| Name | Serpentshrine Cavern: Fathom-Lord Karathress Guide |
| Category | Raid |
After killing Leotheras the Blind (or passing him), proceed to the small tunnel behind Leotheras the Blind's room. Inside this short tunnel are a couple of patrolling Greyheart packs, mainly consisting of Greyheart Shield-Bearers and Greyheart Tidecallers. Just crowd control as much Greyheart mob as possible and kill them one at a time. At the end of the tunnel, you will then see a large room with several Underbog Colossi roaming around this room. This is Fathom-Lord Karathress' room and you can immediately see him at the right side of this room.
Trash mob information
Underbog Colossus - These are large bog lord-type mobs which come in single pulls. These mobs are fairly similar to the Anubisath Sentinels in Ahn'Qiraj, in which they have a random main ability, weakness, and death ability everytime.
Underbog Colossus' Random Abilities
Main Ability 1: Rampant Infection and Spore Quake - Occasionally, the Underbog Colossus does a Spore Quake ability which deals 1291-1499 nature damage per tick to anyone within 30 yard range. This generally hurts especially to the melee people, since they can't get out of it immediately without taking several ticks in. It also has a knockdown effect so melee people should be careful. In addition, the Underbog Colossus will cast a Rampant Infection on a random person. This disease acts like Prayer of Mending, which jumps from one person to another every after 1.5 seconds. It deals nature damage every time it jumps, and the damage stacks every time it jumps. If people can be fast enough, they can cure disease the person before it can jump to another person.
Main Ability 2: Acid Geyser and Serpentshrine Parasite - Occasionally, the Underbog colossus will shoot sprays of acid to a random person. This will make the Underbog Colossus face the random person, and anyone within a frontal cone range of the Colossus will be affected. If this happens, just have the targeted person move out off the raid so they won't be affected by the Acid Geyser. In addition to the Acid Geyser, the Underbog Colossus summons a 1 hp parasite to a random person in the raid. This parasite will crawl out and attempt to enter its target. If the person gets the parasite, s/he will get a debuff which deals 2000 nature damage every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. Once the effect wears off, or the person dies from the damage, the parasite will move out and attempt to infect a new person. Also, if the person died from the parasite, it will spawn several more parasites. Just heal the person who has the parasite, and kill the parasite when it’s out.
Main Ability 3: Frenzy and Atrophic Blow - This is the easiest of the Underbog Colossus' abilities, and it can just be easily dispelled by a Tranquilizing Shot from a hunter, or just healed through by the healers. The Atrophic Blow ability of the Underbog Colossus deals 1313-2187 nature damage to the tank, and applies a stackable debuff which reduces strength and stamina by 30 per stack. The debuff can stack up to 30, and lasts for 20 seconds.
Death Ability 1: Toxic Pool - As soon as the Underbog Colossus dies, a green pool will appear under the Underbog Colossus. Anyone standing on it will receive 2138-2362 nature damage per second. This ability is pretty much deadly for the melee people. Just run out immediately from it.
Death Ability 2: Colossus Lurker spawn - As soon as the Underbog Colossus dies, 2-3 Colossus Lurkers will spawn. Just have the tanks catch them and kill them one at a time. They have around 140k health.
Death Ability 3: Colossus Rager spawn - As soon as the Underbog Colossus dies, several Colossus Ragers will spawn. Just have the tanks gather them up, then AoE them all. They only have around 34k health.
Death Ability 4: Refreshing Mist - As soon as the Underbog Colossus dies, several blue mushrooms will appear under the Underbog Colossus which lasts for 20 seconds. Anyone standing within the mushrooms will receive a beneficial buff called Refreshing Mist which regenerates their health and mana. You can get multiple Refreshing Mist buffs on you since every mushroom emits this mist.
Death Ability 5: Nothing - When the Underbog Colossus dies, it just dies and won't trigger any death ability.
**These mobs respawn after 2 hours. Underbog Colossi in his room are linked to Fathom-Lord Karathress, so killing him will stop their respawns.
Coming from the tunnel from Leotheras the Blind's room, pull one Underbog Colossus at a time, and bring it to the mouth of the tunnel. Tank it there, and have the raid stay behind with max range from the tank and the mob. The tunnel limits players' mobility to avoid the Colossus' abilities so be careful. When you have cleared some of the nearby Underbog Colossus, the raid can move inside to have more room for the Underbog Colossus' abilities. Continue pulling these Colossi one at a time until you have cleared the whole room of it. Once the room is clear, drink / eat / rebuff and get ready for a boss fight.
