WoW Insider's Guide to Al'Akir
Al'Akir is the second and last fight in the Throne of Four Winds. It is a three-phase fight. The third phase is a three-dimensional fight in which your entire raid will fly around. We'll take each phase one by one.
General strategy
Phase 1 The first phase starts with everyone on the platform. Al'Akir begins in the center and does not move. Your tank must be within range of Al'Akir, or else the boss will use Electrocute on him. Electrocute does a crazy amount of damage, so you absolutely do not want that happening if you can avoid it. If you are a ranged caster, you should keep your distance from Al'Akir, as he will randomly interrupt your spells. Your raid should be spread out so that Lightning Strike can't chain to multiple targets.
Al'Akir will create a squall line. This is essentially a wall of tornadoes with a single hole in it. As this squall line passes around the raid, you must slide through the hole to avoid getting hit by it.
Wind Burst is a huge knockback that Al'Akir casts about once every twenty seconds. It will hit everyone in the raid, knocking them off the edge of platform. To combat this, when you see him about to cast, collapse toward Al'Akir immediately.
If you have to choose between getting knocked off the platform or walking into the squall line, you're probably better off getting knocked off the platform. Phase 1 ends at 80%.
Phase Two The "enrage timer" effect of phase 2 is Acid Rain, which applies a stacking debuff that makes you more susceptible to nature damage. Essentially, the longer you're in phase 2, the higher the debuff goes.
During phase 2, Al'Akir will summon Stormlings. These little guys do area of effect damage to anyone near them. In addition, each time one dies, Al'Akir gets afflicted by Feedback. This debuff lasts for 20 seconds, which is also about how frequently Stormlings spawn. Your goal should be to kill a Stormling near the end of the timer so that the Feedback debuff is constantly present.
Phase 3 Once you hit phase 3 at 25%, the platform will disappear while you fly and you're no longer in three-dimensional space. Starting at the bottom gives you the opportunity to swim upward, avoiding each additional Lightning Cloud, which will fill an entire ring around Al'Akir.
At the same time, Al'Akir will be hitting the raid with Lightning Rod, which will continue a Chain Lightning effect. While you want to position your raid along the same horizontal axis, you should still spread out around Al'Akir so that multiple people cannot be hit. The visible effect is incredibly noticeable, so you shouldn't have much trouble.
Also during this phase, Al'Akir will be using Wind Burst, which is now instant. Just have folks fly back to their position and heal through it.
Abilities
Electrocute Channels a bolt of electricity into the boss's current target, dealing increasing nature damage over time. This ability is only usable if the boss is unable to melee attack its target. This ability will end if the target returns to melee range.
Lightning Strike Essentially a Chain Lightning, Lightning Strike will hit the main target and chain out to other nearby targets.
Wind Burst Deals nature damage to anyone it strikes and knocks them back.
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.
