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Comment by 18544

Maulgar v2.0

Comment by 73142

No one appears to have a boss strat post here so here I go:

Fathom-Guard Tidalvess a shaman and is the first kill target in this boss fight. Some argue to kill the hunter first but the Shaman puts out incredible burst damage with Windfury Weapon and Frost Shock. He also has this totem called a Spitfire Totem. It has a 45 yard range pulse attack that does 2k-3k damage. Dps need a /target spitfire macro to change targets and get it down quick. Once the shaman dies, Karathress gains the Spitfire totem ability.

Fathom-Guard Sharkkis is the hunter. He has multishot and a Viper Sting that drains 3k mana over time off of someone. He also has a pet Sporebat or a pet Lurker he can summon that will need to be off tanked by the one tanking the hunter or another tank. He also has a sort of enrage called Beast Within where he and his current Pet go berserk and do more damage. When the hunter dies, Karathress gains the ability to do Beast Within.

Third and final add, Fathom-Guard Caribdis. She has an aoe pulse similar to that of the Spitfire totem ( cept it is frost damage). She has a heal that heals 10% of one of the add's health and is not rangeable nor is it line of sightable. This will need to be interrupted or you lose a lot of dps time on other adds and on Karathress. She also has an ice tomb type ability that afflicts melee with a stun effect. When she dies, Karathress gains the Ice Tomb. (Recommend warrior and shaman healers to deal with the heal).

Now on to Karathress. Hopefully you have about 3 minutes or more till his enrage timer to kill him. Dps goes all out, tank has had nearly 5 minutes or more of solid threat building. Spitfire totems are killed via the macro mentioned above ( /target spitfire). When he does The Beast Within, the tank will need extra healing.

Roles in the fight:

Tanks: The tank on Karathress needs to be able to move the main boss out of range of the spitfire totem early in the fight before dps is on the boss. Makes it way easier to heal.

Tank on shaman: Put as much threat out as you can so the dps kills it quickly.

Tank on hunter: spam any attack that can hit a chain to a target next to your main target. ( cleave, thunderclap, swipe) Makes for easy pick ups on the pet.

Tank on priest: Put your tanking debuffs on her then just trigger heroic strike / shield block while you wait with finger over the shield bash key to interrupt heal.

Dps: kill things before enrage timer.

Healers: Healers on shaman: be prepared for that incredible burst i mentioned about earlier. when the shaman is dead, split half of the healers to go to the main tank on karathress and the others on the hunter. ( the viper sting may have hunter tank healers low on mana.)

Healers on hunter tank: Damage increased with the Beast Within, you are warned. 1-2 healer goes to help with the raid healing on the dps on the priest, ( the frost aoe pulse adds up) the rest go to Karathress.

Healers on the main boss tank: Beast Within increases damage on the tank by a lot, plz oh plz dont let him die. be prepared to move when the tank does so he doesn't die and cause you to wipe. Make sure you are not low on health when the spitfire totem comes up.

Random cyclones will circle in the room, throwing you upward and making you useless till you are let back down. (rarely is there fall damage)

Last thing that is everyones responsibility is to try and stay above 50% health. Karathress has a randomized ranged attack that knocks 50% health off of the target. It may double up on that person. If it does, no worries. Bad luck happens.

Health stats:

Karathress: 1,700,000

Priest: 860,000

Hunter: 850,000

Shaman: 860,000

Total damage is around 4,300,000 damage on all the adds and boss combined. The same four millionish health on most bosses presented in a new way.

If anyone wishes to add something about the fight below my post, go right ahead. we're all human here and i could have left something out.

Comment by 77262

As a tank on the hunter I know it's hard to target the pets. so I made this macro. which is very usefully. at least for me

/target Fathom Sporebat
/target fathom lurker

so if the sporebat isn't up u target the lurker instead. verru handy ^^

Comment by 77262

He can only have one pet up at a time. so its either sporebat or the lurker :)

Comment by JediMaster14

What happens if you kill (or attempt to kill) Karathress first? There doesn't seem to be anyone making any mention of this at any of the guides and strats I've looked at.

Comment by 23141

Just last night my guild killed Karathress for the first time, we opted to ignore the priest add after killing the previous adds and kill Karathress himself, he didn't enrage and wipe the raid, the enrage timer was removed from even the priest add after he had died.
Only one strange thing happened during the fight, and that was his Cataclysmic Bolt sometimes hit for up to the full hp of its target, myself included... After tanking the hunter add as a Paladin, I was 1 shot with a 16.6k bolt.

I don't believe that this is in fact due to us killing the Priest after Karathress as we had one of our Warlocks get 1 shot aswell, before we'd even downed the first add.

So if your dps is lacking somewhat, but your healers are up to the task and you can keep interrupts on the priest, this strategy works a charm.

Comment by 102243

This fight is kind of straightforward. It's all about the adds in this fight.

