- Author: Tavon
- Date: May 19, 2022
- Updated: September 19, 2022
- Expansion: TBC Classic
It is now time to face Kil’jaeden, Leader of the Burning Legion – the final boss in the Sunwell Platea Raid and the final boss encounter of The Burning Crusade Classic. This encounter is complex, involving 5 phases with compounding mechanics and difficulty. Kil’jaeden drops some of the best loot in the game, including the legendary Thoridal, the Stars’ Fury alongside six other highly sought after endgame weapons.
Kil’jaeden is a Man’ari Eredar Warlock, and was appointed the Chief-Lieutenant of Sargeras 25,000 years ago. At that time, The Deceiver was pursuing Velen and the Dranei people after they fled their home planet of Argus. Upon finding them on Draenor, Kil’jaeden manipulated Gul’dan, empowered the shaman Ner’zhul, and created the Lich King.
For many groups, this encounter is not necessarily going to be the most difficult in Sunwell Plateau, but a full comprehensive understanding of the encounter is necessary to find success. This guide will provide all the information you need to understand Kil’jaeden’s Abilities, Mechanics, and how to best approach the encounter and defeat the final boss of the Burning Crusade Expansion.
Role Summaries
- Spread out in an arc around the boss so that you can reposition easily, as raid members will be either stacking up or spreading out for different mechanics.
- All players must spread out 10 yards to avoid spreading damage through the raid from Fire Bloom.
- Consider repositioning your camera to give you a wider view of the room to make it easier to see where Shadow Spikes are going to land, and to help avoiding meteors from Armageddon.
- When Kil’Jaeden casts Darkness of a Thousand Souls, all raid members will need to seek cover under the Shield of the Blue or perish.
- If you are effected by Fire Bloom when Darkness of a Thousand Souls goes out, run near the Shield of the Blue but wait until your last chance before getting under protection. Your Fire Bloom damage will be mitigated by the Shield from the outside, but you may kill your raid members if you enter under it too soon.
- Melee DPS will focus their damage output on one of the Hand of the Deceiver adds at a time during Phase 1, and then move to Kil’Jaeden.
- Your Guild may assign some Melee DPS to help with Sinister Reflection, but in general Melee should be focusing on pushing Kil’Jaeden to 55% and 25% in order to avoid a third Darkness of a Thousand Souls in Phase 3 or 4.
- Rogues can use Cloak of Shadows and Paladins can use Divine Shield to negate the effects of Fire Bloom.
- Be sure to end up under the Shield of the Blue to avoid dying to Darkness of a Thousand Souls.
- Avoid being impacted by the massive floating Shadow Spikes, as they will deal considerable damage.
- In the last phase, Kil’jaeden will cast Armageddon, summoning meteors that you will also avoid being impacted by. These are not meteors that you should stack for!
- This is a long fight and you will likely be able to use most of your cooldowns more than once. However, ensure that all damage increasing cooldowns are ready to go in Phase 5 to finish off Kil’Jaeden.
- Ranged DPS will need to focus one of the Hand of the Deceiver adds at a time, and then move to Kil’Jaeden.
- Spread out 10 yards in an arc around the boss to avoid spreading damage from Fire Bloom.
- Whenever Sinister Reflection are cast, Ranged DPS should focus them down before shifting damage output back to the boss.
- Whenever Shield Orbs are summoned, Ranged DPS should make quick work of them.
- Be prepared to hide under the Shield of the Blue whenever Kil’jaeden prepares his ultimate ability, Darkness of a Thousand Souls.
- Avoid being impacted by the massive floating Shadow Spikes, as they will deal considerable damage.
- In the last phase, Kil’jaeden will cast Armageddon, summoning meteors that you will also avoid being impacted by. These are not meteors that you should stack for!
- This is a long fight and you will likely be able to use most of your cooldowns more than once. However, ensure that all damage increasing cooldowns are ready to go in Phase 5 to finish off Kil’Jaeden.
- As in other Sunwell Encounters, this fight is incredibly healing intensive so coordinate within the Raid to ensure that everyone is topped off from the signifiant raid damage that is spread about.
- Because of the positional requirements for Fire Bloom, using spells like Circle of Healing or Chain Heal will not be as fruitful as in other encounters where players are able to stack in groups.
- Whenever available, make sure to pick up the Blue Dragon buff Breath: Revitalize to help get some self healing and with mana regeneration.
- Be aware of who each of the five targets of Fire Bloom are when it goes out, as they will be taking damage and splashing damage on to other players.
- If you are a Holy Paladin effected by Fire Bloom, use Divine Shield to negate the effects.
- Move under the Shield of the Blue to avoid dying to Darkness of a Thousand Souls.
- Tanks are strong
- be strong
Abilities
Hand of the Deceiver
There are three of these Hand of the Deceiver adds which will be engaged at the start of the encounter, and must be defeated before Kil’jaeden will rise from beneath the middle of the room.
Kil’jaeden
Raid Composition & Preparation
The Pull
Run into room and allow your tanks to engage the three Hand of Deceiver adds. Allow the Tanks to establish threat before DPS open up on them. The raid will want to spread out in an arc around the room so that you do not need to reposition too much for Phase 2 when Kil’jaeden will rise from the floor.
The Fight
Phase 1
Defeat three Hand of the Deceiver, focussing them down one at a time. It is recommended to assign some players to stack up stuns and silences on the adds that are not being focused down. Raid members with Arcane Bombs should be prepared to utilize them. The reason not to cleave them down equally is because at 20% health they will gain Shadow Infusion, making them immune to stuns and silences. Upon the defeat of all three Hands, KIl’jaeden will rise from the floor in the middle of the room and engage with the raid.
