Blackhand has this stigma that he's a super hard boss because it is the end of tier boss.
I have NEWS . He's not hard. Not hard at all. The thing is, all it takes is team work, and having basic WoW skills....as well as up to par gear, to be able to beat this 'sombish'.
So don't fret. Go balls deep & /gg!
HEROIC BLACKHAND
This encounter is a 3-Phase fight. All you will have to worry about is the boss, Blackhand, and 2 different add types....plus different mechanics he throws at you .....and you have to dodge. Just...GTFO ;)
Phase One Pew Pew Blackhand & /gg.
Phase Two @70% this phase starts & it lasts until he reaches 30%.
- When he phases @70% you will fall into a different room where you and your team will have to face both Blackhand and two types of adds.
- Siege Engines
- Iron Soldiers
Phase Three Starts @30% and it lasts until he dies.
- This phase takes you to a different room,
- You only face Blackhand and deal with his mechanics alone.
- Tank Blackhand close to the outside of the room by the molten slag. This will cause the throw slag bombs to spawn close to the Molten Slag, and be detonated by it.
- Whenever Blackhand casts Shattering Smash on his tank, the other tank must taunt the boss.
- When Demolition is cast, players must avoid the falling debris.
- When you get targetted by Mark of Death, run and hide behind the piles of debris (wood piles)
AVOID MOLTEN SLAG AT ALL TIMES!
Tanking and Positioning
Throughout the fight, the off-tank will have to taunt Blackhand whenever his tank is knocked back (and their threat cleared) by Shattering Smash.
Since Shattering Smash deals damage in an area in front of the boss, tanks have to be careful not to face the boss into the melee group.
As far as where to tank Blackhand, it is ideal to keep him close to the Molten Slag.
By tanking him close to the Molten Slag these bombs will be taken out by the slag, and your raid will not need to avoid them for a long time.
Demolition
Everyone will have to avoid the falling debris as much as possible. There is a lot of debris, so the raid will be taking damage at this time, something that the healers must be prepared for.
The large pieces of debris from must be avoided at all costs, since their damage is very high. Can and will kill players if they don't move out.
As a shaman, I will use my CDs on these phases. When I see a lot of dmg going out (which will happen) I will pop my HTT and SLT during Demolition phases (make sure your major CDs do not overlap with other people's major Cds or they will not be as effective and it will be a waste), in the middle of the room, and with aspect of fox popped, I will chain heal. Always have HST down, Riptide tanks or yourself if needed when running, and always have ES up on a tank.
I mostly chain heal on this phase. Ele blast on CD to have that nice 500 mastery buff and 1k plus to spirit for mana regen.
Marked for Death
When a player is targeted by this ability, they have 5 seconds to move behind a Debris Pile, relative to Blackhand's location.
This will cause the debris to absorb the impaling throw and not kill the player.
If a player does get hit by Impaling Throw, they will require attention from healers until the 45-second bleed expires.
PHASE II
@30% the floor collapses and takes you to a different room.
Right before the floor collapses, I pop SWG and Ascendance. On the way down to the 2nd room I heal while falling. Once I land I keep casting the remainder of the SWG + Ascendance timers.
In this phase I keep up my ES on tanks &Riptide. Mostly Heal Wave as needed and Chain heal.
Unleash Life + Healing Rain on melee group by Blackhand.
HST on CD.
If marked for death I pop Ghost Wolf and Unleash Life and run behind the siege makers.
If fixated, I run the siege through the slag bombs. Once ahead I stop and heal as I can. If I see its getting close, I pop Ghost Wolf and run ahead again, making sure the siege maker is running through the slag bombs.
You will still be dealing with Marked for Death, Molten Slag bombs, and additionally siege engines that will fixate players and iron soldiers on stands that will bomb players.
Range will continue to dodge these and follow mechanics in the room, while DPSing Boss and Siege Engines.
A group of 5 will be desginated to go up to the stands to deal with Iron Soldiers.
It is relatively easy to get knocked back onto the ledge, but it is not guaranteed. If you are too far from the ledge towards which you are being knocked back, then you will fall short. Likewise, if you much too close to the ledge, you will end up under it. So, Blackhand should be roughly in the center of the room when Shattering Smash will be cast, and this should land you on top of the ledge. While up on the ledge, you can attack and interrupt the Iron Soldiers you find there, but make sure you get back down in time to taunt the boss when the next Shattering Smash is cast.
Handling Iron Soldiers
While the damage dealt by any individual Iron Soldier is not high, if there are too many of them up you will quickly be overwhelmed by their damage, especially since the projectiles they fire cannot be avoided and they will get overwhelming.
So, the team assigned will have to go up on the ledge where the Iron Soldiers are located to clear them out, several times throughout the phase.
The Iron Soldiers have very little health, and they do not need to be tanked, so killing them is not hard. The problem lies in the fact that they can be spread out very much on the rather large ledge, meaning that there can be quite a bit of travel time to get to a distant group of Iron Soldiers---so get some AOE classes if possible..paladins, druids with starfall /gg
As far as the composition of this group of players is concerned, it should be made up of one tank and several DPS players.