Karathress gains the special abilities of the adds you kill - the Spitfire Totem, The Beast Within and Tidal Surge. Not your cup of tea obviously.

The shaman must ALWAYS go down first. His burst DPS is insane, and hope to God Windfury and his Frost Shock don't go off at the same, or near to one another. When I did this fight with my guild one day the druid tank took one hellacious ass-beating when that 6.6k Frost Shock hit along with his melee attack. The Spitfire Totem must go down too. It hurts.

Hunter then goes down, be careful of his Viper Sting and his Multi-Shot. After he's down Karathress gains the Beast Within and can start hitting the MT for 6k. The hunter's pet must then go down.

The priest is saved for last and she'll be casting AoE heals which you have to interrupt and Tidal Surge, which will freeze anyone near her while she pummels on the tank. She's easy to get down really.

Karathress is then the final event and whatever time you have left on the enrage timer is how much time you have to kill him before he goes waco on the raid.

Comment by 103365

There are three things that guilds typically have trouble with on this fight:

- The pull -- it's similar to Maulgar but has the added complexity of Sharkiss' pet spawning a few seconds later and needing to be tanked
- The priest -- this girl AOEs anyone near her, stuns melee, and throws very fast heals on the DPS target, so she's tricky to control
- The shaman -- due to Windfury Weapon his damage is very spiky and can catch healers unaware. Some guilds kill him first but I think it's better to kill Sharkiss first so he doesn't drain your healers dry of mana.

A full guide to dealing with all of these abilities, and beating the encounter, can be found at http://www.worldofstrats.com/Karathress/tabid/66/Default.aspx

Comment by 32272

Video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pub88sW4Jxs

Comment by 43040

Really just a question of curiosity. It seems from the comments and from watching the video, that he may be killed before the adds. If you kill him prior to the adds, and then wipe (your agro by death, etc.) will the adds despawn as is the case with Moroes' adds? Leaving the event completed?

Comment by 103365

Usually the 4th or 5th boss guilds attempt in SSC. This fight has a lot of moving parts, but you've probably already killed Maulgar and Karathress is similar. Every time you get an add down, things get simpler.

- Karathress has three buddies. Sharkkis is a hunter who summons a pet when the fight starts, and uses The Beast Within and a mana draining sting. Tidalvess is a shaman with a searing totem, windfury weapon, and frost shock; he does a ton of damage. Caribdis is a priest with a fast-casting heal, some aoe abilities, and a crazy tornado that floats around the room and tosses people up into the air. Each time you kill an add, Karathress gains one of their abilities. From the beginning, he's also got a "Cataclysm Bolt" he uses constantly which'll damage someone at random for 50% of their max hp.

- Different guilds use different DPS orders for the adds, but Karathress is always the last to die. Caribdis is usually the second to last. If you kill Sharkkis first, you won't have to worry about his mana drain, which can really tax your healers, but Tidalvess does so much damage that many guilds kill him first for fear that his tank will die if he's left up for too long. You can at least reduce Tidalvess' dps a bit by having a shaman use grounding totems to eat the frost shock.

- You're going to pull each add to a different corner of the room when the fight starts, so that their abilities don't overlap. The raid has to think carefully about where they stand, so that they're not getting clobbered by the abilities of two adds at once. Just move around and kill one add at a time until only Karathress is left, then kill him.

There are a lot of other nuances to this encounter that can't really be covered in a comment thread, there's a full Karathress guide here.

Comment by 148497

Is is just me or is Karathress supposed to be female?

Comment by 91032

Lol Maybe not, the original "Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace" from the 1970's series was male not female. Its only in the new version of Battlestar Galatica where she is female. Maybe Blizzard is going old school.

Just for fun.

"You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will lead them all to their end."

Comment by Thottbot

Fathom-Lord Karathress is a boss in Serpent Shrine Cavern, a 25 man raid instance. He also, as seen from the loot table, drops the tokens for t5 leggings. Going strictly by boss position, he is the second to last boss in SSC, right after Leotheras the Blind and Morogrim Tidewalker. Going by difficulty, he is perhaps third, behind Vashj and Hydross.

The boss itself is not all that hard, what complicates things are his three adds (unlike Mag adds, they're not bosses, yet have boss-like abilities).

The first one is a hunter add (can't remember all the names, sry). He doesn't melee for much on a tank, but he does random target and shoot mana-draining shots. However, his true danger comes from his ability to call either a beast or elemental pet (a spore bat or fungal giant). With this pet, he could use The Beast Within and enrage both himself and the pet. Since the pet hits as much as he does, if a tank tanks both of them while they're enraged, the tank will suffer tremendous damage. It is, however, possible to double tank them. 2 healers are recommended to heal the tank on the hunter add, and the hunter add should be positioned in the corner near the entrance from Morogrim Tidewalker's room opposite from where the boss was standing. The hunter add should be killed first (other variations exist, but since we downed him successfully by killing him first, that's what I'll recommend).

