This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the encounter with Argaloth in Baradin Hold. It is targeted to anyone who desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide applies to patch 4.3 of World of Warcraft.

Argaloth is the first boss of Baradin Hold, located in the east wing. The encounter is fairly simple, with only a few mechanics. It mainly serves as a gear check for players that have recently reached level 85 and are preparing to raid Tier 11 content.

Argaloth drops Hand and Leg pieces for Tier 11 sets as well as a large variety of PvP items (including Arena Season 9 set pieces).

1. General Information↑top

1.1. Health Pool

Argaloth has the following health pool:

• in 10-man difficulty: 21.5M;
• in 25-man difficulty: 64.4M.

1.2. Enrage Timer

Argaloth has an enrage timer of 5 minutes.

1.3. Raid Composition

The following raid compositions are are advised:

• in 10-man difficulty: 2 tanks 2/3 healers, 5/6 DPS;
• in 25-man difficulty: 2 tanks, 6 healers, 17 DPS.

2. Overview of the Fight↑top

Argaloth is a very simple encounter. It consists of a single phase during which the raid must be positioned in two stacking groups. At 66% and 33% health, there is a short transition phase during which players must avoid patches of fire on the ground.

If executed correctly, the fight is extremely easy.

3. Abilities↑top

Argaloth has only 3 abilities:

• Meteor Slash (10-man/25-man) deals Fire damage that is split among players standing in front of him. Anyone hit receives 100% increased Fire damage for 20 seconds. This ability is cast every 15 to 20 seconds.
• Consuming Darkness is a damaging Shadow DoT applied on 3 random party members in 10-man difficulty and 8 in 25-man difficulty. The DoT can and should be dispelled. This ability is cast every 20 to 25 seconds.
• Fel Firestorm is cast twice, at 66% and 33% health. For 15 seconds, it continuously creates patches of fire (Fel Flames) that deal Fire damage to anyone standing in them.

In addition to these abilities, Argaloth has a melee swing, which hits for approximately 25k in 10-man difficulty and 35k in 25-man difficulty.

4. Strategy↑top

The strategy for the fight revolves around the Meteor Slash (10-man/25-man) ability. It gives a stacking debuff that does not have the time to run out between 2 successive casts. Therefore, the raid should be split in 2 balanced groups (with 1 tank, and ideally half the healers and half the DPS). The 2 groups should be positioned in such a way that when Argaloth casts Meteor Slash, only one group is hit and get the debuff. The following positions are common:

After a group has been hit by Meteor Slash, the tank from the other group needs to taunt the boss, so as to alternate the group hit by this ability, giving enough time for the debuff to wear out.

To optimise their damage throughput, melee DPS can stay behind Argaloth and only stack when Meteor Slash is about to hit their group.

Healers have about 45 seconds to heal the damage from Meteor Slash (until the next Meteor Slash on their group), as no other damage is to be expected if the fight is executed properly, which gives them ample time to top everyone off with mana efficient spells. Provided that the positions we gave are respected, The damage taken by Meteor Slash for each player will amount to 40,000 in 10-man difficulty, and between 35,000 and 40,000 in 25-man difficulty.

Consuming Darkness is dealt with by the healers who need to be on their toes to dispel it as soon as possible.

At 66% and 33% health, Argaloth will cast Fel Firestorm, which lasts 15 seconds and creates damaging patches of fire (Fel Flames) on the ground. Because Argaloth does nothing during these 15 seconds, players should simply move around constantly to stay out of the fire, while damaging the boss when they get a chance to.

Heroism, Bloodlust, or Time Warp should obviously be used in such a way that the duration of the effect is not partially wasted by a Fel Firestorm. The ideal timing is after the 2nd Fel Firestorm because many classes deal more damage when the boss' health is low (below 20%, in most cases).

5. Final Considerations↑top

This fight is not much harder than a heroic dungeon boss. Everyone simply needs to stack properly with their group and healers must dispel Consuming Darkness fast.