This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of theencounter with Warmaster Blackhorn in Dragon Soul. It is mostly targeted to healerswho desire to have a short but detailed overview of what is expected ofthem during that fight.

This guide applies to patch 4.3 of World of Warcraft.

   

The Warmaster Blackhorn encounter is a two-phase fight during which youwill have to deal with many types of adds, before finally performing a DPSburn against Backhorn himself. The encounter is very reminiscent of theGunship Battle from Icecrown Citadel, although much more difficult.

Healers have the most stressful task on this fight, where in addition toreacting to a few mechanics, they must heal a rather large andunpredictable amount of damage.

   

1. Overview of the Fight↑top

The Warmaster Blackhorn encounter takes place on a flying gunship. The shiphas a health pool and can be damaged by various abilities during theencounter. Aside from defeating Warmaster Blackhorn, you will also have toensure the survival of your ship, if you wish to succeed in this encounter.

The encounter is a two phase fight. During the firstphase, your raid will mainly have to deal with 4 different types of adds (3types of adds in LFR). You will also have to watch out for many void zones inwhich you must stand in order to protect the gunship. If 3 waves of adds aredealt with successfully, the second phase will begin. During this phase, yourraid will have to deal with Warmaster Blackhorn himself.

                       

Phase One	Phase Two

2. Phase One↑top

During Phase one, you will have to perform a few simple tasks and heala rather brutal and unpredictable amount of raid damage.

2.1. General Strategy

Your raid will be spread out all over the ship. You must perform thefollowing tasks, in order of priority:

1.          Move into the large swirling void zones created by Twilight Onslaught (10-man/25-man/LFR), inorder to soak the damage from the impact. Move out immediately afterwards.
2. Move into the small swirling void zones created by Twilight Barrage, in orderto soak the damage from the impact. Keep in mind that there should be at leasttwo people in each Twilight Barrage void zone for the damage not to befatal.

2.2. Sources of Damage

During Phase One, there will be rather chaotic raid and tank damage, fromthe following sources:

• Tank damage from the Twilight Elite Slayers andTwilight Elite Dreadblades (these adds melee and stack a DoT on thetanks).
• Raid-wide damage from soaking Twilight Onslaught (10-man/25-man/LFR).
• Random raid damage from players soaking individual Twilight Barrages.
• Random raid damage from the Slayers and Dreadblades' Blade Rushattack.

The ideal time for using defensive cooldowns is when the raid is stackedinside a Twilight Onslaught.

3. Phase Two↑top

Phase Two begins as soon as all the Twilight Assault Drakes have beenkilled. During this phase, you will have to avoid a few mechanics and healdamage from various sources.

3.1. General Strategy

•          Avoid the large purple void zones that Goriona places on the ground.At a certain point, she will leave the fight, and will cease placing new voidzones.
• Avoid Warmaster Blackhorn's frontal cone attack, Shockwave. The boss will face a random player before castingthis, so you may often have to move in order to avoid it. The area where hewill cast Shockwave is clearly marked by a visible graphical effect.
• Stand at least 10 yards away from the boss, to avoid a silence andinterrupt effect.

Moving out of the Shockwave area is easier the closer you are to the boss,so attempt to stay as close to him as possible. There is no requirement to bespread out during this phase.

3.2. Sources of Damage

You will have to heal damage from the following sources during thisphase:

• Moderate, yet increasing tank damage. The tanks will swap the bossbetween themselves, so be prepared for when a new tank starts takingdamage.
• Moderate damage from Goriona's void zones (until players move outof them). After a short while, Goriona will leave the fight and this will nolonger be an issue.
• Moderate raid-wide damage from Disrupting Roar (10-man/25-man/LFR) (cast every 20seconds).
• Massive (usually fatal, although not always) damage to players failing toavoid the boss' Shockwave. These players will need immediatehealing, as the next source of damage will almost surely kill them.

4. Heroic Mode↑top

As a healer, the heroic mode of Warmaster Blackhorn is very similarto the normal mode, with only a few relevant changes.

4.1. Differences from Normal Mode

In addition to increased health and damage, the following changes are ofimportance to you:

• During Phase One, parts of the ship's deck will be randomly covered infire. Simply move out of the fire. The fires will progressively be put out byNPCs, freeing up space.
• Taking damage from a Twilight Barrage (small void zone) will leave adebuff on you for 15 seconds, that increases the Shadow damage you take by50%.
• During Phase Two, when Goriona reaches 80% health she lands and must betanked and DPSed down. At 20% health, she flies away.
  • During this time, shecasts a new ability, Consuming Shroud (10-man/25-man). This is a debuff that Gorionaregularly places on a random (non-tank) raid member. The debuff absorbs amoderate amount of healing (100,000 in 10-man and 150,000 in 25-man). Anyhealing done to players affected by the debuff is also mirrored as damage tothe entire raid (except for the player affected by the debuff, who does notget damaged). For example, a 5,000 heal on the player will deal 5,000 damageto each raid member.

4.2. Strategy

4.2.1. Phase One

During Phase One, you only have two added concerns:

• Stay out of the fires on the deck of the ship;
• Make sure that, while soaking damage from Twilight Barrage, you donot have the Shadow damage increasing debuff.

4.2.2. Phase Two

In Phase Two, you will have to heal both tanks as long as Goriona is onthe ground. She regularly performs a frontal cone breath attack that willseverely damage her tank.

Additionally, whenever a raid member is afflicted by Consuming Shroud (10-man/25-man), you will have to slowly heal them up. The reason forthis is that any healing done them while the debuff is active will be turnedinto damage dealt to the raid, so you do not want to heal them too quickly.

It is best to have the entire raid stacked up and to make use of AoEhealing, as this will provide a steady amount of healing on the debuffedplayer while also ensuring that the raid damage is covered.