumes no AOE magic reduction bubble laid out in their area)
•Paladins should use Divine Protection

2nd Phase any hybrid caster DPS help after crackles. Moonkin tranquility, ele healing rain/CH for a bit, and shadow priest Hymn would all help a ton. If you have a lock, make sure people are saving their health stones for that phase. Also make sure people are using whatever kind of help they can in terms of defensive cooldowns. Barkskin, shadow (or nether) ward, Ice Block, Mana Shield, Dispersion, Barrier, Anti-Magic Zone, etc. If you have more than 1 shaman or a hunter as well, have them glyph Healing Stream totem and turn on Aspect of the Wild (and make sure you have shadow prot from a priest) for that phase. Crackles are nature damage and I believe the bolts are shadowflame, so a priest buff + glyphed totem or pally aura will help a lot for that so make sure you're dividing your group to maximize your 3-4 man group effectiveness. If you have a particular healer struggling, give him a few people that can make it easier on him.

Prismatic elixirs http://www.wowhead.com/spell=80492 are great to help you get through Phase 2, in 10 man we used them for the healers/dps that were having problems staying alive on their pillar during Phase 2. Prismatic elixirs mitigate both the crackles and the shadow flame barrage and make healing for that phase much easier. As far as using them for phase 1 and 3, there shouldn't be that big a need for them.

Nefarian Tactics step by step:

Nefarian Tactics step 1:
All ranged DPS on Onyxia, All Melee DPS Nefarian if group makeup allows
Phase one starts when you jump down into the room. Onyxia will start attacking you right away, so be quick and pull Onyxia ASAP. Position her so that she faces the wall. On her left should be a huge pillar, and to her right position the melee. Ony Tank need not move her as dps & heals can go underneath her to avoid her Electric Discharges though Range must move behind the column out of LOS.

Nefarian will not engage the fight at first, but instead start animating warrior adds one by one.

Nefarian Tactics step 2:
When an animated warrior add spawns, have a player kite him in the room/ CC him until he's safely runs out of energy in a predetermined spot near one of the walls, so that Onyxia and Nefarian won't hit them with their breath attacks.
Be careful of her tail swipe attack when you kite!

Nefarian Tactics step 3:
When the lightning orbs around her overload and animated they are about to blast, have the ranged quickly hide behind a pillar, and the melee get inside her "body" to avoid the damage, then get back to your place.

Nefarian Tactics step 4:
After Animating 6 warriors Nefarian will land. You should hopefully be done with Onyxia or have her near death.
Our 10 man uses 2 CC's and rogue to kite the other three, we then break CC toward the end of their life cycle so they clump up effectively.

Nefarian Tactics step 5:
When Nefarian lands quickly tank him in the opposite side of the room, to make sure Onyxia and him are more then 60 yards apart. Again, his flame breath should target the walls of the room and not the middle, or all the adds will rise again.

On 10-man, our hunter uses a turtle pet to tank all 5 skeletons

DPS priorities
• The ranged DPS down Onyxia to 8% and stops DPS
• Have one ranged DPS take Onyxia down to 1% health
• In the meantime make sure to DPS down Nefarian to 80%
• Nefarian casts electrocute, immediately after DPS down Onyxia
• When Onyxia is killed, the phase transition starts

Nefarian Tactics step 6:
Onyxia dies, Phase 2 starts

Nefarian Tactics step 7:
Nefarian fills the room with Lava. The raid splits into 3 groups and swins inside the lava (OUTCH!) to the pillars, and get up there to fight the Chromatic Prototype adds.

Nefarian Tactics step 8:
When prototypes start casting nova interrupt them if possible.

Nefarian Tactics step 9:
Nefarian will occasionally do raid wide damage, healers be prepared for some hard AOE healing.

Nefarian Tactics step 10:
When all prototypes die or 3 minutes have passes, phase 2 ends.

Nefarian Tactics step 11:
Phase 3 starts, the Lava goes down, and Nefarian lands.

If Phase 3 starts and the adds are still alive it's pretty much a wipe unless they go down in seconds. They will not cease casting, so interrupting is needed, but if you stay on platform after Nefy lands, you're going to die pretty fast due to him casting Shadow of Cowardice (30000 Shadowflame dmg + 100% Shadow dmg taken - stacks) on you.

So make sure you got enough dps on each platform to kill the adds before the 3 minute mark.

Nefarian Tactics step 12:
Position Nefarian again facing the wall, because his flame breath can still resurrect the animated warrior adds you killed in phase 1.

