Netherspite Strategy Guide (Karazhan)

Karazhan Raid Guide

Karazhan Attunement

Karazhan Loot

Attumen the Huntsman

Moroes

Maiden of Virtue

Opera Event

The Curator

Terestian Illhoof

Shade of Aran

Netherspite

Chess Event

Prince Malchezaar

Nightbane

Thanks for taking a look at our Netherspite strategy guide for Karazhan in Burning Crusade Classic! Netherspite is a mighty dragon and serves as the eighth encounter in the instance, once again being an optional fight. It’s a fairly repetitive encounter that features two alternating phases with interesting mechanics. Considering that he drops great loot and will cause several trash packs leading up the Chess Event to despawn, you’ll definitely want to learn how to approach this fight. We’ll give you a simple strategy to do so below.

Getting Started

Netherspite can be found past the hallways west of the room where Shade of Aran is located. Trash packs are not concerning, just be careful to pull one at a time and use CC as desired. Upon finding Netherspite, he will be walking around the back of his room. He does not aggro from far away, meaning you can properly position before pulling the boss.

You’ll want to separate the raid into three loose groups ready for assignment; one for your two tanks (stand to the right of the entrance), another for a few healers (left of the entrance), and another for a couple DPS members (opposite the entrance).

Role Summaries

DPS

• Melee should bring shadow resistance potions and gear if available.
• Run away from Void Zone.
• Soak the blue beam during blue phase; use a rotation of two pairs of DPS.
• Use offensive cooldowns when soaking beam for burst damage.
• Run to the opposite side of the room during banish phase.
• Avoid Netherbreath during banish phase.

Healers

• Don’t worry about healing the tank.
• Run away from Void Zone.
• Soak the green beam during beam phase; rotate all healers and don’t soak twice.
• Keep the blue beam soakers alive.
• Run to the opposite side of the room during banish phase.
• Avoid Netherbreath during banish phase.

Tanks

• Bring shadow resistance potions and gear if available.
• Run away from Void Zone.
• Soak the red beam during beam phase.
• Before banish phase, drag the boss to the door so the raid can hide.
• Avoid Netherbreath during banish phase.
• Quickly pick the boss up after phase transitions.

Fight Overview

Netherspite is an interesting encounter in that DPS output is less important. The biggest priority is properly executing the mechanics, which will require some practice to understand. For the entirety of the fight, he will alternate between two phases. The first features several beams and it lasts for a minute, which is followed by a banish phase lasting 30 seconds. We’ll separate each phase into an explanation below so you can distinguish what’s necessary for each part of the fight.

Beam Phase

The majority of the fight will be the beam phase, which is also how the encounter begins. Netherspite has several abilities he uses in addition to an essential beam mechanic that must be managed. First, you’ll need to know what his basic abilities are. He uses an extremely powerful auto attack that can one-shot a non-tank. During the entire beam phase, he will also use a Nether Burn aura that pulses shadow damage every 5 seconds.

This damage is mitigatable via shadow resistance, meaning that any buffs, potions, and gear that has it is a bonus here. His usable spell during the beam phase is Void Zone, which will spawn a dangerous zone on the ground that pulses shadow damage every 2 seconds. Anyone in the area must quickly run away to avoid death.

These three attacks are not particularly difficult, but they are compounded by the beams spawned during the fight. During each beam phase, three portals will spawn around the room. Each beam is a different color and will cause an effect on whoever is hit by the beam, whether that is the boss or a raid member. It is important to ensure that Netherspite does not receive the buff from the beams, instead being soaked up by your raid.

The color of the beam will impact what effect is caused, which determines which group from above should be tanking the beam. In general, all red beams will be soaked by the tank group, green beams should be soaked by healers (or manaless classes if healing isn’t an issue), and blue beams should be absorbed by DPS. You can effectively handle an entire beam phase with two tanks, two healers, and two DPS members. Each soaker should only absorb half the duration of a beam.

The red beam will cause the target to aggro Netherspite, reduces incoming damage, increases defense, improves maximum health (but then saps it gradually), and fully heals each tick. The green beam increases healing done, reduces mana cost of spells, gradually decreases maximum mana, and fully refreshes mana each tick. The blue beam increases damage output, reduces incoming healing, and increases damage taken.

A tank can arguably soak an entire red beam alone, but it’s safe to have a backup tank in case of a death. Green beams must be alternated because a healer can have their entire maximum mana depleted if soaking for too long. Blue beams must be swapped (30 stacks max) as the combination of damage increase and healing reduction will cause Nether Burn damage to become unhealable.

Designating assignments for beams is the most important part of the fight. A good setup will have your two tanks, all your healers in pairs (using two per beam phase, never repeating a pair soaking the beam), and two pairs of DPS members (rotating soaks for every other beam phase). Once you have beams down, the rest of the fight is much easier.

Banish Phase

After a minute of beams, Netherspite will cast Empowerment and banish himself. All damage he deals will be doubled, but he cannot move and can be targeted. It’s important that no raid members are in melee range of Netherspite during this phase as he will swipe at them extremely hard. Nether Burn and Void Zone will not be used, but he will cast Netherbreath often instead.

Netherbreath hits anyone in a cone towards the boss’ target (anyone within 60 yards) for heavy damage and knocks them back. Because of this, you cannot simply burn the boss during a banish phase. Instead, you’ll need to decide whether you want to prioritize avoiding damage or quickening the fight. Inexperienced raid groups should choose to avoid damage, which entails bringing the boss to the door and having the raid hide on the other side of the room.

Alternatively, you can choose to DPS the boss normally, reacting to Netherbreath casts. Melee DPS still will not attack, but ranged can deal damage and run to his tail when Netherbreath is being cast. This should prevent them from getting hit and will allow DPS to continue during the banish phase. Whichever method you choose, know it will last just 30 seconds before the beam phase resumes.

Execution

Now that you know all the mechanics in the fight, it’s about learning the general rhythm. It may take a few attempts to master beam soaking, but you cannot kill the boss without it. Make sure to avoid Void Zone and use shadow resistance when convenient. Healers should only focus on healing the raid; the tank will be healed with their beam.

Remember to avoid the boss during banish phases and run out his Netherbreath cone. Continue cycling through both phases until he finally falls. As a final note, he will enrage after 9 minutes and basically wipe the raid. This means you have a maximum of 6 beam-banish cycles before hitting enrage. Aim to remove a minimum of 17% of his life per two-phase cycle to avoid this.