Fathom-Lord Karathress
The naga boss inside the Serpentshrine Cavern instance. He is located in between Leotheras the Blind and Morogrim Tidewalker's rooms. Has 3 'guards' beside him, which are included in the boss fight itself. This boss fight is pretty much healing-intensive due to the massive amount of raid damage that can happen, including the damage the tank receives. Fathom-Lord Karathress also holds the tier5 leg tokens.
Raid Composition
4-5 Tanks (4 are primarily needed to tank all adds including Karathress himself)
8-9 Healers
At least 1 Shaman (for interrupting heals)
At least 1 Warlock (for placing Curse of Tongues on the Fathom-Guard Caribdis)
At least 1 Hunter (for Misdirecting an add to a tank)
Remaining slots for DPS
Key Abilities
Fathom-Lord Karathress:
Cataclysmic Bolt - Fathom-Lord Karathress' main ability. Every 10 seconds, he will cast this spell which looks like several black orbs swirling, to a random raid member. Upon hitting the player, it deals 50% of his total health points, unless it got completely resisted. This bolt deals shadow damage, and basically targets anyone with mana. This means, warriors / rogues / shapeshifted druids are safe from this ability. The bolt also interrupts casting and 'stuns' the player for a couple of seconds.
Sear Nova - Fathom-Lord Karathress' secondary ability. He will occasionally cast this spell which deals 2850-3150 fire damage on an 8-yard radius from him.
Blessing of the Tides - Fathom-Lord Karathress' semi-enrage ability. If the raid decided to focus on Fathom-Lord Karathress while his guards are still alive, he will use this skill when his health drops to 75%. This buff increases his overall damage by 65% and reduces the time between his attacks by 65% for 10 minutes. It stacks to 3, with him gaining a stack for every guard still alive. This means if all 3 guards are still alive he will get 3 stacks of this buff, but if the raid killed and let the 2 survive, Karathress will only get 2 stacks. Still, if he gets to have this buff, its most likely a wipe since Cataclysmic Bolts would hit for more, maybe even one-shotting anyone.
Power of Sharkkis - Buff gained by Fathom-Lord Karathress when Fathom-Guard Sharkkis dies. With this buff, he will gain Fathom-Guard Sharkkis' main ability - The Beast Within. Even though Fathom-Lord Karathress does not have any pet, he can still occasionally use this ability which grants him 30% more damage on his attacks.
Power of Tidalvess - Buff gained by Fathom-Lord Karathress when Fathom-Guard Tidalvess dies. With this buff, he will gain Fathom-Guard Tidalvess' main ability - Spitfire Totem. He can then throw down a Spitfire totem occasionally which functions similarly with Fathom-Guard Tidalvess' Spitfire Totem.
Power of Caribdis - Buff gained by Fathom-Lord Karathress when Fathom-Guard Caribdis dies. With this buff, he will gain Fathom-Guard Caribdis' main ability - Tidal Surge. Every 15-20 seconds from then, he will cast this ability to encase each and every melee around him within 10 yards in an ice block which deals 1663-1837 frost damage and stuns them for 3 seconds. Basically the same ability as Fathom-Guard Caribdis'.
Enrage - If Fathom-Lord Karathress is not killed within 10 minutes, he will enrage, bringing a definite wipe on the raid within seconds.
Fathom-Guard Sharkkis (Hunter):
The Beast Within - Fathom-Guard Sharkkis' main ability. He will occasionally do this when he has a pet out, enraging both himself and his pet which increases his own damage by 30% and his pet's damage by 50%. This ability lasts for 18 seconds.
Leeching Throw - Fathom-Guard Sharkkis' secondary ability. He will periodically use this on mana users which burns 525 of their health and mana every 2 seconds for 12 seconds. Undispellabe, and is very dangerous for healers.
Multi-Shot - Similar to a hunter's Multi Shot skill. This ability can cause around 2-3k damage on 3 targets within range of Fathom-Guard Sharkkis.
Summon Pet - Periodically, Fathom-Guard Sharkkis will summon one of his 2 pets, one is a Fathom Sporebat (beast), and the other is a Fathom Lurker (elemental). Both these pets cannot be crowd controlled, so they need to be tanked either by Fathom-Guard Sharkkis's tank, or by a spare tank.
Fathom-Guard Tidalvess (Shaman):
Totems - Fathom-Guard Tidalvess can cast 3 different totems.
