Felhounds of Sargeras Strategy/Tactics for Normal/Heroic
Table of Contents
General Information
On this page, you will find a working strategy to defeat Felhounds of Sargeras in Antorus, the Burning Throne for both Normal and Heroic modes, which usually only differ by the tuning of the boss.
Here, we assume that you have read our descriptions of the abilities for this encounter.
The other pages of our Felhounds of Sargeras guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.
Positioning and Strategy
The melee should split themselves between the two bosses, while the ranged and Healers should gravitate towards the center of the room. It is recommended you place a raid marker as the ranged "anchor". As the fight begins, the Tanks should keep the Felhounds split up on either side of arena. Bloodlust/ Time Warp should be cast a few moments into the encounter, once the Tanks are firmly planted in the desired positions and the ranged and Healers have moved in to occupy the area's center.
It is crucial to keep the Felhounds faced away from the raid due to the frontal cleaves from Burning Maw and Corrupting Maw. There is no need to perform a taunt swap between the Felhounds at any point.
Consuming Sphere travels slowly but should be avoided by all members of the group. While the initial damage is low, Consumed can stack quickly and result in fatalities. Movement speed cooldowns are helpful for quickly putting distance between the group and the Consuming Sphere; Stampeding Roar, for example, can be used to great effect.
Desolate Gaze targets should spread out to ensure none of the charge paths are overlapping. Ideally, the middle of the room should be kept clear to afford the ranged and Healers space to work and prevent them from having to move unnecessarily. It is also important to take care not to point the Desolate Paths towards either of the Tanks.
When Molten Touch (Heroic+ only) is cast, the Healers need to pay special attention to the affected players. The rest of the raid should avoid the Erupting Flames; if the ranged and Healers are stacked in the room's center, then the bulk of the flames should be targeted there. This makes it very easy for the entire group to quickly sidestep as a unit. The easiest way to coordinate this is simply to place a raid marker there.
Siphon Corruption and Weight of Darkness (Heroic+ only) are both dealt with very easily. The ranged DPS and Healers will stack tightly in the middle of the room, with any affected melee also joining the ranged stack to split their debuffs. Healing cooldowns are recommended, particularly during Siphon Corruption, as there will be a significant amount of AoE damage dealt to the stack.
The ranged and Healers should form a loose spread when F'harg is approaching 100 Energy, as this signifies that Enflame Corruption will be cast shortly. The recipients of Enflamed should quickly move out of the group entirely before their debuffs expire to ensure no unnecessary damage is done.
Ability Overlaps
The key difficulty present in the fight is the existence of mechanical overlaps due to Focusing Power. Early in the encounter, there will be little to no mechanical overlap. As the group progresses throughout the fight, however, the Felhounds' abilities will begin to line up, creating challenging problems for the raid to overcome in order for victory to be achieved. Many of these overlaps are not present on Normal difficulty.
One of the earliest overlaps is Consuming Sphere occurring concurrently with Enflame Corruption. This is a fairly inconsequential point, as the raid should already be spread for Enflame, negating most of the threat of the Sphere. The pull of the Sphere, however, can disrupt the spread somewhat if the raid is not ready for it. Personal movement speed cooldowns are perfect here, and Stampeding Roar is fantastic if available.
Siphon Corruption will occasionally overlap with Molten Touch. This is another trivial overlap, as the ranged and Healers should be stacked regardless. The group will have to sidestep the Erupting Flames while remaining stacked to split the damage from Siphoned. The easiest method of orchestrating this is simply to place another world marker about 10 yards from the ranged anchor. When Molten Touch is cast, everyone stacked in ranged will move to the other marker, completely avoiding the Erupting Flames. It is very important to move as a unit and at the proper time, however, as early movement may cause the Erupting Flames to be in the path of the group.
Enflame Corruption will eventually overlap with Weight of Darkness, which can be very dangerous. Healing cooldowns are highly recommended in this situation, as it is possible (and likely) that at least one of the targets of Weight of Darkness will also be affected by Enflamed. It is easiest for the group to simply remain stacked; any Enflamed players who do not have a Weight of Darkness debuff should get away from the group. Use potent healing cooldowns like Spirit Link Totem to survive the splash damage while soaking all the fears.
The most threatening of all the overlaps occurs very late into the encounter, and if your damage is strong it is likely you will not experience this at all. Enflame Corruption and Siphon Corruption will occur simultaneously, causing a high amount of raid damage. The easiest way to handle this occurrence is identical to the Enflame/Weight of Darkness overlap; stack up, and any Enflamed players must exit the stack immediately to detonate their debuff safely. Healing cooldowns are highly recommended.
Tank Concerns
This is a fairly "AFK" fight for the Tanks. Once the dogs are in position, your only real responsibility is to ensure that Burning Maw and/or Corrupting Maw do not result in your death. Active mitigation should be used as the stacks mount, and larger cooldowns may be necessary depending on your class and level of gear.
Other periods of heightened threat are the aforementioned mechanical overlaps; the Healers may be preoccupied with other targets, and therefore caution is advised during these windows.
Healing Concerns
Healers bear the brunt of the responsibility for this fight. The raid damage present during this fight can be quite substantial if your raid group fails to execute the mechanics cleanly. Pay special attention to the following aspects.
- Tanks will need more healing than usual during Burning Maw/ Corrupting Maw.
- The targets of Molten Touch will need surgical healing during the initial stun and continued care while Singed is ticking.
- Cooldowns should be planned for the mechanical overlaps mentioned above.
DPS Notes
Ranged DPS who can cleave both targets should take full advantage of this opportunity, as all damage is shared between the Felhounds due to their Soul Link passive.
Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp
We advise you to use Bloodlust/ Heroism/ Time Warp after both Felhounds are positioned properly on the pull. This allows for everyone to get in position and for multi-DoT classes to get their damage rolling. This should be no later than about 5 seconds into the encounter.
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