This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of theencounter with Warmaster Blackhorn in Dragon Soul. It is mostly targeted to tankswho 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.

The tanks on this encounter will have to communicate with each other andcoordinate a tank swap on the boss, but otherwise, the fight is not challengingfor them.

   

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

As a tank, you will have a few tasks to perform during this phase.

•          Tank the Twilight Elite Slayers and Twilight Elite Dreadblades.All in all, there will be 3 Slayers and 3 Dreadblades, spawning in 3 wavescomprised of 1 Slayer and 1 Dreadblade each. Each of the two adds shouldbe tanked by a different tank, and for the second and third waves, you shouldmake sure that you tank a different type of add than the one you tanked inthe previous wave (Slayer - Dreadblade - Slayer, for example). This is requiredso that the debuff that these adds stack on you wears out.
• Face the Dreadblades away from the raid.

3. Phase Two↑top

Phase Two begins as soon as all the Twilight Assault Drakes (a type of add    that is of no concern to you) have beenkilled. The only target that can be tanked is Warmaster Blackhorn. During thisphase, you will have to perform a few simple tasks.

•          Perform a tank swap on the boss (because of Devastate,a stacking debuff that the boss applies). We advise taunting at 2 stacks.
• Be prepared to avoid:
  • the large purple void zones that Goriona will place on the ground(she will abandon the fight after a short while and no longer place any voidzones);
  • Blackhorn's frontal cone Shockwave. While the boss does castthis in front of him, he will face a random raid member before doing so. Theaffected area is marked with a visible ground effect.
• Use defensive cooldowns when the boss' health drops below 30% or so(he has a soft enrage).

4. Heroic Mode↑top

As a tank, the heroic mode of Warmaster Blackhorn is extremely 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.

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

During Phase Two, when Goriona lands she will need to be picked up andtanked. She performs a breath attack and as a result she must be tankedaway from the raid (and from Blackhorn's tank).

Your DPS will focus her down and then switch to Warmaster Blackhorn.Because of Warmaster Blackhorn's Devastate, you will have toperform a tank swap between Goriona and Blackhorn in order to let thestacks drop off.