Spitfire Totem - Fathom-Guard Tidalvess' main totem ability. He will occasionally drop this totem near him. This fire totem has 25000 health, and functions like a stronger Searing Totem. The Spitfire Totem can do 2550-3450 fire damage on up to 5 targets within 30 yards from the totem. This totem lasts for 1 minute, and due to its destructive power, its imperative that this totem should be destroyed immediately as soon as it appears.
Poison Cleansing Totem - Fathom-Guard Tidalvess' water totem ability. He can cast this occasionally together with his other totems. It just basically cleanses any poison debuffs he has and does nothing more dangerous, so this totem can and should be ignored.
Earthbind Totem - Fathom-Guard Tidalvess' earth totem ability. He can cast this occasionally together with his other totems. It just basically slows down movement of everyone within its range by 50% and does nothing more dangerous, so this totem can and should be ignored.
Windfury - Fathom-Guard Tidalvess' melee ability. Functions normally like a shaman's, it gives Fathom-Guard Tidalvess 2 extra attacks, basically dealing massive burst melee damage on his tank.
Frost Shock - Fathom-Guard Tidalvess' secondary offensive ability. Functions normally like a shaman's, it deals 5400-6600 frost damage to his target, and slows his movement down for 8 seconds. The slow effect is negligible, but the 6k damage it deals can be very dangerous to Fathom-Guard Tidalvess' tank, especially if it follows Windfury hits. This ability can and should be negated by a shaman's Grounding Totem to reduce his burst damage to the tank.
Fathom-Guard Caribdis (Priest):
Tidal Surge - Fathom-Guard Caribdis' main ability. This ability deals 1663-1837 frost damage to everyone within a 10 yard radius from her. Additionally, it encases affected players in ice, stunning them for 3 seconds but still vulnerable to damage and their aggro is retained. This can pose a problem on melee if she casts heal while they are stunned. This ability can be resisted if you have enough frost resist on.
Water Bolt Volley - Fathom-Guard Caribdis' secondary ability. She will occasionally cast this spell to everyone within 45 yard radius from her. This ability deals 2775-3225 frost damage to affected players.
Heal - Fathom-Guard Caribdis' restorative ability. This ability does not rely on line-of-sight or range, and can be cast on any of her allies including herself when the target is around 50% health or less. It is a single-target heal spell which heals for quite an amount of health (around 20-30% of the target's health). Has a 1.5 second cast time but can be increased by placing Curse of Tongues on Fathom-Guard Caribdis. Can and should always be interrupted either by melee (warrior / rogue) or ranged (shaman). 15 second cooldown.
Summon Cyclone - Fathom-Guard Caribdis' disruptive ability. This ability summons a large, blue cyclone which moves around the whole room slowly. The cyclone itself is not really dangerous since it does not deal any damage, but anyone caught in it will be thrown up into the air, disrupting spellcasts. Also, those players that have been thrown up will get a debuff for a few seconds which increases their casting time. Can be very problematic if healers are caught up in it, except for tree druids which can still cast instant HoTs while up in the air.
Tank Assignments
For this fight, at least 4 tanks are required to tank Fathom-Lord Karathress and his guards. Fathom-Guard Sharkkis, however, summons his pet during the fight. If there are only 4 tanks available, Fathom-Guard Sharkkis should also tank his pet when it appears, and this is most suitable for a feral druid or protection paladin to do. If there is a spare tank (feral druid mostly preferred so they can still decently DPS later on), he can get Fathom-Guard Sharkkis' pet and tank it. This will help Sharkkis' tank to just focus on tanking him instead of splitting tanking aggro.
Fathom-Lord Karathress' tank should be the main tank. Fathom-Guard Tidalvess' tank should be the second best geared tank and has the highest health since Tidalvess can basically throw him a big, nasty burst which might kill him in seconds if he only has too little health. Finally, Fathom-Guard Caribdis should be tanked by a warrior, basically to help in interrupting the heal with Pummel / Shield Bash if he can.
Healer Assignments
This fight will be the greatest challenge for the healers yet. There will be too much random bursts of raid damage due to Fathom-Lord Karathress' Cataclysmic Bolts, Fathom-Guard Tidalvess' Spitfire Totem, and Fathom-Guard Caribdis' Water Bolt Volley / Tidal Surge. In addition to the raid damage, the tanks will still be receiving tons of damage, especially Fathom-Guard Tidalvess' tank. For the healer assignments, 1 main healer should be assigned to heal the main tank (Fathom-Lord Karathress' tank). Fathom-Guard Sharkkis' tank should have 1 main healer.
