Throne of the Four Winds Guide
Conclave of Wind
Al’Akir
A familiar sight for many Classic players. The Windlord was once a tactician in charge of the armies of the Old Gods. With the Cataclysm, the Windlord has chosen to align himself with Deathwing.
(You can reference the Al’Akir Loot list if you want to see all of the boss drops.)
Role Summaries
- Everyone
- Don’t stand in bad
- Don’t get knocked off
- Spread in Phase 1
- Stack in Phase 2 & 3
- Move out with Lightning Rod
Abilities
Phase 1
Al’Akir will periodically cast Wind Burst, knocking back all players. To avoid being thrown off the platform, make sure you are close to Al’Akir when this is cast.
A wall of tornadoes will circle the arena, with a single gap. Players will need to position themselves so they end up squeezing through this gap.
Al’Akir will blanket random locations with an Ice Storm that slowly moves, leaving an ice patch behind. Avoid standing in this area.
Periodically a random player will be targeted for Lightning Strike, dealing heavy Nature damage to that player and bouncing to all other players within a 60 degree cone, centered on that player. To handle this, players will need to be spread in a handful of stacks around Al’Akir, minimizing the possible bounces.
If Al’Akir has no melee target, he will cast Electrocute, dealing heavy Nature damage, increasing each tick.
Al’Akir will shock all players in melee range, dealing moderate Nature damage and interrupting all casts. This makes it mandatory for caster DPS to move backwards, out of melee range, and then move back in for Wind Burst.
Phase 2
A wall of tornadoes will circle the arena, with a single gap. Players will need to position themselves so they end up squeezing through this gap.
If Al’Akir has no melee target, he will cast Electrocute, dealing heavy Nature damage, increasing each tick.
During Phase 2, Al’Akir will deal Nature damage every second to all players. This will increase every 15 seconds, effectively forcing a DPS race to outpace Acid Rains damage by pushing Al’Akir to 25% health.
Every 20 seconds, Al’Akir will summon a Stormling. These deal constant Nature damage to all nearby players, and will need to be tanked away from the raid. When a Stormling dies, Al’Akir takes 10% increased damage for 20 seconds, stacking each time a Stormling dies. This is a key component to outpacing Acid Rains damage.
Phase 3
During this Phase, players will fly around the arena at a high speed.
Al’Akir will periodically cast Wind Burst, knocking back all players. To avoid being thrown off the platform, make sure you are close to Al’Akir when this is cast.
A random player will be marked as a Lightning Rod, and after 5 seconds they will hit all nearby players for heavy Nature damage every second. Targeted players should move away from the raid.
Al’Akir will summon clouds at the same vertical height as a random player. This cloud will blanket that entire height with an electrical storm, dealing heavy Nature damage to all players at that height. To mitigate this, players should stack and move as a group, making sure they move down or up each time Lightning Cloud is cast.
Al’Akir casts Lightning Bolts at random players, dealing heavy Nature damage.
Raid Composition & Preparation
This fight has a lot of damage going on, but Phase 2 is also a DPS race. 5-6 healers is generally ideal.
The more DPS the better, with no particular classes or specializations outperforming others.
Pet classes can struggle on Phase 3 of this fight, as pets tend to despawn or die while flying.
You will need one tank for Al’Akir, and one tank for the Stormlings in Phase 2.
Strategy
Phase 1 – Spread
The first Phase is relatively short, and serves largely to acclimate the raid to this fights mechanics. Players should spread into equal groups around the arena, with one group on each cardinal and ordinal direction for a total of 8 evenly split groups. This is done to mitigate Lightning Strikes bounce potential. Each group should have at least one healer in range of them, able to keep them up during Lightning Strike.
Al’Akir will periodically knock back all players with Wind Burst. Whenever this happens, all players should move toward the boss so they do not fly off the platform. Ice Storms will float around the arena, which players will simply need to avoid standing in. A wall of tornadoes will also circle the arena, with a single gap in the wall. Players will need to adjust into this gap to avoid the tornadoes, and move back toward the boss to avoid Wind Burst knocking you off.
Outside of that, this Phase is relatively simple and ends at 80% health.
Phase 2 – Stack
This Phase is calmer for most of the raid, being primarily a DPS race. Players will take constant damage from Acid Rain, increasing every 15 seconds. Toward the later part of this Phase, active mitigation may be needed to handle the damage from Acid Rain. Keep the raid stacked to make AoE healing and mitigation easier.
Every 20 seconds, Al’Akir will spawn a Stormling that the off tank should grab and pull away from the boss. You will want to gather 2 of these, with a third close on the way, before any are killed. Once the third one is about to spawn, kill one or two of them off. This will debuff Al’Akir with Feedback, increasing the damage he takes. Continue killing a Stormling each time the debuff is about to fall off to make sure it never drops. Once you have 3 stacks of Feedback, use Bloodlust and cooldowns and burn hard.
This Phase ends at 25% health, and you want to end it with no Stormlings alive.
Phase 3 – Fly
At 25% health, Al’Akir shatters the platform, and players will be able to fly around the arena at a high speed. Even in this three dimensional space, players will want to be stacked as a raid, at the same height. Right as this Phase starts, all players should fly to the very top of the arena, until their head bonks into the invisible ceiling.
Al’Akir will cast Lightning Clouds every 10 seconds, targeting a random player. That players altitude will be cut off with an electrical storm, dealing damage to all players at that height. This is why it is important to stack and move as a raid. You will want to vary dropping these clouds between high altitude and low altitude, as if you keep dropping them on one side, you will narrow the play space quickly, as the most recent one will be the last to fade.
Every 20 seconds, a player will be made into a Lightning Rod. That player needs to fly away from the group, but preferably maintain the same height as the stack.
Al’Akir will also still cast Wind Burst, dealing AoE damage to the raid and knocking them back. This needs to be outhealed. Additionally, Al’Akir no longer has a threat table, and on Heroic will simply cast Lightning at random players.
