Malkorok 10 H

Let Your Bremaster Shine!

Quick Facts

Introduction

Malkorok is some sort of tank-and-spank fight, but one that requires you to manage a lot of abilities on the side. The fight has a short 6-minute berserk timer, which requires about 220 k DPS from every damage dealer (including tanks). His berserk is impossible to survive.

Malkorok will alternate between his two phases. Phase 1 lasts 2 minutes and 20 seconds, Phase 2 lasts 20 seconds, and after another 10 seconds, the boss returns to Phase 1. His energy bar also indicates this, but it has no other significance.

You can make Phase 2 much easier if you have a Brewmaster tank it alone. He will take a massive amount of damage during this phase (around 700 k DPS before Stagger), but can survive without external cooldowns. A Paladin tank must take more precautions, and the other tank classes should probably not consider solo-tanking. The effects of a solo tank in this phase and how a Monk tank can do it are described in the chapter on P2.
After every Phase 2, the boss becomes 25 % stronger.

In this phase, you’ll spread out across the room so you can soak voids that appear at random locations and sometimes remove orbs that form. You can read more about this in the description of each ability. You’ll tank the boss in the centre of the room.
There are a few abilities that require attention, but they don’t require you to make major tactical decisions, as the circumstances already provide the solution. These abilities are placed in the context of the overall fight at the end of P1's description. This fight demands constant concentration, as you rarely get even a few seconds to catch your breath.

P1 consists of three Arcing Smashes followed by a Breath of Y'Shaarj. These are interspersed with the other abilities listed below. This sequence repeats once, and then P2 begins.

Abilities

Ability: Ancient Miasma

Throughout | Absorb Shield | DoT (Every 2 s)

The Ancient Miasma is permanently active on every player in Phase 1 and prevents them from being healed. Additionally, each player takes 40,500 shadow damage every two seconds. However, it also functions as an absorption shield, similar to the one on the Tortos fight, but permanently. The maximum size of the shield is the maximum HP of the respective player.
So, for example, if you take enough damage at once that you’re down to 17 % HP, you’ll remain at 17 % until the end of this phase, but you can rebuild the shield via healing.

💚 Healer Task Just like at Tortos, you’ll need to heal your teammates even if they have full health. Unlike with Tortos, however, all players take regular damage as well as potential additional damage. Keep in mind that right at the start of the fight, the debuff is already active, and the first damage tick comes after 5 seconds, followed by one every 2 seconds. So if you wait too long with your first heals, the players will lose their real HP, which you won’t be able to heal back up until after Phase 1 (i.e., in about 2:20 minutes). For Phase 1, a buffer in the form of 100 % actual HP and 100 % HP as a shield on top is very useful.
You can choose to use healing cooldowns right at the start (e.g. a Tranquility), to quickly build up the shields on all players before the ticks and general damage start.
As with Tortos, you must make sure that your tanks do not lose the shield.

Heroic Ability: Essence of Y'Shaarj

Every 3 s | Absorb-removing Orbs

Via Essence of Y'Shaarj, two stationary orbs appear in the room every three seconds. Upon contact, they remove the Absorb Shield (Miasma) and deal 150,000 shadow damage, thereby reducing your actual HP. These orbs remain until the end of the fight and will increasingly limit your available space. They become deadly very quickly if you accidentally trigger them and, for example, get hit by an ability immediately afterwards.
Players with immunities should regularly remove as many orbs as possible. Ideal for this are Hunters with Deterrence, Rogues with Cloak of Shadows, Paladins with Divine Shield, and Priests with Dispersion. Wait until enough orbs have appeared, then use your immunities at regular intervals.
You can organize yourselves so that, if you have a Rogue, they clear the area around the boss every minute, and your ranged players prioritize the spots where there are a lot of orbs on the outer side of the room.

Phase 2 is also a good time to remove orbs, since you don’t have the Absorb Shield during this phase. Coordinate this with your healers. You can collectively remove almost all the orbs there.

Ability: Fatal Strike

Every 2 s | Tank Debuff | 30 s Duration

The Fatal Strike is a 30-second standard tank debuff, which increases damage taken by a stackable 10 %. It is cast approx. every two seconds and is occasionally delayed by the boss's actions.

🛡️ Tank Task If you’re using the one-tank strategy in Phase 2, your solo tank must hand the boss off to the other tank no later than 30 seconds before Phase 2 begins, so that his debuff has time to wear off. This is around 1:50 into the fight and at 4:40, should it come to that.
Your solo tank should take the boss at the start and have it taunted away after about 45 seconds (they will then have just under 20 stacks). At 1:20, they taunt the boss again and keep it until 1:50. You can proceed in the same way in the second P1.

Ability: Seismic Slam

Every ~15 s | Knock-up | 5 y AoE

The Seismic Slam launches a random ranged player into the air approx. every 15 seconds and deals 675,000 damage to them. Since this also occurs within a 5-yard radius around the player, you’ll be spread out, which is required by the other mechanics anyway. This is physical damage, which means that “only” about 350 to 450 k of it hits the player. You’ll be launched so high that you’ll also take about 300,000 fall damage upon landing. Prevent this if your class is capable of doing so.

Ability: Imploding Energy

Every ~15 s | 3 Voids to Soak

The Imploding Energy creates three void zones, which can appear anywhere in the boss room, even right at the edge! Each void must be stood in, otherwise it will deal approximately 700,000 shadow damage to the entire raid. Only one player needs to catch each void, who will then take approximately 600,000 shadow damage. Multiple players can stand in the void, but they will then unnecessarily take the same amount of damage.
You have four seconds to position yourselves in the voids. One always appears near the boss, and two others tend to appear in the outer areas. Because of this ability, you will always spread out across the entire room in Phase 1.