Fathom-Guard Tidalvess' tank on the other hand should have at most 3 main healers on him due to Tidalvess' potential to 1 / 2-shot the tank with its burst damage. Fathom-Guard Caribdis' tank can be handled with 1 main healer. The rest of the healers should focus on raid healing, healing those being hit by Spitfire Totem and Cataclysmic Bolts. They should also help out on healing Fathom-Guard Sharkkis' tank and its pet's tank (if there are any). Restoration shamans are better assigned for this task with their Chain Heal skill. After killing Fathom-Guard Sharkkis, its tank's healer should move to healing Fathom-Lord Karathress' tank since Karathress will be gaining The Beast Within ability, increasing his damage output to the tank.
After Fathom-Guard Tidalvess dies, have its tank's healers split up. One of its healers should go help out on Fathom-Lord Karathress' tank, having him / her stay beyond the Spitfire Totem's range and prioritize on healing the tank's healers from Spitfire Totem damage. The rest of the healers move on to Fathom-Guard Caribdis and help on raid healing since the raid will most likely receive more raid damage now with them being within range of her Water Bolt Volleys, and the melee getting hit by Tidal Surges. After all guards are down, its just a matter of having 3-4 main healers on Fathom-Lord Karathress' tank while the rest focus on raid healing.
At this point, everyone will be ignoring the Spitfire Totem and would be burning Fathom-Lord Karathress as fast as possible before his enrage timer runs out. With the number of healers available, it should be easier to just ignore the Spitfire Totem and just heal through its damage. The Spitfire Totem targets 5 players at most anyway, and they should be easy to heal with around 4-5 raid healers available at this point.
Other Assignments
Aside from the basic tanking and healing assignments, a couple of people should be assigned with special tasks. First, the shaman. If there are any elemental shamans present in the raid, he should be the one assigned for interrupting Fathom-Guard Caribdis' heals with his Earth Shocks. Incidentally, he should be wearing his spell hit gear for this fight so that most, if not all, of his Earth Shocks would successfully hit Fathom-Guard Caribdis and interrupt the heal.
If there are no elemental shamans available, just assign a dedicated restoration shaman. He should also stay beyond the Tidal Surge's range (10 yards) and just DPS idly while one of the other guards isn't down to 50% health yet. Once they reach 50% health, this shaman should stop DPSing and just monitor Caribdis' actions, waiting to Earth Shock her heals. The heal has a base 1.5 seconds cast time, so he should be fast to catch it. This cast time can be increased by Curse of Tongues, and this is where a warlock comes in. The raid should assign 1 dedicated warlock to keep Curse of Tongues on Fathom-Guard Caribdis at all times.
This will help give the shaman more time to interrupt Fathom-Guard Caribdis' heals. No heals from Caribdis should be cast successfully and this will rely entirely on the interrupting shaman (and of course Caribdis' tank itself with his Pummels / Shield Bashes), or else the fight will last longer and may even push it to the enrage timer.
DPS Macro
Every DPS class should make a macro to target the Spitfire Totem. Make a macro and input "/target Spitfire Totem". This simple targeting macro will help the DPS to target the totem immediately so they can destroy it as soon as possible.
Positioning and Pulling
Before the fight, everyone will be staying by the south side of the room (while Fathom-Lord Karathress and his guards are by the north). When everyone is buffed up and ready to go, have Fathom-Guard Caribdis' tank move to the east side (by the tunnel where you came from) together with its healer and the assigned shaman to interrupt the heals. The rest should stay where they are currently. When its ready to pull, all of the tanks except Caribdis' tank should simultaneously move in to get their own targets themselves.
The hunter should be misdirecting Caribdis to its respective tank, then moving back with the raid. If there is a spare hunter in the raid, have Tidalvess' tank stay at the left of the raid (corner of the room) instead and have that hunter misdirect Tidalvess to its respective tank. The rest of the tanks should move and get their own targets themselves. Upon engaging, Fathom-Lord Karathress and his tank and its healer should be staying where Karathress was earlier (by the bonfire), outside of the Spitfire Totem's range.
Fathom-Guards Sharkkis and Tidalvess should be brought down to the southwest corner of the room near the raid, and Fathom-Guard Caribdis should be far away from everyone (at the mouth of the tunnel leading back to Leotheras the Blind's room). Sharkkis' and Tidalvess' tanks can stay near each other. Everyone else should spread out so that there would be less people affected when the whirlwind passes by. The whirlwind should be avoided if possible so you won't get interrupted on what you were doing.
