WoW Cataclysm Classic: Blackwing Lair Guide

By Karl Reyes | June 2nd, 2024 | Categories: World of Warcraft

Blackwing Lair is the second raid in the lineup for Cataclysm Classic (Find the guide of the first raid Bastion of Twilight here). In this raid, you will be slaying Nefarian, Lord of Blackrock and son of Deathwing. In this guide, we will discuss each boss’s mechanics and survival strategies. This raid drops ilvl 359 gear in Normal difficulty and 372 in Heroic.

Table of Contents

Magmaw guide

Magmaw is one of two bosses that can be challenged first, with the other being the Omnotron Defense System. Magmaw is a stationary target but requires melee players to be engaged with him at all times, otherwise he’ll cause a wipe to occur if there are no players near. Otherwise, this encounter is fairly simple in mechanics.

Healers and ranged players should stand far away from the melee DPS and tank group, as Magmaw will randomly select one and spawn a blast of flame from under them. This attack will spawn Lava Parasites, which must be CC’ed and killed immediately as they will inflict massive DoTs on contact.

Magmaw will also grab the main tank and inflict Mangle, which deals heavy DoT on them. When this occurs, healers must focus their best healing on the main tank, as they will take unavoidable damage. After grabbing the main tank, Magmaw will wind up for a slam attack. Everyone in the raid must move away from the affected area.

After the slam attack, Magmaw will be temporarily stunned. The off-tank should draw aggro from the boss while the main tank recovers from their debuff. Meanwhile, two melee DPS players must attach hooks from Magmaw’s head to the massive spike in front of him. If done successfully, this will slam Magmaw on the spike, keeping him stunned even longer and allowing the raid to deal double damage on his head.

Omnotron Defense System guide

This is a multi-boss encounter, with 4 bosses in total: Aracanotron, Electron, Magmatron, and Toxitron. In this encounter, only 2 bosses will be active in the arena at any given time. Whenever a boss has a barrier up, do not attack it, as any damage to the shield will give it Power Conversion, which converts damage into bonus damage and spell haste.

Here are the mechanics for each boss and what you should do to survive them.

Arcanotron

Power Generator: Arcanotron summons a Power Generator under a random player. Any players standing under it will deal 50% more damage to the boss. Conversely, if Arcanotron or any boss stands near it, they will also deal 50% more damage. Tanks must pull bosses away from this spot, while ranged DPS should stand on the blue spot for more DPS.
Arcane Annihilator: Arcanotron deals heavy Arcane damage to a random enemy target. Players must use their interrupts to save a teammate from taking too much damage.

Electron

Lightning Conductor: Electron turns a random player into a living lightning rod, causing players nearby to take additional damage for 10 seconds.
Electrical Discharge: Deals damage to up to 3 players. Each player hit by the lightning causes its overall damage to increase by 20%.

Magnatron

Incineration Security Measure: Magnatron blasts fire into the ground that deals raid-wide damage to the whole team. Healers must cast AoE spells to keep the team alive.
Acquiring Target: Magnatron targets a random player with a laser. After 4 seconds, he will channel a flamethrower at the target, dealing constant damage. The targeted player must avoid the team and vice versa to prevent overlapping damage.

Toxitron

Chemical Bomb: Toxitron lobs a toxic gas bomb at a random player. Players must avoid the cloud, but Toxitron and any boss will take 50% more damage if it is standing in the toxic cloud.
Poison Protocol: Toxitron will summon Poison Bombs that will follow players, exploding with heavy Poison damage when it makes contact. Players must CC and kill these adds.

Chimaeron guide

The altered hydra Chimaeron is one of three bosses that can be done in any order, along with Maloriak and Atramades.

To start the encounter, you must speak with the caged NPC named Pip Quickwit, who will activate a robot called the Bile-O-Tron 800. Everyone in the raid must keep track of this robot as it will be absolutely vital to your survival in Chimaeron’s fight.

Bile-O-Tron 800: Players who make contact with the robot’s gas will be given a buff that prevents them from taking lethal damage as long as their health is above 10,000.

This buff serves to counter the boss’ most lethal attack, Massacre. Massacre is a raid-wide attack that instantly kills anyone without the buff, so always make sure to keep the Bile-O-Tron 800’s buff active.

Healers should keep everyone’s health above that threshold, but there is no need to keep everyone at maximum health. Aside from healing the tank, save the rest of your mana for when a party member goes below 10,000 health.

When the Bile-O-Tron 800 is deactivated, Chimaeron will channel Feud, which causes the boss to stop doing melee attacks as his two heads begin to bicker. When Feud is active, everyone must stack with each other to spread out the damage, while the healers must pop every healing cooldown they have to keep the team alive. Once Feud ends, everyone should run over to the reactivated Bile-O-Tron 800 to pick up its buff before Chimaeron deals another Massacre.

For Chimaeron, he will have a few mechanics to watch out for:

Caustic Slime: Chimaeron randomly selects a player and lobs acidic slime at them, which deals AoE splash damage. Players must spread out to avoid taking unnecessary damage.

Break: Chimaeron hits the main tank with an attack that causes them to suffer 20% more damage and 10% less healing. When this occurs, the off-tank should swap aggro with the main tank, as the boss will attack twice after inflicting this debuff. Once the main tank’s debuff ends, do a tank swap again.

Once Chimaeron reaches 25% health, this starts Phase 2. Everyone in the raid will be given a debuff that prevents healing and makes the boss untauntable, making this phase a DPS check.

Atramedes guide

Atramedes is a blind black dragon that relies on sound to sense objects. Any players hit by Atramedes’ attacks will generate Sound. Once a player reaches 100 Sound, they will be instantly killed by Atramedes. Due to his enhanced hearing, there are Dwarven Shields that are arranged around the arena’s edges. Hitting any of the Dwarven Shields will interrupt Atramedes’ attacks, cause him to suffer 50% more damage, and remove the Sound stacks of all players.

