WoW Insider's Guide to Maloriak
Maloriak is the third boss in Blackwing Descent.
This is going to be a confusing fight for most raid groups. It's not that any particular dance step is difficult; however, there are a lot of phases and dance steps to remember. Throughout the fight, Maloriak throws vials at your raid. You must react according to the color of the vial, which can make keeping track of this fight a little difficult.
General strategy
This boss has two main phases, and the first phase has three different vials to which you must respond. Throughout the fight, Maloriak spawns adds called Aberrations in the back of the room. There are 18 small adds and two large ones. The large ones release during the final phase. You can interrupt Maloriak's attempt to Release Aberrations, allowing you to control the rate at which they appear. However, in phase 2, the boss will release all remaining adds whether you like it or not, so don't wait too long. In general, you want six adds per "vial phase."
As phase 1 proceeds, Maloriak will toss vials into his cauldron. The color of his vials will determine what you should be doing. The colors are red, blue, and green. A green will always be the final phase; there's no way to know which color will get tossed in first. Maloriak cycles through each color twice.
Phase 1
Red vial When Maloriak throws a red vial into the cauldron, everyone needs to stack up. Scorching Blast deals damage to everyone in a frontal cone, spread among everyone stacked. Additionally, he will use Consuming Flames. Move away from the rest of the raid group, and return when Consuming Flames is over.
Blue vial When Maloriak throws a blue vial into the cauldron, he will use Flash Freeze. This will freeze a player in a block of ice and chain to anyone nearby. You must kill the ice tomb to free the player.
Green vial When Maloriak throws a green vial into the cauldron, slime sprays out from the cauldron and everyone in the room gets Debilitating Slime. The slime increases all damage taken by 100% and suppresses any Growth Catalysts.
Phase 2
When Maloriak reaches 25% health, he will enter phase 2. During the transition, Maloriak will release all of his remaining minions. The two large adds must be tanked by an off tank.
Once he has transitioned into phase 2, there are three new abilities.
Magma Jets release a stream of small fire towards a random enemy. These fissures deal 38,000 to 42,000 fire damage to all enemies within 0 yards. In addition, the fissures leave behind a persistent burning effect that deals 18,850 to 21,150 fire damage to everyone near the randomly targeted raid member. Maloriak will target the affected player before using the ability, so you have time to get out of the way.
Biting Chill summons an orb that slowly falls to the ground, exploding on impact. Get out of the way.
Acid Nova deals damage to the entire raid. You must heal this damage.
Other resources
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Ready Check shares all the strategies and inside information you need to take your raiding to the next level. You might also be interested in our strategy guides to Cataclysm's 5-man instances, and for more healer-centric raiding advice, visit Raid Rx.
