Introduction: Spine of Deathwing is the first of two battles against Deathwing.  The goal of this encounter is to remove three armor plates from Deathwing, forcing him to crash into the Maelstrom.  In the spine encounter, Deathwing will be too preoccupied chasing Alexstraza’s ass to notice you, but if you tickle him too much he will barrel roll.

Difficulty: 3.2/5: This fight has a lot of adds and represents a real ramp up in difficulty over the previous fights.  This fight is all about burning the tendons very quick and finding your group’s rhythm.

Comp and Stats:

Corruptions: 442k
Corrupted Bloods: 166k
Hideous Amalgamations: 7M
Burning Tendons: 2.9M
Tanks: 1-2 (2 recommended)
Heals: 2-3
DPS: 5-7
Enrage: None

Setup and Positioning:

This fight begins by talking to Swayze on the ship at which point an in-game movie will kick off.  Make sure all your raiders know to hit ESC to skip this or people will zone in at different times and the fight begins immediately once the first person zones in.  You will parachute onto Deathwing’s back and begin.  The raid should do its best to stay on the center of Deathwing’s spine to avoid Deathwing’s barrel rolls.

As the fight progresses, care should be taken to remain in the center until a barrel roll is called for.

Many adds, handle it!

• Corruption: These are the first adds you will encounter and are giant fire tentacles oozing from Deathwing’s back.  When a Corruption is killed it leaves a hole in Deathwing’s back.  This hole left by the dead Corruption will spawn one Hideous Amalgamation and one Corrupted Blood add.  There will always be at least one Corruption add alive in the encounter, as if you kill all of them another one will immediately spawn.  Abilities are as follows:
• Searing Plasma: This will be cast on a random raid member and place a debuff on them dealing 10,000 damage every second.  The debuff will also prevent the affected raider from receiving health from heals.  The way to remove it is to allow the debuff to absorb 200,000 health at which point it will fall off.  Healers must pay great attention to this debuff removing it quickly.
• Fiery Grip: This spell will be channeled on a random raid member keeping them stunned and dealing 60,000 fire damage every 3 seconds until 20% of the Corruption’s health pool is done to it.  When this is active all ranged should quickly switch to the corruption and DPS the 20% required to interrupt then immediately stop DPS on it.
• These have no real aggro table and should be killed when called for it.
• Corrupted Blood: These little jelly-like adds will spawn from the holes left by killing the Corruption adds.  Once the raid kills a Corrupted Blood it will leave a residue that is important to the mechanic of lifting up Deathwing’s armor.  If the residue is not picked up by a Hideous Amalgamation add it will eventually return back to the one of the holes and respawn.  Abilities are as follows:
• When the add dies it will cast Burst dealing a small amount of damage to all players in 200 yards.
• The adds have an aggro table and will melee for a small amount of damage every couple seconds.
• Hideous Amalgamation: These adds will spawn every time a Corruption add is killed.  This add will need to be picked up and tanked preferably over by Deathwing’s plate armor.  Abilities are as follows:
• Absorbed Blood: This spell is a buff that will stack as the Amalgamation runs over the residue left by a killed Corrupted Blood.  Once this reaches 9 stacks the add will go superheated.  This buff increases the damage done by the add by 10% and increased attack speed 20% every stack.
• Superheated Nucleus: Once 9 stacks of Absorbed Blood have been reached the add will start pulsing AoE fire damage to the entire raid until dead.  The amalgamation should be stacked by Deathwing’s armor plate at this point.
• Nuclear Blast: Once the add dies it will begin casting Nuclear Blast.  This will deal a truck load of damage unless you are more than 10 yards away.  You have 5 seconds to reach more than 10 yards distance once this cast begins.

Destroying Deathwing’s armor:

You need to use the Nuclear Blast from Hideous Amalgamation to weaken Deathwing’s armor.  The add needs to be positioned right by the armor plate as once it begins casting Nuclear Blast it will be stationary.

Once Nuclear Blast goes off the plate armor will lift up revealing a new add called Burning Tendons.  Once this add becomes targetable all DPS need to blow it up.  I recommend using 3-5 minute DPS CDs on the first Tendon, Heroism/Lust on the second, and 3-5 minute DPS CDs on the third again.  You can mix in the combat pot where you have the most trouble meeting the DPS requirement.

Once the tendon becomes exposed it will begin casting Seal Armor Breach which will complete in 23 seconds.  This means you have 23 seconds to kill the tendon or you will have to repeat the amalgamation process again.  All DPS should make a /tar macro: /tar burning to begin DPS immediately.

Do a barrel roll:

Deathwing will perform barrel rolls if people are standing on either side of him and off his spine.  This barrel roll will throw off everything (including raiders) but Corrupted Bloods when performed.  You can use the barrel rolls to your advantage to get rid of excess amalgamations.

To perform a successful barrel roll the raid needs to stack on a side and stack in the fiery hole left by a killed Corruption tentacle.  Once standing in this hole you will receive Grasping Tendrils which will deal mild fire damage and hold you onto Deathwing during a barrel roll.  Once you see the adds fly off his back it is safe to move out of the fiery hole and back onto the spine.

Strategy:

• Have all players escape out of the opening cinematic.  You can also cancel the parachute and not take damage.
• Put a mark up on one Corruption and kill the 3 unmarked Corruptions taking care not to barrel roll.
• Once three Amalgamation adds are up have the raid stack up in the fiery hole left by one of the Corruptions and initiate a barrel roll.
• After the barrel roll kill the marked tentacle and begin DPS on the Amalgamation.
• You can safely start to stack the residue of killed Corrupted Bloods on the Amalgamation.
• Once you have the amalgamation to 25-30% bring his Absorbed Blood stacks to 9 then kill him quickly after taking care that he is positioned by Deathwing’s armor plate.
• Once nuclear blast starts run at least 10 yards away from the Amalgamation.
• Use 3-5 minute DPS CDs and kill the tendon.
• Repeat 2 times using Heroism on the second tendon and 3-5 minute cooldowns on the third.
• Feel free to clear up excess bloods between plates to keep damage down on the tank and raid.

Tips:

• If the tendon is not killed it will not regenerate its health, but there are two tendons per plate.  One tendon is on the left and one on the right.  If you started killing the tendon on the left, make sure on the second pass you position the Amalgamation add to the left side of the plate in order to get the left tendon again.

Fuck I only have 1 minute before pull and I do not know anything like a scrub, save me Furtim:

• Tanks: Pick up Amalgamation adds.  The amalgamation that will be focused on, run it over the residue left behind from dead Corrupted Bloods.  Once the add reaches 25-30% make sure to stack it up to 9 then move it by the armor plate.
• DPS: Kill 3 tentacles, barrel roll, DPS amalgamation to 30% then kill it once its stack reaches 9.  Use 3-5m CDs on 1st tendon, Heroism on the 2nd, 3-5m CDs on 3rd.
• Ranged DPS: Attack corruption tentacles to stop their Fiery Grip, but switch off when they are interrupted.
• Heals: Heal 200,000 hit points on raiders with the Searing Plasma debuff.  The amalgamation tank will take more damage as the amalgamation’s stacks of Absorbed Blood increase.

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