The second add, and perhaps the most deadly add, is the shaman add. He has a windfury that can instantly hit a well geared tank from full hp to almost dead, so 3 healers are recommended to heal the tank tanking him. Besides his dangerous melee, he will put down 3 totems. The earthbind and poison cleansing totems should be ignored, but the third one is the raid wiper of the encounter. The SPITFIRE totem should be immediately targeted and burned down by EVERY single dps. We tank this shaman right by the hunter add while we're taking the hunter down in order for the dps to transfer dps from the hunter to the spitfire totem quickly. It is recommended to have every dps'er create a /target spitfire macro.

The last add is a "frost priest." As suggested from the priest part, she can potentially heal every single mob in this encounter by 20-30% of his/her hp, and the heal has NO range or LOS restrictions. It is, then, recommended to have a warrior tank her to shield bash when necessary. A curse of tongues should also be kept on her at all times, and if you have trouble with her healing with just one interrupter, you can put a shaman on her just for interrupts. A single healer is enough to keep the tank up. Besides her heals, she also spawns a tornado that goes about the entire room. It will interfere with casting (throwing ppl up in the air) and increase cast time after you've been hit by it. It is more of a nuisance than anything. However, she also, from time to time, iceblocks everything within 10 yrds of her melee range. It'll prevent the iceblocked targets from doing anything, but aggro does not reset (hence the shaman interrupt instead of rogue, just in case she iceblocks and heals). Her last ability is the reason we take her down last. She blasts everything withint 45 yrd range with a 3-4k bolt. If you kill her first, the healing will be way too intense, and since she doesn't really pose such a threat with good interrupts, she should be taken down last. She should be tanked at the opposite corner from the hunter/shaman adds.

Karathress himself should be tanked by your best geared tank, and right where he stands. the last 2 healers (usually we bring 8) should heal this tank. Karathress has only one special ability in the beginning. He can blast a random target (10 sec cd i believe) for 50% of his max hp. For this, the healers have to keep everyone above 50% at all times. The trouble with Karathress comes when you down the adds, for with each add dead, he gains a new ability. He takes the enrage ability from the hunter, the spitfire totem ability from the shaman, and the iceblock ability from the healer. The only trouble comes when you've downed both the hunter and shaman and when you're going for the priest. He can then cast spitfire totems while everyone gets pummeled with the priest's water bolts. The healing is VERY intensive, but the dps just have to target down the totems fast (ranged only, due to position). If you down the priest without much casualties, it is just a straight dps run to home (beating the 10 min enrage timer).

All in all a coordination (target switching, doing your job kind) and position fight. If you have those down and give your all, you'll find that he's not too tough afterall :).

Comment by Thottbot

has anyone tried nuking karathress down before taking down adds?, If this is possible you can avoid all buffs and enrage.

Can hunters fear sharkis beast pet?

Comment by Thottbot

The order that worked for us was Shaman, Hunter, Priest/Mage dude. Make sure to keep each guy in a corner, and that they are in the order you set for them so as not to confuse anybody.

Make sure all DPS has a macro on their hotbar with something simple like "/target spit", so unless somebody is named Spit, you can target the totems as soon as they come up.

Server first on Exodar, dropped Sextant and 2 pantses that went to a Hunter and a Shaman. His body makes for a lousy screenshot.

Comment by Thottbot

lol he didnt drop leggis for you?
After our first night of attempts on this guy we realized the shaman wtfrocked tanks.
Would a feral druid do better on him?

Comment by Thottbot

he is ALLWAYS dropping t5..

Comment by Thottbot

Comment by Allakhazam

cant seem to find this guy in the SSC guh....

Comment by Allakhazam

WHEN you have good healers he is a trash like tidewalker.
The heavy time of this fight is the shaman. when he is down, the loots are yours ^^
and the best is: He dropps T5 Trousers :D

btw very nice encounter.. THX BLIZZ ^^

Edited, May 18th 2007 8:39pm by BaelgunFreak

Comment by Allakhazam

Indeed, fun encounter just done him. Basically just need healing as you say and the totems to be dealt with properly especially towards the end, apart from that pretty easy fight once you have the hang of it.

Comment by Allakhazam

Fun fight! It's a lot like Maulgar, but Karathress gets stronger each time you down one of his friends. This makes the kill order very important and it means you need to adjust your healing every time an add goes down.

For a full strategy guide on this boss including positioning diagrams, kill order and more, check out http://www.worldofstrats.com/Karathress/tabid/66/Default.aspx

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Fathom-Lord Karathress

Serpentshrine CavernHydross the UnstableThe Lurker BelowLeotheras the BlindFathom-Lord KarathressMorogrim TidewalkerLady VashjFathom-GuardsSharkkisTidalvessCaribdisFathom-Lord KarathressSerpentshrine Cavern

Fathom-Lord Karathress

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