This boss has two different phases: A Ground phase and an Aerial phase. Atramedes will start on the Ground, then after 90 seconds, enter the Aerial phase. Here are the attacks you and your team need to be aware of, as well as the attacks that you must interrupt by hitting a shield.

Ground Phase mechanics

Searing Flame: Atramedes will spew fire on the ground which deals heavy raid-wide damage. Prioritize interrupting this attack with a Dwarven Shield to prevent the whole raid from taking lethal damage. This attack leaves behind patches of flame on the ground, which also inflicts Sound on players who touch them.

Sonar Pulse: Atramedes releases sonic rings that deal damage and inflict 5 Sound stacks per tick on any player that comes into contact with it.

Sonic Breath: Atramedes channels a fire breath attack on a random player. This attack inflicts 20 Sound stacks per second. The more Sound stacks that player has, the faster Atramedes can turn to hit the player. The targeted player must run away from the main team so that no one else gets caught in the Sonic Breath attack.

Aerial Phase mechanics

Roaring Flame Breath: While in the air, Atramedes will pick a random player and launch a ray of fire that follows the target. The more Sound that player has, the faster this ray moves. Melee players must use one of the Dwarven Shields to stun Atramedes. When the stun ends, he will follow the player who used the Shield.

Sonar Bombs: Atramedes will bombard the arena with sound bombs. Players in the arena must keep moving to avoid the bombs, as these will inflict Sound stacks on impact.

After 30 seconds, Atramedes will return to the Ground phase.

Maloriak guide

Maloriak is a boss fight with adds as part of his boss mechanics. One of his major mechanics is that he will throw a colored potion into the big cauldron behind him, which activates specific mechanics.

The off-tank has a dedicated role here. Their job is to draw the aggro of the Aberration adds away from Maloriak, as these adds have a buff that increases their damage by 20% and gives them 20% damage resistance. The team should not kill these adds unless Maloriak uses the Green Potion, which we will discuss later.

Maloriak himself has two mechanics that must be stopped to make the raid easier:

Arcane Storm: Maloriak channels arcane lightning that deals raid-wide damage. This spell must be interrupted to prevent taking heavy damage.

Remedy: Maloriak will start healing himself rapidly. This effect must be dispelled.

Here are the effects of each potion:

Red Potion effects

Consuming Flames: Maloriak will ignite random players with a DoT effect, which ramps up in damage if the affected player takes additional magic damage.

Scorching Blast: Maloriak will charge up a flame breath attack on the main tank. Everyone must stack on the main tank to split the damage. (Important: Players with the Consuming Flames debuff should NOT stack with the other players.)

Blue Potion effects

Biting Chill: Maloriak inflicts a random player with a ring of frost that deals frost damage per second to the target and anyone inside the ring. The affected player should avoid getting close to teammates to prevent spreading damage.

Flash Freeze: Maloriak will start freezing an area around a random player, which will Freeze anyone caught inside. All players must scatter to avoid overlapping the freezing area with others. DPS members in the raid must damage the affected player to break them out of the freeze, while healers must give the affected player some healing. He will also summon frozen orbs near a random player, which explodes if touched by anyone.

Green Potion effects

Debilitating Slime: Everyone in the raid takes 100% more damage, but this also cancels the buff of the Aberrations that makes them take 20% less damage, making them vulnerable. When this effect occurs, everyone in the team should immediately DPS the Aberration adds to ease off the pressure from the off-tank.

When Maloriak’s health is at 25%, this starts Phase 2 of the fight. He will release all the remaining Aberrations and other adds. The off-tank must aggro the new adds and continue kiting them away from the boss like in Phase 1. Meanwhile, the main tank must face the boss away from the team as Maloriak will cast Magma Jets, where he will charge and leave behind flames that deal heavy damage. Everyone in the raid must pop their best DPS in this phase since Maloriak is very dangerous in this stage.

Nefarian’s End guide

This is the final encounter for Blackwing Descent and can be a tough one. Nefarian’s End has three phases overall. Aside from Nefarian, Onyxia will also be present in the first half of this boss fight. In this first phase, your team should immediately pop their best DPS against Onyxia, as Nefarian will join the fight after 30 seconds. Since she has a frontal cone attack and tail swipe, the main tank should face Onyxia sideways from the team so everyone can stack to her side.

The off-tank must pull the aggro of the Animated Bone Warrior adds that Nefarian revives during the fight and kites them continuously. These adds will die when their energy is depleted, so the team shouldn’t bother trying to kill them. The off-tank should ensure these adds do not come into contact with Onyxia\s flame breath as this will restore their energy.

Lastly, Onyxia will blast the entire raid with lightning, which can be avoided by going toward Onyxia’s front or rear. Once this attack is done, move back to the sides to avoid her tail swipes and breath.

Once Onyxia dies, this starts Phase 2. Lava will begin filling up the arena. The team must divide into three groups, each group standing near a pillar when she dies. Once the lava fills up, everyone should get onto the platform and kill the Chromatic Prototype on the platform.

Once all three Chromatic Prototypes are dead, this starts Phase 3 of the fight. Nefarion will land and fight your team personally.

Nefarian has the exact same attacks as Onyxia, with the only difference being that Nefarian cannot blast the team on his sides with lightning. Again, the main tank should face the boss sideways to the team. The off-tank should continue kiting the Animated Bone Warriors, but this time, they should avoid pulling the adds towards the purple fire that Nefarian spreads as this will recharge their energy. Other than that, there are no other mechanics.