Ready Check: WoW Insider's Guide to Alysrazor, page 2
Phase 1
Phase 1 is rather simple. There will be two Initiates that fly down at a time, one on the left and one on the right side of the arena. Both need to be locked down and killed. Approximately 10 to 15 seconds after the first set of Initiates spawn, two eggs in the middle of the room will hatch and spawn the Voracious Hatchlings. Your tanks need to be the closest targets to these mini-birds in order to be Imprinted. They don't have to worry about threat or even being the first person to actually hit the mob; the effect is totally proximity-based. From there, the tanks should drag the Hatchlings to their respective sides, as Alsyrazor should be doing her first sweep through the center in a little bit.
Last but certainly not least, four Plump Lava Worms will burst up from the ground a little bit after the Hatchlings spawn. These buggers don't move, merely standing in place and spewing lava in circles. Each side has two Worms, and each tank will need two Worms in order to feed their Hatchlings before another set spawns.
In total, you get around four or five Initiates and two sets of four Plump Lava Worms during each ground phase. Alysrazor will sweep past the center of the room to drop feathers and kill anyone in her path twice per phase, as well. While the assigned fliers should get all of their feathers within the first sweep, the rest of the raid should ensure that they gather two feathers before phase 2 starts -- especially healers, because there is a lot of sporadic movement, and you don't want a tank to die due to needing to move out of sudden death.
More than anything else, this phase is your gear check/burn phase. Failure to kill the Hatchlings before phase 2 starts is probably going to lead to a wipe and certainly leads to a tank death. Two sets of Lava Worms, and only two sets, spawn. If the Hatchlings are still alive going into phase 2, they'll Tantrum with nothing to feed them.
Phase 2
Phase 2 is relatively short and easy. Anyone who was previously flying will be knocked to the ground, while a giant vortex will spawn in the middle of the room. Given all the bad things that tend to happen in the middle of the room, there's really not much point in standing there, anyway -- but just in case you needed that reminder ...
After a few short seconds, a swatch of tornadoes will form and begin to circle around the room. The tornadoes will form four separate "walls" that spin counter to one another. For example, the set of tornadoes that is closest to the vortex might spin clockwise; the set after that one would spin counterclockwise. The concept is pretty simple: Dodge tornadoes.
Doing this is far easier than it sounds. All you need to do is wait for a tornado to pass by, then follow right in its trail. They move ridiculously fast, so if the one you are following starts to slip away, just wait until you pass a tornado from one of the walls next to you and switch to following it. Remember, those will always be moving in the opposite direction.
The skill in this phase comes not really in dodging tornadoes but in being able to snag as many Blazing Power rings as you can. A pretty good number of them spawn as you duck and weave your way through the fiery death, and getting as many as you can is essential, as they provide a massive haste buff going into the next phase. Once you are confident dodging tornadoes, then you can begin to flip-flop between them to snag rings. Don't worry about it you don't feel safe; even running in a circle usually gets you a few.
Phases 3 and 4
While the game technically separates them, phases 3 and 4 are essentially the same. After the vortex subsides, Alysrazor plummets to the ground, having spent all of her energy in a vain attempt to burn you to a crisp. At this point, she's vulnerable and takes 50% additional damage. Unload as much DPS onto her as possible, popping Bloodlust and any other damage cooldowns that you might have. Healers should DPS during this phase, too; there is zero damage going out, and each spell you cast on her refunds a boatload of mana. Paladin healers should use spells and not melee attacks in order to return their mana.
Tanks, sadly, won't be DPSing. Instead, two new adds will spawn on either side of Alysrazor that funnel more fire energy into her. It's the tank's jobs to interrupt, stun, and generally annoy these adds as much as possible. You want to keep Alysrazor in this state as long as you possibly can. Once she reaches 50 energy, she'll reignite, bursting slightly into the air.
At this point, tanks need to pick her up and face her away from the raid and each other. DPS should continue to burn her down while healers prepare for the fight of their lives, since she deals some pretty nasty raid damage. Tanks will be debuffed by her claws to take additional fire and physical damage; generally, each tank should end up only eating five of these debuffs. Once Alysrazor hits 100 energy, she'll knock the entire raid back and take to the skies again. From this point, the entire process repeats itself.
Try to shoot for cycling through all of her phases two times, but on your first kill, you might end up seeing three. Every time you finish a cycle, though, is nearly akin to completely resetting the encounter. Healers should be peachy on mana, tanks should be dandy without anything threatening to kill them, while DPS go back to their business of pew-pewing.
Just keep in mind that everything within this encounter needs to be fairly tight -- interrupts, DPS on the Hatchlings, healing, everything. Losing even a single person on this encounter can end pretty badly, depending how well geared you are.
Good luck, and have fun!
Ready Check shares all the strategies and inside information you need to take your raiding to the next level. Be sure to look up our strategy guides to Cataclysm's 5-man instances, and for more healer-centric advice, visit Raid Rx.