The Kill Order: Sharkkis -> Sharkiss' pet (if there are any) -> Tidalvess -> Caribdis -> Karathress
This is the kill order that should be followed by the raid. Aside from this, the Spitfire Totems should be on the highest priority and should be destroyed immediately. Whenever its up, everyone should stop DPS on their current target and switch to the Spitfire Totem, then resuming once the totem is down. This will only hold true while Sharkkis and Tidalvess are still alive.
Killing Fathom-Guard Sharkkis
Fathom-Guard Sharkkis will be the first guard to die. Once he is in the correct position at the southwest (near Tidalvess) and aggro is stable enough, everyone should start DPS on Sharkkis. This should be tank-and-spank until he dies. When Sharkkis summons his pet, tank should grab it quickly and bring it somewhere nearby. Continue DPS on Sharkkis and ignore his pet for now. When Sharkkis' health reaches 50%, signal it to the interrupting shaman so he / she knows that the heals should be monitored and interrupted.
Continue DPS until he dies, then move to his pet if there are any (Sharkkis despawns his pet in the middle of the fight sometimes, possibly to summon his other pet). While DPSing Sharkkis, Tidalvess will be dropping his Spitfire Totems. When this happens, everyone DPSing should STOP DPS ON SHARKKIS and FOCUS FIRE ON THE SPITFIRE TOTEM. Destroy it as fast as you can, before resuming DPS on Sharkkis. Everyone should do this everytime Sharkkis drops the Spitfire Totem to help the raid healers with their job (and mana).
Killing Fathom-Guard Tidalvess
Fathom-Guard Tidalvess should be the next guard to die after Fathom-Guard Sharkkis. After killing Sharkkis' pet (if there are any), proceed to burn down Tidalvess fast. Sharkkis' tank's healer should move to healing Karathress' tank since he'll receive more damage now with The Beast Within. Pop your cooldowns, use Bloodlusts / Heroisms and bring down Tidalvess as fast as you can.
While doing so, don't forget to still FOCUS ON THE SPITFIRE TOTEM whenever Tidalvess uses it, and resume DPS on Tidalvess after destroying the totem each time. Tidalvess should die fast, and make sure to tell the interrupting shaman when Tidalvess' health reaches about 60% for him to start monitoring heal casts. After Tidalvess dies, clean up the remaining Spitfire Totem if Tidalvess manages to drop one before dying before moving on to the last guard.
Killing Fathom-Guard Caribdis
Fathom-Guard Caribdis should be the last guard to die. After killing Tidalvess, its tank's healers should split up and go to their respective assignments (1 healer move to healing Karathress' tank's healers while staying outside Spitfire Totem range, rest help raid heal on Caribdis). Caribdis doesn't have that much health and should die fast. Healers just make sure to heal the ranged people from the Water Bolt Volley damages and the melee from the Tidal Surge damages. Basically tank-and-spank until she dies. Don't forget to interrupt her heals still. After she dies, everyone move to Karathress to deliver the finishing blow.
Killing Fathom-Lord Karathress
By this time, there should be more than enough raid healers to heal through all of his abilities, including the Spitfire Totem damage. Just have 3-4 dedicated main tank healers and the rest just heal through all the raid damage. At this point, just have everyone unload everything on Karathress and burn him down quickly before he enrages. Ignore the Spitfire Totems and let the healers handle it by just healing through the damage. It will put more strain on the healers, but you will be killing Karathress faster this way. Just keep the main tank up and this fight is won.
Additional Notes - After Killing Tidalvess
After you kill Fathom-Guard Tidalvess, Karathress will receive his Spitfire Totem ability. This means, Karathress can now drop a Spitfire Totem near him and can be very dangerous for the main tank's healers. To prevent the Spitfire Totem from pinning down the healers, have the main tank move Karathress bit by bit. Specifically, when Karathress drops a Spitfire Totem, the tank should move Karathress several yards away from the totem, but not in the direction of Caribdis and the raid.
Doing this will help the healers outrange the Spitfire Totem by moving with the tank, and therefore moving out of range from the totem. The best way for using this strategy is to kite him back and forth, from his original position to the northwest corner and vice-versa. Be careful, however, when moving Karathress, since there is a huge pillar that can obstruct the healers' line-of-sight. Just have some of the healers move ahead to where they won't have any line-of-sight problems with the tank on its destination.
Just be careful when the healers move to the left, near the large hallway going to Morogrim Tidewalker's room. There is a pack of naga mobs patrolling there, so be careful not to go too near the mouth of the hallway, or you might accidentally aggro them.
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