Kalecgos (tactics)


 * This article contains information on the Kalecgos raid encounter in World of Warcraft. For character biography, and the questgiver in Magisters' Terrace, see Kalecgos.



Kalecgos is the first boss in the Sunwell Plateau raid. This highly technical fight takes place in two different realms at the same time. In the normal realm the players face Kalecgos the dragon, while in the spectral realm Sathrovarr the Corruptor and Kalec, Kalecgos' half-elf form, fight for control over the dragon. The battle is won when Sathrovarr and the dragon are both subdued, and it is lost when Sathrovarr kills Kalec. Roughly every 30 seconds, an opportunity presents itself for players to change realm. A solid rotation has to be worked out on who switches when to the spectral realm. Even after the HP reduction of patch 3.0.2, Kalecgos is not a trivial fight.

Kalecgos

 * Kalecgos can be Taunted
 * Melee: ~5k per hit, never crushing
 * Arcane Buffet: instant cast, 8 sec CD, 463-537 Arcane AoE plus stacking debuff increasing Arcane damage taken by 500 for 40 seconds, hits all players in the normal realm. Not dispellable, removable by magical immunity effects like Divine Shield, Ice Block, and Cloak of Shadows only. Automatically removed when entering the spectral realm
 * Frost Breath: 1 sec cast, 30 yard frontal cone frost AoE plus 12 second 75% attack speed debuff, dispellable
 * Tail Lash: Rear area physical AoE for ~1.5k damage plus 2 sec stun
 * Wild Magic:: Random target random (de)buff, not dispellable:
 * Green: Healing done increased by 100%.
 * Purple: Casting time increased by 100%.
 * Red: Chance to hit with melee and ranged attacks reduced by 50%.
 * White: Damage done by critical hits increased by 100%.
 * Black: Increases threat generated by 100%.
 * Blue: Spell and ability costs reduced by 50%.
 * Spectral Blast: Every 15–25 seconds, Kalecgos targets a random raid member (never the current tank and nobody with the Spectral Exhaustion debuff) for about 2 seconds. After that time, 5k arcane AoE damage are dealt in an 8 yard radius, the raid member is teleported to the spectral realm, and for ~10 seconds, a portal is created which others can click to go there too
 * Spectral Realm: Players entering the spectral realm get this 60 second debuff, upon expiration they are ported back to the normal realm
 * Spectral Exhaustion: After leaving the spectral realm, players receive this 60 second debuff which prevents them from entering the spectral realm
 * Enrage: When either Sathrovarr or Kalecgos get to 10% health, both enrage and substantially increase their damage output

Sathrovarr the Corruptor

 * Tauntable
 * Melee: 6-8k, can crush
 * Corrupting Strike:: 9k shadow damage plus stun and DoT for 1k over 3 seconds, ~13 sec CD
 * Curse of Boundless Agony: 30 second shadow DoT which deals increasing damage every second. When removed this Curse jumps to the next target (unlimited range). It also jumps if the affected player dies or the duration ends. The damage dealt doubles every 5 seconds, starting at 100:
 * 0-5 sec = 100 dps
 * 5-10 sec = 200 dps
 * 10-15 sec = 400 dps
 * 15-20 sec = 800 dps
 * 20-25 sec = 1600 dps
 * 25-30 sec = 3200 dps


 * Shadow Bolt Volley: 5k shadow damage on a random target and up to two nearby others
 * Enrage: When either Sathrovarr or Kalecgos get to 10% health, both enrage and substantially increase their damage output

Kalec
This is Kalecgos' half-elf form in the spectral realm.
 * Melee: Kalec deals solid melee damge and builds high aggro (~ 1000 TPS), tanking Sathrovarr whenever no player tank is available.
 * Revitalize: random buff dealt to players near Kalec, restoring 450 health and mana every 3 seconds for 10 seconds, stacks up to two times

Preparation

 * Raid composition
 * 3 Tanks
 * 7-9 Healers
 * 13-15 DPS (at least one hunter is highly useful)
 * at least 4 raid members must be able to decurse

The whole raid basically needs Tier 6 (BT/MH) quality gear. All raid members should have 10k HP or more. Some amount of arcane resistance (about 120 buffed, e.g. Violet Badge plus Cloak of Arcane Evasion with enchant) helps to control the damage from Arcane Buffet. Tanks need a good supply of Ironshield Potions. Melee damage dealers can use Elixir of Demonslaying, as dealing high damage to Sathrovarr is crucial.

Portal rotation
The key to this fight is to set up a proper portal rotation routine. Due to the enrage mechanic, Sathrovarr and Kalecgos need to be brought down nearly simultaneously. Usually, Sathrovarr's health drops slower than Kalecgos, therefore it's crucial to make good use of the portals.

The basic idea is to divide the raid into either three or four logical groups, and if any member of one of these groups gets ported by the dragon, all other members of that group follow immediately. Additionally, one tank or an extra healer usually go with each group. The portal groups should consist of an even mix of DPS and healers, and each group must contain at least one decurser.

In theory, each portal can be used by up to 10 players before it expires. Due to practical problems, it's better to reduce the group size while learning the encounter to 5, so that only 6 people have to use each portal - this results in four groups. With practise, it's possible to increase the group size (and thus the damage dealt to Sathrovarr) so that 8 people use each portal, resulting in three groups.

Because the teleports take place in a random fashion, it's not possible to assign the tanks (and the free agent) to fixed groups. Depending on which raid members get ported, the assignment of tanks to portal groups is dynamic. If any raid member not assigned to a portal group (e.g. a tank) gets ported, one of the groups without the debuff must react quickly and follow, else that portal is lost, the raid takes increased damage from Arcane Buffet, and DPS on Sathrovarr are low (such a situation usually eventually leads to a wipe).