Ability: Arcing Smash

Every ~20 s | Frontal Cone Effect

Arcing Smash is indicated by a cone-shaped ground effect that appears in a random direction from the boss and deals approximately 800 k damage to players who are still within it after 5 seconds: run out!
You need to remember these spots, as the ability described below will deal damage after three Arcing Smashes where the last three arcs previously struck. The easiest way to do this is to place world markers.

Ability: Breath of Y'Shaarj

Covering the Area of The Last Three Arcing Smashes

About 12 seconds after the third Arcing Smash, the boss casts Breath of Y'Shaarj after a 2-second cast time. The affected areas are those hit by the last three Arcing Smashes. Since, as mentioned above in the Arcing Smash's description, it’s best to mark these areas with world markers, you’ll know where not to stand. If you do end up in the Breath, you will very likely die despite having a full shield.
Your tank should pull the boss slightly to the side just before this happens, as the effect is a bit larger than the Arcing Smashes.

Heroic Add: Living Corruption

Every 15 s | 4,58 Mio. HP | Aura Slowing Casts and Movement

After each Seismic Slam (which knocks a ranged player into the air), a blob with 4.58 million health appears at the location of this player. Players within 8 yards of this add are slowed by 75 % and cast spells 75 % slower. Immediately get the blob to the boss and focus on it. A Death Knight can grip it. It should be killed as quickly as possible, otherwise it can prevent players from soaking the voids or dodging the Arcing Smashes.

Strategy & Positioning

At the start of the fight and at the start of the second Phase 1, healers have 5 seconds to set up a small absorb shield on every player, as regular damage begins at that point. Feel free to use group cooldowns for this; there’s no better time to use them. Bloodlust should also be used immediately, as this is the best way to benefit from trinkets and cooldowns.
The goal of this phase is to avoid taking unnecessary damage so that players do not lose some of their “real” HP. Have players with immunities regularly remove orbs, and place a world marker at the centre of each Arcing Smash to mark the spots where the Breath of Y'Shaarj will appear afterwards.
Healers and ranged DPS should spread out across the entire arena throughout the phase to efficiently soak the voids and avoid being hit by Seismic Slam with multiple people at the same time. A few situations in the fight require special attention, as you can see from the following timetable.
Keep one thing in mind: Virtually nothing in this fight is random. Everything happens on fixed timers. You can react to everything. If your attempts still fail, you need to analyse whether you’re struggling with ability overlaps or, for example, dealing too little damage to the add, causing some players to be slowed for too long.
Before every Arcing Smash, the add will be near the melees. However, you will have enough time to dodge the Smash.

Timetable

• 0:00 Bloodlust. Tranquility/Divine Hymn/Healing Tide Totem ...
• 0:05 Miasma starts ticking. By this point, every player should have a shield to absorb these ticks. Seismic Slam + add immediately after.
• 0:11 Arcing Smash
• 0:17 Three voids
• 0:25 Seismic Slam + add immediately after
• 0:31 Arcing Smash
• 0:37 Three voids
• 0:45 Seismic Slam + add immediately after
• 0:51 Arcing Smash
• 0:57 Three voids
• 1:10 Breath of Y'Shaarj

As you can see, in addition to the constantly spawning orbs, there is an ability every 5–8 seconds. The timetable above shows half of P1. This repeats once more with the same timing before P2 begins. P1 therefore always follows this sequence: Seismic Slam + add, Arcing Smash, voids.

The Miasma (absorption shield) is not active during this phase, so you will take damage as usual and can be healed regularly.

Malkorok now deals approximately 2.4 million damage (sic!) with every melee attack via Blood Rage, which is split among players in front of him. As mentioned above, Monks and Paladins can solo-tank this, even if it sounds completely absurd at first. The good thing about this ability is that it deals physical damage, which Monks practically cannot die from.

There is only one other ability in this phase. It applies a DoT on players: Displaced Energy. It is cast on two players simultaneously and deals approximately 340 k damage every three seconds; upon expiration or dispel it deals approximately 600 k damage within an 8-yard radius (but not to the player themselves). After 10 seconds, two players receive this DoT again. After that, Phase 2 ends.
The Heroic variant of this ability causes affected players to be rooted. In Normal Mode, the entire raid can stand in front of the boss, soak Blood Rage, and the affected players run out and “explode” outside. If you want to play the boss this way on Heroic difficulty as well, you should also stand in front of the boss, but turn him around as soon as the players receive the DoT and are rooted, and move away from them. After that, you can free them with a dispel, but pay attention to the explosion damage they deal to each other.
The DoT doesn’t tick for the first time until three seconds have passed, so ideally, dispel it before then.

The solo tank strategy is more interesting. For this strategy, all players will continue to spread out across the entire room. Apart from the Monk tank and the players with the debuff, no one takes damage in Phase 2. Healers should dispel the debuff from players immediately so the DoT doesn't start ticking. If any melees are affected, you should wait a moment so the others can move 8 yards away to avoid the explosion.

Kill Video

This video shows our second kill on November 18, 2013, from our Brewmaster's perspective.

Class Tips: Rogue

Via Cloak of Shadows you can ignore many abilities in this fight, but you should primarily use it to remove the orbs. It can also do the following:

• Remove Displaced Energy without the explosion
• Immunize Breath of Y'Shaarj
• Immunize Imploding Energy

Feint reduces the damage from Breath of Y'Shaarj and Imploding Energy.
The slow effect from the adds is removed by Burst of Speed. However, you may need to use it several times in a row to escape the aura.