Siege of Orgrimmar Boss Preview: Kor'kron Dark Shaman

The Kor'kron Dark Shaman are the seventh boss of the new Siege of Orgrimmar raid instance, which will arrive in patch 5.4. They are the second boss in the Gates of Retribution wing, which is the first of three wings which are located in Orgrimmar. These wings will be applicable to both the Raid Finder and Flexible Raiding difficulties. Kor'kron Dark Shaman was tested in 10-man normal mode with three healers, and two tanks.

The start of the fight sees the two shaman, Earthbreaker Haromm and Wavebinder Kardris, who share a health pool, inside what used to be Garrosh's throne room. They are accompanied by two dogs, and the room is extremely small for the fight on 10-man difficulty, let alone 25-man, so it is best that all four are pulled outside. On PTR, the pull required quite some caution, as the combination of a +100% frost damage debuff cast on the Haromm tank and Kardris' Froststorm Bolt caused some serious issues if aggro was not well-managed, not to mention the bolt one-shotting DPS and healers. The two wolves seemed completely insignificant, with only 12 million HP each they were DPS'd down extremely quickly, then the fight begins for real.

Totems

Just like any shaman, these bosses' abilities revolve around the summoning of totems. There are three totems, which are placed at 90%, 80% and 70% health, and give each boss different abilities. These totems really are the key to the fight, as with the exception of the two frost abilities mentioned before, the bosses really don't do a great deal that isn't related to the totems.

Poisonmist Totem

This is the first totem to appear, when the bosses' joint health pool reaches 90%, and grants the two bosses two abilities. Firstly, Earthbreaker Haromm will be granted Toxic Mist, which seemed to debuff two players at a time, not only inflicting a reasonable 120,000 nature damage per three seconds, but also applying stacks of Toxicity, which was far more problematic, as it stacked up, increasing nature damage taken but 10% per stack. We didn't see it stacking up above 5 stacks, but in a fight where pretty much all the damage is nature damage, +50% is a big deal. The good news is that the majority of the damage is avoidable, but obviously this debuff makes any misstep a far bigger issue. I wouldn't be surprised to see this nerfed somewhat before this encounter goes live.

Wavebinder Kadris is granted Toxic Storm. This stormcloud not only deals heavy damage to anyone near it, but also periodically summons Toxic Tornadoes. You can see both the cloud and the tornadoes above. The cloud, like most of Kadris' abilities, seems to spawn on her head, meaning she needs to be kited quite a lot to avoid excessive damage. Once the cloud has appeared, it will periodically fire off Toxic Tornadoes. These, unlike the ones on Blademaster Ta'Yak don't appear to fixate on a particular player, nor do they seem to pick a spot and remain stationary. Instead, they meander around the area, often in groups, and knock players upwards. They do despawn, but it seems to take some time, and they will cover a fairly wide area, as you can see in the image above.

Foulstream Totem

This is the second totem to be summoned, when the bosses' joint health reaches 80%. Earthbreaker Haromm is given Foul Stream, which appears to fixate on a single player, then flash a broad line of liquid onto the floor, which lasts a short while before disappearing. Again, this inflicts nature damage, and a lot of it, 300,000 to be precise. Don't stand in it! It really does disappear very quickly, the only screenshot I was able to get of it is the one in the header image at the top of the article.

Again, Wavebinder Kadris is granted the far more tiresome ability, Foul Geyser. This spawns, again, from the boss herself, firing bright green liquid off in all directions. The liquid deals damage where it lands, and every bit of liquid spawns a Foul Slime, which emit Foulness. These slimes are many in number, but don't have a great deal of health. They do, however, deal a reasonable amount of AoE damage, particularly en masse, and are best kited by a tank. Hunter misdirects and the like are invaluable here, to turn the slimes' attention to the kiter while they are burned down. Of all the aspects of this fight, the slimes caused the most trouble. We seemed to be getting 18 slimes from every cast of Foul Geyser, which is a lot to handle for a 10-man normal mode. Strong ranged AoE abilities are very important thanks to the AoE damage dealt making these a tricky proposition for melee.

Ashflare Totem

This totem is the last of the three to appear, when the shamans' health pool reaches 70%. Of the totems, it seems to be, mercifully, the least troublesome of the totems. It gives Earthbreaker Haromm, for once, the more entertaining ability, Ashen Wall. This wall of elementals will deal damage to anyone near enough to it to be in their range, but on the PTR, it seemed that they had come over all Gallic and gone on strike. They did almost no damage, and we couldn't find anything in the combat logs indicating that they were doing anything at all. They look cool, though.

Wavebinder Kadris is given Falling Ash by the Ashflare totem, which is the huge red circle of doom you can see in the image above. Oddly enough, standing in it isn't a great idea, what you unfortunately can't see is the slowly falling meteor that is above it. If you're in the circle when that meteor lands, you will not live to tell the tale. It will deal 200,000 damage to everyone in the area regardless of where you're standing, too, but it is easily prepared for with spirit shells and the like.

Bloodlust

Yes, they really are shaman! The fight continues to revolve around these three totems and their associated abilities, until the shamans' health reaches 30%, when they will Bloodlust, increasing all their damage dealt by 30%, and their haste by 30%. While it isn't 100% confirmed to be the case, it would be odd indeed if this didn't include all the summoned abilities, as the shamans themselves really don't do a great deal.

Obviously, this fight involves a good deal of kiting, and as such is not ideal for melee DPS. Haromm is probably the best primary target, as they share a health pool, and Kadris has this annoying habit of constantly summoning things on her head. All the really troublesome abilities come from Kadris, so it could be viable to take Haromm somewhere quiet, like inside a building, and DPS him down while leaving a smaller party outside to deal with Kadris. Of course, this is PTR, so everything's subject to change!