Laboratory

[Bastet]

The Laboratory

Once Broodlord Lashlayer lies dead at the head of the 2nd Suppression Room, the gate that he protected will immediately open, allowing access to the extensive Laboratory area that lies beyond. This area consists of a single massive hall, that winds to and fro as it climbs from one landing to the next, leading ever higher towards the throne of Nefarian at the peak of Blackwing Lair.

Within this Laboratory, a number of trash mob pulls of various types block your path. Orcs, goblins, shapeshifted (or so we assume) dragonkin, and lesser varieties of draconids (kin to Broodlord Lashlayer) all make an appearance, in groups of various sizes. These chambers house a number of Alchemy Lab apparatuses, each of which may be used at will to concoct Flasks, once the nearby trash and/or boss mobs have been dispatched in the current instance.

Interspersed through the Laboratory you will find the 3 drake bosses of Blackwing Lair: Firemaw, Ebonroc, and Flamegor. Firemaw patrols nearly the entire length of the Laboratory, whereas Ebonroc and Flamegor each wander in a much more limited area. All three Drakes share features in common with one another, and understanding the first drake encounter will provide quite a leg up in understanding those of the other two drakes.

Before you will be able to engage any of the drakes in combat, however, you must first contend with 2-3 trash mob pulls that we refer to as Technician Packs (after the type of mob that makes up the bulk of each group).


Technician Packs

Spaced throughout the Laboratory, you will find a grand total of 7 of these Packs. Each Pack consists of an assortment, differing slightly from one Pack to the next, of 4 varieties of mobs (orcs, goblins, dragonkin, and draconids are all represented). One type appearing in each Pack can summon an additional variety of demonic mob to do their bidding, as well. If any member of a Pack survives a bad pull, the entire Pack will respawn; they cannot be split or pulled and killed incrementally (barring buggy linked aggro coding, which we have observed).

The mobs types that comprise these Packs are as follows:

* Blackwing Warlocks - Each Pack contains 2. Warlocks are level 61+ orc casters with ~120k HP. They can cast a targeted rain of fire that has a very large area of effect and causes ~700 damage per tick, and frequently spam a multi-target shadowbolt that inflicts ~1400 damage against up to 3 targets near one another. They can also summon in an Enraged Felguard demonic minion (see below), and will do so if they are not dispatched quickly enough. They cannot be sheeped or otherwise CC'd, and must be tanked instead. Because they are casters, this can be difficuly to manage however. They will be killed first on each pull.

* Blackwing Technicians - Each Pack contains 6 to 10. As noted earlier in the writeup for Vaelastrasz the Corrupt, Technicians are level 60+ goblins with ~15k HP. They are armed with short-range grenade projectiles that they throw at their current target. The aggro tables of all of the Technicians in each Pack appear to be linked; they will tend to move so as to stay clustered closely together, and focus their volleys of thrown grenades on one target at a time. Because of the slow speed of these projectiles, it is possible to mitigate the damage output of the Technicians by the simple expedient of staying in constant motion. If someone has aggro and runs in circles around a cluster of Technicians, they will take minimal damage from the grenades. If engaged from melee range, their physical attacks also inflict a stacking poison effect as well. They can be sheeped and otherwise CC'd, but their sheer numbers make them hard to deal with via CC in the context of a complete Pack pull. They will be killed second on each pull.

* Blackwing Spellbinders - Each Pack contains 0 to 2. Spellbinders are level 61+ dragonkin mobs with ~110k HP, though they take on the guise of Blood Elves. They have a short-range polymorph ability, as well as a medium-range targeted AoE flame strike that does a moderately high amount of damage. Their primary feature is a complete and total immunity to all schools of magic; they can only be harmed by physical attacks alone. As a result, they cannot be CC'd via normal methods, though they are susceptible to physical stuns. They will be killed third on each pull, but due to their magical immunities they will generally be attacked simultaneously to the Death Talon Overseers (see below).

* Death Talon Overseers - Each Pack contains 0 or 1. Overseers are level 62+ draconids with ~160k HP, counting as humanoids for game purposes. They have moderately powerful melee attacks, including a frontal cleave. Their primary feature is a random vulnerability to a single school of magic, uniquely determined for each individual mob. Each is highly resistant to the schools of magic to which it is not vulnerable. They cannot be sheeped or otherwise CC'd, though they are susceptible to physical stuns. They will be killed fourth on each pull, but they will generally be attacked simultaneously to the Blackwing Spellbinders (see above).

* Enraged Felguards - Are summoned by the Blackwing Warlocks. As a result, how many will appear in a given pull depends upon how quickly the Warlocks within that pull are dispatched. They have mean single-target melee attacks, an AoE thunderclap that slows those affected, and a fire-based melee damage shield effect. They can be banished, and all of the warlocks within the raid should be on the lookout for the telltale portal that indicates a Felguard is being summoned. When it appears, the Felguard will be banished, and kept banished until all other mobs within the pull have been dispatched. If any appear during a given pull, they will be killed last.

Strategy:

1. Targets will be assigned to MTs in the following order: Warlocks -> a single Technician -> Spellbinders (if any) -> Overseer (if any). From 3 to 6 MTs may be required, depending upon the number of Spellbinders and Overseers present.

2. A hunter puller will aggro one of the mobs in the Pack (generally a Warlock) from range, "blind pulling" all of the caster types by moving safely out of LoS until all of those mobs are being tanked.

3. Each MT aggros and tanks his assigned target, or (in the case of MT3) the entire group of Technicians associated with this Pack. MT3 should aggro the Technicians using AoE threat-generating abilities, and then begin running around them in circles to avoid being hit by their grenades.

4. The raid burns down both Warlocks, one at a time. Any Felguards that are summoned before these Warlocks are killed must be banished and kept banished until all other mobs from the Pack are dead.

5. Once the Warlocks are dead, all classes with ranged AoE attacks (Flame Strike, Blizzard, Volley, etc.) will focus fire on the mass of Technicians and burn them down quickly as a group. Rogues begin attacking the first Spellbinder target while this occurs.

6. Hunters and rogues kill the Spellbinders one at a time, while ranged magical DPS classes (mages and warlocks) begin to attack the Overseer within the Pack. Once its magical vulnerability is determined, the raid should be informed so as to maximize its effectiveness versus the Overseer.

7. If any Felguards remain banished after all of the other mobs within a Pack have been killed, they will be unbanished and burned down with focus fire.

Each Pack is handled in essentially the same fashion, though the distance and specific method used to pull each Pack depends upon its location as well as other nearby Packs.

A total of 3 Technician Packs are either directly in between the gate to the Laboratory and the closest point of the pathway along which Firemaw patrols, or close enough that they represent a danger to the raid if they are not eliminated before Firemaw himself is pulled. Once these 3 Packs are killed, it is possible to safely pull Firemaw.