Phase 2
Kil’jaeden will rise from the middle of the room and engage with the raid. The Main Tank will need to stand directly in front of the boss and begin building threat.
Melee should group up behind the boss in two groups on either side. The goal is to minimize damage spread through the melee group from Fire Bloom. If this is cast on you, simply step away from your group until the debuff ticks away.
Healers and Ranged DPS should position in an arc around the room 10 yards apart as well. Whenever you have to reposition for a mechanic, return to this orientation of being spread out about the room.
The main Tank will take primarily Soul Flay damage, while the raid will take Legion Lightning damage. Unfortunately, Chain Heal and Circle of Healing are not as efficient as fights where the raid can easily stack up, so healers should coordinate on how to best approach keeping all members of the raid up throughout the encounter.
Shield Orbs are summoned occasionally, and will roam the room casting Shadow Bolt. Ranged DPS should focus and burn them when they spawn to avoid too much unecessary raid damage going out.
Fire Bloom will be cast on on 5 random raid members at a time. This ability places a 20 second AoE DoT effect on the player. They will take damage through the course of the debuff, but as long as everyone else is spread 10 yards apart from one another, no other raid members should be taking damage.
Phase 3
In addition to Phase 2 mechanics, the boss will summon twice as many Shield Orbs and start casting Sinister Reflection followed by Shadow Spike, using his ultimate Darkness of a Thousand Souls ability, and begin tossing Flame Darts around the room.
Sinister Reflections are 4 adds that take on the abilities of a random raid member, which they are all summoned around. Using a Protection Paladin Off Tank is recommended for their ranged taunt and AoE Threat capabilities. As threat is established on the adds, Ranged DPS should burn them down and prepare for the following Shadow Spike.
Shadow Spike are summoned around the room as Kil’jaeden channels the ability for 28 seconds. They will crash into the ground dealing 5100-6900 shadow damage, but are avoidable. This is a good opportunity to zoom out your camera to a point where you can see where each of the Shadow Spike are headed for.
After channeling Shadow Spike, one of the Dragon Orbs will become available for a player to utilize. By clicking the orb, a member of the raid transforms into a Blue Dragon and gains 4 abilities; Blink, Breath: Revitalize, Breath: Haste, and Shield of the Blue. Because there is a third Tank in the raid that we needed for previous encounters, they are the optimal player to take on this responsibility. Healers and DPS should be made aware of when and where the Blue Dragon player will cast their buffs, Breath: Revitalize, and Breath: Haste. Getting these buffs for the raid is essential in keeping Healer mana pools full and dealing sufficient damage Kil’jaeden!
The player who takes control of the Blue Dragon should cast buffs on the group and use Shield to protect the raid from Kil’Jaeden’s Ultimate ability, Darkness of a Thousand Souls. Kil’jaeden will cover himself with his wings, and cast this ability about 45 seconds after channeling Shadow Spike. All players need to seek cover underneath the Shield of the Blue or else you will not survive – this ability deals 47500 to anyone inside the instance. If you are effected with Fire Bloom when this ability begins, run over to the Shield of the Blue and stand beside it until the last moment before Darkness goes out and then jump in. All your raid members will be protected from the damage you would typically deal to them from Fire Bloom while under the Shield. You only get two Shield of the Blue before you need to have the boss at 55% health, or a third Darkness will wipe the raid.
While keeping the order of the boss’s abilities and how to position properly for each mechanic, you will also need to pay attention to Flame Darts during this phase and the remainder of the encounter. These fiery darts will be shot at every member of the raid, dealing moderate fire damage, reducing movement speed by 50% for 15 seconds, and then exploding for 500 AoE Fire damage to everyone within 5 yards at the end of the 15 seconds. Players who are not effected by the debuff will not explode, so consider assigning a Paladin to spread out Blessing of Freedom in this scenario to avoid unnecessary raid damage. Because the raid is already spreading out for Fire Bloom, you should not need to reposition to avoid this spread of damage from the Flame Darts.
Phase 4
At 55% health, Kil’jaeden enters into Phase 4. This is marked by another sequence of casting Sinister Reflection followed by Shadow Spike, and the group should still be paying attention to Shield Orbs as they spawn. The raid will continue to take damage from Fire Bloom and Flame Darts, so Healers will need to continue to spread out raid healing.
Kil’jaeden’s added ability in this phase is Armageddon, where he will summon meteors and crash them into the raid. Upon impact they will deal roughly 10000 fire damage to anyone within 9 yards of the impact, but they can also be avoided. These Armageddon meteors are not of the variety which split damage and call for stacking, and instead all raid members should make a point to not be impacted by one.
After Kil’jaeden has channeled Shadow Spike, another Dragon Orb will become active. Just as before, you will only get two casts of Shield of the Blue and will need to reduce the boss’s health to 25% before he casts Darkness for a third time.
Phase 5
When Kil’jaeden’s health is reduced to 25%, this marks the beginning of Phase 5. Kil’jaeden will cast Sinister Reflections and Shadow Spike just as before, at which point Anveena sacrifices herself, stunning and increasing Holy Damage Kil’Jaeden takes. At this point all 4 Dragon Orbs are available, so spread out the Blue Dragon Buffs Breath: Revitalize, and Breath: Haste to the group and Execute.
During this Final 25%, Darkness of a Thousand Souls will be cast every 25 seconds instead of every 45 seconds. This is okay, because we have more casts of Shield of the Blue available to help protect the group.
Congratulations! The Burning Legion’s Commander and Hand of Sargeras has been defeated! Take pride in completion of the final raid of the Burning Crusade expansion!
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