Siegemakers, Marked for Death, and Slag Bombs
To begin with, whenever a Siegemaker spawns, someone should be assigned to kiting it (Most common for this job are hunters!)
To do this, that player has to be the closest player to the Siegemaker, which will cause it to fixate on them and follow them around. Keep in mind that the Siegemaker deals constant damage in a cone in front of it, so make sure to be far away to avoid that damage, and not to kite the Siegemaker into any other players...
Most importantly, other players aside from the ones kiting the siegemaker should get out of the Fixated player's way.
The task of the player kiting the Siegemaker is mostly to use it to clear out the Slag Bombs that are on the ground. So, run the siegemaker through the slag bombs on the ground /gg
Whenever a raid member is targeted by Marked for Death, they need to move in such a way that the Impaling Throw will hit the Siegemaker. This will cause the Throw to deal no damage, and it will also remove the Siegemaker's Blackiron Plating buff.
Use the siegemaker as a shield from Impaling Throw, hide behind it...(not infront!)
Once this happens, ranged DPS players should switch to the Siegemaker and kill it quickly.
There is never a right time in this phase, but make sure you find a good spot and the right time as right as it can get, to channel a mana potion towards the end of this phase, so you can be ready for phase 3 as this is the most healing intensive phase and the phase where people panic the most and make the most mistakes. Just be prepared and plan ahead!
PHASE III
When Blackhand phases, I usually pop SWG+Ascendance so I can heal people to full through the fall. Once we land and run to the edge where he is tanked, I LUST.
Through this phase I use my CDs, HTT, SLTx2, during the Shattering Smash as everyone will be taking a lot of dmg.
Keep an eye on tanks are they will take A LOT of dmg, as well as the people who get attched slag bombs and marked for death.
Maintain Unleash Life + Healing Rain.
HST on CD as always.
Chain Heal FTW.
/gg
The strategy for Phase Three is not as complex as that for Phase Two, but the Phase is arguably more difficult and more intense.
The tanks should perform the same tank switch as before, to deal with Massive Shattering Smash. Given the increased damage of the ability, tanks will have to use defensive cool downs for each smash.
Players affected by Attached Slag Bombs will have to move to an edge of the platform before their bombs expire, so that the Slag Holes left behind are away from the raid.
Players targeted by Marked for Death must make sure that there are no other raid members in front of or behind them, relative to Blackhand's location, in order to minimize the damage taken from Impaling Throw. For this, please make sure you position yourself in a way that you wont be thrown off the edge!!!
The healers will have to contend with the increasing raid-wide damage from Overheated. So it is a good idea to have CD rotations and definitely not waste them at once.
The phase is very intense, and the increasing damage from Overheated will eventually lead to a wipe.
Tanking
Tanking Blackhand during Phase Three is not very complex. There are two things to keep in mind.
1. Firstly, you should aim to make good use of the space on the platform, by dragging Blackhand away from his most recent Slag Crater, in either a clockwise or a counterclockwise fashion. Given the frequency and radius of the Slag Craters, and the size of the platform, if you do this correctly you should never run out of space.
- We advise you to tank Blackhand close to the edge of the platform, so that the center of the room remains Crater-free.
2. Secondly, you will have to survive the extreme Fire damage that Massive Shattering Smash deals. If the damage is still too high, both tanks can soak each Massive Shattering Smash, since this no longer clears threat. Use CDs and maintain heals on tanks.
Slag Bombs, Slag Holes, and Slag Craters
In this phase when you get slag bombs, most groups run these left. So, as soon as you get one, run left and wait until it drops. Do not overlap other players or you will die. Then run back to stack with group.
This means trying to stack the craters as much as possible, so that you can then move on to a clear area of the platform as soon as they become ignited by Slag Eruption. In any case, players who are affected by Attach Slag Bombs should do their best to place them away from the raid, and near other existing Slag Holes. Healers will have to be prepared to heal the damage on the players who have Slag Bombs attached to them, as they will take high damage.
Throughout the fight, the entire raid should make sure to avoid taking damage from Slag Holes and Slag Craters, which means making sure not to be too close to them.
Marked for Death
Unlike in previous phases, there is no way to avoid taking damage from Marked for Death . You now need to make sure that, as the targeted player, you are the only one hit by Impaling Throw, as the projectile hits all players in a line. So, if you are targeted by Marked for Death, position yourself in such a way that there are no players in front of or behind you, relative to Blackhand's location
In this part, when you are Marked for Death, run a bit out of the raid (where players are supposed to be stacked) and position yourself in a way that when thrown back, you will still land towards the middle of the room and not thrown off the edge like it can happen if you position yourself to be towards the edge.
Here is the video of my H. Blackhand Kill.
Enjoy, Good Luck. /gg
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