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The Socrethar the Eternal encounter is a two-phase fight; players first defeat the Soulbound Construct, then turn it against the Soul of Socrethar to defeat him. During this second phase, Socrethar will attempt to overwhelm the players with Sargerei reinforcements while he tries to regain control over the Construct by casting
Exert Dominance. Each successful cast reduces the Construct's health by 5%, and when the Construct's health reaches zero, it will eject the player inside it. The boss will then re-enter the Construct and players must defeat the Construct again.
If the encounter is executed properly, this should never happen; players should only see Phase 1 once.
Phase 1: Soulbound Construct
The aim of this part of the encounter is to kill the Soulbound Construct and force the Soul of Socrethar to emerge.
Reverberating Blow leaves the Shattered Defenses debuff
The most important ability of Phase 1 is the Soulbound Construct's
Reverberating Blow/
Shattered Defenses mechanic. Approximately every 17 seconds, the Soulbound Construct will cast
Reverberating Blow.
There are three predominant ways to manage the
Shattered Defenses debuff:
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The raid stacks in each
Reverberating Blow cast, but non-tank players who gain, or currently have, the
Shattered Defenses debuff move out of the stack
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Two tanks are used, and each tank solo-soaks 2
Reverberating Blow casts, requiring heavy cooldowns for the 2nd cast on each tank
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Three tanks are used, and each tank solo-soaks 1
Reverberating Blow cast
Any of these strategies are fine. The downside of the first method is that it requires heavy raid healing, and players who are not skilled at noticing and reacting to the presence of a debuff may die to a
Shattered Defenses-buffed
Reverberating Blow cast. The downside of the second method is that the tank may take fatal damage on the 2nd
Reverberating Blow, particularly if external cooldowns aren't available. The downside of the third method is that running a third tank can be a DPS loss for the raid, which may factor into the raid's success during Phase 2.
The Strategy Summary was written for groups using the first method, but the second method may be more desirable now in light of changes to the Phase 2 mechanics.
Briefly kite the Volatile Fel Orb
Occasionally the Soulbound Construct will target a player with
Volatile Fel Orb, putting a green arrow over their head and launching an orb of felfire energy at them.
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The
Volatile Fel Orb will detonate when it reaches the targeted player
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This
Volatile Felblast will deal moderate to heavy damage to all players within 10 yards
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The targeted player should run out of the stack point or away from other players, then trigger the
Volatile Felblast as soon as possible
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If available, players targeted by the
Volatile Fel Orb should use a personal damage-reduction cooldown when triggering the
Volatile Felblast
The Construct will also target a random player for
Felblaze Charge. Three seconds later, when the
Felblaze Charge cast completes, the Construct will rush to the target's current location, then return to the tank, leaving a trail of
Felblaze Residue in its path.
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Felblaze Residue deals heavy Fire damage to players in its area of effect, and slows them by 75%
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Players targeted by
Felblaze Charge will see a system message on their screen to alert them to the ability
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The targeted player should quickly run through the Construct so that the
Felblaze Charge will travel away from the raid, not through it
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This will mean the
Felblaze Residue trail will not constrict players' movement options, and the tanks can just pull the Construct out of the fire with only a few steps
Fel Prison will trap nearby players
About 50 seconds into the fight, and again every minute thereafter, the Soulbound Construct will summon a
Fel Prison near a random player's location.
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Initially, a fel swirl will appear on the ground where the
Fel Prison will form
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After two seconds, the fel energy will collapse into a rune that will trigger when any player enters the area
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If triggered, a Crystalline Fel Prison is created that will stun the triggering player, and any players nearby, for up to 30 seconds
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Players must kill the Crystalline Fel Prison in order to free an imprisoned ally
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When the initial
Fel Prison graphic spawns, nearby players should react quickly and run away to avoid triggering the Crystalline Fel Prison effect
Finally, the Soulbound Construct will frequently bleed off excess energy by afflicting randomly-chosen targets with
Overwhelming Power. The affected targets will take heavy periodic damage, and will require focused attention from the healers to keep them alive. This is especially true if a player debuffed with
Overwhelming Power is also targeted by the
Volatile Fel Orb or takes damage from
Reverberating Blow; players in this situation should use a personal survivability cooldown to help the healers.
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Phase 2: Socrethar and the Sargerei
Once players have defeated the Soulbound Construct, it casts
Eject Soul, causing the Soul of Socrethar to materialize in the encounter area. The Soul of Socrethar has only two abilities:
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Socrethar will cast
Exert Dominance frequently - approximately every 5 seconds
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Successful
Exert Dominance casts will reduce the health of the now-friendly Soulbound Construct
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While only 3 players are required to interrupt every
Exert Dominance cast, the raid may be safer assigning additional players as back-up interrupters
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If the Construct reaches 0 health, Socrethar will be able to repossess it, and the raid must defeat it again
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Approximately every 50 seconds, the Soul of Socrethar will cast
Apocalypse, dealing raid-wide damage
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Healers should use raid cooldowns to survive this damage
Portals, pictured together for illustrative purposes
When the Soul of Socrethar appears, he will create three portals in the room to summon his Sargerei reinforcements. The portals are color-coded to indicate which adds will spawn from each portal.
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The blue portal will spawn Haunting Souls
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The red portal will spawn a Sargerei Dominator
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The purple portal will spawn Sargerei Shadowcallers
The red portal always spawns near the entrance, or the exit, to Socrethar's room, while the blue and purple portals spawn at the far ends. Which side gets the blue portal and which side gets the purple portal is random. Approximately 2:20 into the phase, the portals may swap places, as they are assigned new locations from the set of valid locations for each color (e.g. red will still always be at the entrance or the exit, and blue/purple will still always be at the far ends of the room). Blue and purple portals will always be at opposing ends of the room.
Fel Barrier prevents interrupts
Two Sargerei Dominators will spawn during each "set" of portals. The first Dominator spawns shortly after the portals are formed, while subsequent Dominators spawn every minute thereafter.
This is a high-priority add, and players should save cooldowns and resources for defeating it.
Approximately 30 seconds into the phase, and every 30 seconds thereafter, the blue portal will summon 6 Haunting Souls. These ghostly creatures will immediately choose random targets and cast
Ghastly Fixation on them.
Haunting Souls cast Ghastly Fixate on players
About 45 seconds into the phase, and every 15-20 seconds thereafter, the purple portal will summon a Sargerei Shadowcaller. This caster is not tanked, and will repeatedly cast spells at random targets in the raid.
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The Shadowcallers'
Shadow Bolt Volley deals light to moderate damage to all players
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Shadow Word: Agony is applied to two players every 10 seconds, dealing moderate DoT damage
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Shadow Word: Agony can be healed through, but if a player is targeted by another stack of the debuff, it should be dispelled
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The Shadowcallers' casts are interruptible, so if there are interrupts to spare, the raid can prevent some of this damage
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Ranged DPS, and particularly strong AoE/multi-DoT specs, should focus on killing the Shadowcallers to manage raid damage
Much of the strategy of Phase 2 relies upon the Soulbound Construct pilot using the Construct's abilities well to assist the raid in managing the adds and defeating Socrethar. This player has access to all of the Construct's phase 1 abilities except
Overwhelming Power. One of the tanks should fulfill this role.