First Look at Rashok, the Elder Boss Guide

After defeating the Assault of the Zaqali encounter the Elder’s Door will open, allowing players to confront Rashok, the Elder. Let’s take a look at what he can do.

Rashok's Abilities

If Rashok reaches 100 energy he will gain Ancient Fury which makes him immune to the Elder’s Conduit and deals deadly Shadowflame damage to all players every 3 seconds. This is meant to wipe the raid so players can never let him hit 100 energy. The middle of the room will have a circle effect around it, this shows the radius of the Elder’s Conduit. This is used to drain Rashok’s energy throughout the fight but can only be used 3 times. Tanks should only move Rashok into the middle at around 90 energy to maximize usage.

Rashok has a unique tank buster mechanic that is a combo attack. He will cast some combination of Flaming Slash, Flaming Slash, and Earthen Crush or Flaming Slash, Earthen Crush, and Flaming Slash. What Flaming Slash does is deal fire damage and increases the damage the target takes from Flaming Slash by 500% for 6 seconds. Earthen Crush will deal heavy physical damage and increases the damage the target takes from Earthen Crush by 500% for 6 seconds. Both tanks will need to use proper defensives for this and must tank swap immediately after the first Flaming Slash.

His next ability is Searing Slam which targets a random player and puts a large circle around them. When he finishes the cast he will jump to that player, inflicting fire damage to them and anyone in the circle. A Lava Vortex is also created at that location. Searing Slam’s damage is increased by 50% for each Lava Vortex in the chamber. The slam’s impact causes each Lava Vortex to spawn Lava Waves that move across the room.

Players with Searing Slam should drop these Lava Vortexes at a designated area. They can be placed next to each other, so all the Lava Waves come from the same area. However, if a Lava Vortex is overlapped with another, then they will cause a Lava Explosion that inflicts heavy fire damage to all players every second for 10 seconds. This is a deadly mechanic especially if it goes off during other mechanics, so player must be cautious about how they place Lava Vortexes.

Rashok's next ability is Doom Flames which releases a barrage of Shadowflame missiles across the chamber. Where these will land is shown by circles and must be soaked by 1 player. If a missile fails to hit a player it erupts and deals heavy Shadowflame damage to all players. If the missile hits one player it deals Shadowflame damage to them and applies a dot that deals Shadowflame damage every second for 8 seconds. This effect stacks so players that have already soaked should wait until the dot falls off. Players that do soak should use a defensive and healers should prioritize healing them back up so they do not die to dot damage.

The next ability is Charged Smash, Rashok will target an area near him to slam. Players should move into this area because when the cast finishes he will deals 1.4 million Shadowflame damage split evenly among all players hit. This damage increases to 2.2 million in Heroic and 4.9 million in Mythic. Rashok gains up to 15 energy, reduced by the number of players hit. If not enough players soak it can result in a wipe as Rashok could potentially gain enough energy to hit 100. Rashok will occasionally cast Shadowlava Blast which is a massive frontal cone aimed at a random player. Players should move out of this ASAP to avoid deadly Shadoflame damage.

When Rashok is brought to the Elder’s Conduit he will be stunned as it drains his energy. While his energy is being drained Rashok will be emitting Scorching Heatwave periodically. This deals raid wide Shadowflame damage that healers should plan CDs around. Shadowflame Fissures will also erupt from Rashok’s body in land in the area, where they will land is shown by bright swirls. Players should avoid these as getting hit by one deals heavy Shadowflame damage.

Once Rashok’s energy is drained he will roar inflicting raid wide Shadowflame damage and gains a temporary buff called Smoldering Rage that increases the damage of Scorching Heatwave by 500%. If Rashok stays in the Elder’s Conduit with this buff it will wipe the raid. Tanks need to make sure to not put Rashok back into the Elder’s Conduit until after this buff falls off.

Heroic changes

The first change is that Lava Vortexes will emit Lava Waves more frequently. Next Charged Smash will apply Overcharged to all players hit. This is a dot that deals Shadowflame damage every second for 30 seconds. Due to this groups will want to have probably 15 players soak, if 1 player reduces the energy Rashok gains by 1.

The final change is to Scorching Heatwave, which will now apply Scorched Flesh to all players. This increases the damage taken from Scorching Heatwave by 2% and stacks. This stacks quickly as it is applied with every tick of Scorching Heatwave. It will be important to save major healing and raid CDs for when the damage will be at its highest. Scorching Heatwave is not permanent and so it will not carry over into later intermission phases.

Mythic Changes

On Mythic players will need to manage a new mechanic called Shadowflame Energy correctly or the raid will wipe. Rashok will cast a new ability called Unleash Shadowflame which does raid wide Shadowflame damage and spawns 2 Shadowflame Energy orbs in the room. If a player touches the orb they take heavy Shadowflame damage, so do not stand on them. These large orbs explode after 15 seconds, dealing heavy raid wide Shadowflame damage.

When an orb explodes it also puts a debuff on all players that increases the damage they take from Shadowflame Energy by 2,000% and puts a massive healing absorb shield on all players. Basically, if you let two orbs explode then it is a wipe. To get rid of one of the orbs players must use Searing Slam. All the targeted player must do is put their Searing Slam circle over the orb. When Rashok jumps to the player he will destroy the orb.

There is everything you need to know about Rashok, the Elder's abilities and how to handle them in Aberrus.