Nightbane Karazhan Guide

Nightbane is generally regarded as the last boss of Karazhan. Unlike other Kara bosses he needs to be summoned using the Blackened Urn (Obtainable from the Medivh's Journal Questline.) Once the Blackened Urn has been placed your raid group has 30 seconds to position before Nightbane lands.

Nightbane has two phases which alternate, when reaching 75%, 50% and 25% he will jump into flight phase and fly around for a duration.

His key abilities are,

On the Ground

• Bellowing Roar - A Fear effect with 2.5 second cast time and a 30 second cooldown. This can easily be outdistanced by your ranged, stance danced by warriors and prevented with fear ward.
• Charred Earth - Chars the ground beneath a random player. All players standing inside the affected area, shown by burning ground funnily enough, receive a DoT that deals up to 3k physical damage per second, This is mitigated by armour, can be avoided and removed by moving and can spawn in several places at once. It should not be a problem if your raid stands correctly.
• Cleave - A Cleave effect that hits for approximately 6k on plate, 11k on cloth, this can be deadly if it co-incides with a fear!
• Distracting Ash - Reduces chance to hit with melee and spells by 30% for 40 seconds. Can be dispelled.
• Smouldering Breath - Inflicts 3.5k to 4.5k fire damage to enemies in a frontal cone. Afterwards players will be hit with a DoT that hits for 1.5k to 2k every three seconds for 15 seconds.
• Tail Sweep - Inflicts 450 fire damage on enemies in a cone behind the boss, knocking them back. Deals 450 fire damage every 3 seconds for 25 seconds.

In the Air

• Casts Rain of Bones on one random player/pet:
• Bombards the area the targeted person was standing at the initial cast with bone fragments, which deal 352-408 physical damage in a 6-yard radius.
• Summons five Restless Skeletons. with 13.5k health and hit for around 1k-1.5k on cloth, around 500 on plate.
• Shoots powerful Smoking Blast every second for approximately 15 seconds. Deals 1.5k to 2k physical damage on cloth (700-1k on plate) to the target and 3k fire damage over 18 seconds. The DoT can be dispelled. This is put on the highest threat player after Nightbane moves into the air, for this reason a healer normally gets hit with these since other players are attacking the skeletons.
• Fireball Barrage: If any member of the raid is too far away from Nightbane while he is in flight, he pelts the raid with fireballs, each doing 3k - 3.5k damage, casting 1 per second until all members are within range. This is in place to prevent an exploit, you should not see this if it is done correctly!

Tactics

Nightbane is Untauntable, so after Nightbane lands each time DPS must hold off until the tank regains agro. Healers must also be careful, but spells like Prayer of Mending from the priests are especially useful here, since they keep they tank up and help his agro.

Nightbane will first land about two thirds of the way down the terrace, After flight phase he will land much closer to the centre so it is important your groups position themselves accordingly. The groups positioning is of paramount importance on this boss, since the charred earth effect can decimate a raid if it lands in the wrong place.

Charred earth makes the ground surrounding one player hit for 3k damage a tick. Any players in this must move ASAP to avoid taking damage and overstretching the healers. To help prevent this from covering too wide an area the DPS and healers should position themselves at maximum range from Nightbane (To avoid his fear) against either of the walls, and by that its important to remember to stand right up against them. If charred earth is targeted on a player from one side the group in his vicinity should instantly move to the other groups location by the opposite wall.

If the worst happens (It will) and both sides are effected by charred earth there should be enough space for you to sit in the middle till one of the other charred earths dissipates.

If the entire floor is covered with charred earth the tank should be ready to move the boss back so the ranged players can move forward without getting feared.

All the time the tank should have his back facing the outer wall so the melee DPS can stay close and avoid Nightbanes Tailswipe as with most dragons (Between the front and back legs)

When Nightbane jumps into the air everyone should instantly run to the tank. It sometimes helps to have a paladin tank and healer for this part. This is for two reasons, when they cast consecration they draw agro from the skeletons that spawn, and paladins have much lower agro generation, so the smoking blast fired from Nightbane is less likely to hit them and more the tank.

Once the skeletons have appeared it may help if people spread out slightly so tanks can easily pick up targets. This also reduces the AoE damage taken by rain of bones,

Once rain of bones is cast the entire raid should move out of its range, this helps reduce the strain on the healers and gives them a great opportunity to regain some mana.

Keep an eye out for smoking blasts, they often hit a healer (Since they tend to generate the most threat on Nightbane during the air phase) so it is imperative that the healers keep an eye on one another to prevent deaths.



After the Air phase ends Nightbane will land again and all people should move back to previous positions. Remember that once he lands he will always drop down in the central part of the terrace so moving back a bit further is essential.

This cycle will continue at 50% an 25% as well as the initial 75% health air phase, so be prepared!