Nefarian Tactics step 13:
When Shadowy Blaze appears on the floor, player should run away from it and be careful not to touch it.

Nefarian Tactics step 14:
Eventually the fire will raise the warriors back to life. Assign players to keep kiting them. If you're not quick enough to kill Nefarian, the adds will grow so much in power they will start one shotting players.

How to deal with the adds Phase 3
As the second tank for the encounter you need to give the raid as much time as you can to DPS Nef in phase 3, most guilds are only capable of letting 3 crackles go off before phase 3 (2 in phase 1, and 1 in phase 2). This leaves 5 crackles for phase 3. Which means phase 3 will last approximately 3:00 to 3:30.(assuming a crackle every ~40 seconds.) Using the information above from Ghos7face, and some clever positioning you can have the adds reset only 1 time and still give your raid the 3+ minutes of DPS time the raid needs. Here is the timeline and positioning:

0:00 - First Shadowblaze resurrects all of the adds
0:30 - Second Shadowblaze (30 secs after the previous one)
0:55 - Third Shadowblaze (25 secs after the previous one)
1:15 - Fourth Shadowblaze (20 secs after the previous one)
1:30 - Fifth Shadowblaze (15 secs after the previous one)
1:40 - Sixth Shadowblaze (10 secs after the previous one)
1:50 - Seventh Shadowblaze (10 secs after the previous one)

Position Nef parallel against the wall (anywhere on the circle will work).

The adds die at 0 Energy, and it takes ~50 seconds for the adds to go from 100 to 0 energy.

Shadowblaze is a projectile attack from Nef to the adds, it flies decently slow(like a shadowcrash). It has no cast time and Nef doesn't switch targets, but as mentioned above its on a timer.

0:00 - 0:30
It is unlikely that the first shadowblaze will ressurect all 5 adds together, most of the time they are slightly spread out. The fire follows the skeletons, so use the first skeleton up to kite the fire to the remaining skeletons lying dead(you must have all 5, don't CC one). You have 30 seconds to make sure every skeleton is up and running and get yourself into position to "drag" them along the perimeter of the room. Start as close the edge of nefs flame breath as you can, and don't move until the second Shadowblaze. (its not a big deal if the adds get re-energized you want this to happen in a moment anyway).

0:30 - 0:55
At the 30 seconds mark Nef will emote something about shadow and dust signifying a shadowblaze it will target the adds that you are still holding in place near his head. Once it hits and all 5 skeleton are at 100 energy, start backpeddling slowly around the perimeter of the room. At the 54-55 second mark, turn and sideways/strafe run for an extra burst of speed so the shadowblaze misses the adds, the longer flight time from his position to yours will help with this. As soon as you see it land, go back to backpedalling slowly.

0:55 - 1:15
Keep back pedalling with the adds and wait for the 1:14-1:15 mark to do another sideways/strafe run. Shortly after the fourth shadowblaze lands, the adds will die out. (approx 1:20). Let your healers know the adds died, and they have 10 second of almost no raid/2nd tank damage.

1:30 to Kill
Nef will shadowblaze again to res the adds, 3-4 should pop immediately, use the fire again to make sure you get all 5.

At this point the shadowblaze casts will get to fast to realistically keep the adds out of the fire. Instead, keep yourself out of fire, and use stuns and CD's to last as long as you can.

A decently geared tank can take hits from the adds up until about 25 stacks, it takes them another 1:40 seconds after dying to reach this amount.

This gives you approximately 3:00 minutes guaranteed DPS time for your raid. When the stacks are getting high wait for a shadowblaze, and move the adds clear of fire and call for any CC avaiable, then pull the remaining adds as far from the boss as you can and wait for nef to go down.

You'll likely die before that happens.

This unlikely strat works for two reasons, It eliminates the need of getting a second clear of the adds(as a second clear takes at least 1:40, and at that time Nef is casting shadowblaze in 10 second intervals) and by allowing the adds to stack up more movement speed, you can guarentee they will move quick enough so you can easily keep them out of a shadowblaze. Do not use slows or stuns until the adds have died for the first time.
When Adds get hit by fire and grow you will need a lot of luck in order to avoid being hit by them after the crackle especially when healers are low on mana.

Nefarian Tactics step 15:
Pop all DPS cooldowns and kill him

[yourmagisty]

thanks stevo for posting that

[Brydock]

A very nice read. I hope everyone in game reads it for tonight's raid.