The three tanks set up their own rotation:

In principle, tanks go to the spectral realm whenever they can, and each tank which enters a new realm immediately takes over the mob there. The only exception is that the 3rd tank passes on the 2nd portal.

Four group setup
Using a four group strategy is simplified by using the five man group structure. There are four portal groups of 5 raid members each, while the last group consists of three tanks, one "free agent" and one raid member who joins the group which takes the second portal. The free agent should be a healer who tries to balance healing across realms, going where healing is needed most (usually this results in spending as much time as possible in the spectral realm). The last raid member should join the group using the 2nd portal because that one is not used by a tank.

One member of each of the four portal (= non-tank) groups can get a raid icon, to simplify identification. Whenever a raid member is ported, he calls out on Teamspeak which group should use the portal. A sample four group setup can look like this:
 * Tank group: Tank1, Tank2, Tank3, free agent, DPS (taking the 2nd portal)
 * Melee group: 4xMelee, healer druid (= decurser)
 * 3x DPS group: 3x DPS, 2x healer (one mage or resto shaman in each group as decurser)

Three group setup
When using this strategy, three groups of 7 raid members each are pre-designated, the three tanks and one extra healer remain unassigned. The first portal is used by one tank and one of the groups, the second portal by the extra healer and one group, the third portal the third tank and the third group. From this point on, group composition doesn't change anymore, because on each portal only one group doesn't have the spectral exhaustion debuff and thus can go to the spectral realm.

Positioning
After pulling, the tank should turn Kalecgos around and move him a little, to make sure that no other raid members stand in the frontal cone. Although the raid takes damage continuously, the primary focus of all healers is the tank.

The logical groups which use the same portal each get a general area assigned (like "top left", "close in", etc.), and stand loosely (8 yards apart) in that area. When one group member gets ported, this setup makes sure that all other group members are close to the portal and don't have to search for it. Pay attention to keep enough distance between raid members so the blast damage doesn't hurt anybody (most boss mods have a proximity warning built in).

In the spectral realm, the raid should set up in a tight circle around Sathrovarr. This serves to reduce the damage from Shadow Bolt Volley, while keeping everyone close enough to Kalec for the Revitalize buff, and within Chain Heal range.

Decursing
Since the curse never goes away (it only switches target), more and more raid members are afflicted in the course of the fight. After some time, it is active in both realms, sooner or later, decursers do nothing but bounce curses around. Tanks should always be decursed immediately, while other raid members should keep the curse for about 15 seconds.

End of combat
When either mob reaches 10%, they both enrage and progressively increase the damage they deal. If either mob reaches 1%, it is banished (subdued) and stops all actions. If Kalecgos is banished, no more portals open up, in that case Sathrovarr has to be brought to 1% by the raid members currently in the spectral realm alone. The fight ends with victory only if both mobs are banished.

In summary, it's a very good idea to keep their health close together, so that they reach 10% at the same time. At that point, Sathrovarr should be brought down to 1% first, and then Kalecgos.

Wipe recovery
The fight ends in failure and Kalecgos despawns for 20 seconds if any of the following conditions are met:
 * Kalec dies in the spectral realms
 * Kalecgos' current aggro target is in one of the gazebos (round platforms) on the ends of the paths leading to him
 * Kalecgos has no target at all (i.e. all raid members in the normal realm are dead)

For wipe recovery, it's necessary to despawn Kalecgos. The best method to achieve this is to misdirect him to a target standing in the gazebo. A more messy method is to have one mounted player gain aggro and then run towards the gazebo, with healers in the gazebo trying to get healing aggro. After the dragon has despawned, rezzers can run in and each rez exactly one target. Rezzing two doesn't work, because the rez target doesn't have enough time to run to safety before Kalecgos respawns.

At level 80
Ideal Raid Composition: 4 healers, 2 tanks, 19 dps

At level 80, the Enrage mechanic will not do nearly enough substantial damage to a tank for it to be a concern anymore (this does not apply to healers or dps). If you kill Kalecgos' dragon form before you kill Sathrovarr he will become immune and no longer cast portals to the spirit realm. Therefore, it is required that the majority of the raid concentrates on entering the spectral realm (through the debuff (Spectral Blast) or the portal(s) created thereafter) and make quick work of Sathrovarr's hit points (which will banish him for the remainder of the encounter) and then focus on Kalecgos in the Physical Realm.
 * Strategy

In other words:
 * 1) 1 raid group consisting of 1 main tank, 2 healers and 2 dps will initially engage Kalecgos directly and begin to tank and spank him. Hopes are here that none of the healers supporting this tank will be hit with the Spectral Blast debuff (which will port them to the Spectral Realm).
 * 2) 4 raid groups consisting of 1 off tank, 2 healers and 17 dps will enter the Spectral Realm (through the Spectral Blast debuff and/or the portal(s) created thereafter) and begin to nuke Sathrovarr. The off tank should pick up Sathrovarr immediately off of Kalecgos' human form and tank him.  You have 60 seconds to dps approximately 2.7 million hit points and banish Sathrovarr before you are forcefully ported back to the Physical Realm (with a 60 debuff which prevents you from entering it again).  With a level 80 raid consisting of 17 dps, this should be trivial.  Keep in mind that even after banishing Sathrovarr, players hit by Kalecgos with the Spectral Blast debuff (the 2 healers or 2 dps from raid group 1 but never the main tank) may still be ported to the Spectral Realm, however, at this point in the encounter, no one should be taking any portals.  It is here then that raid groups 2 to 5 (returning from the Spectral Realm) should burn down Kalecgos quickly and the fight will end in victory.

''Notes: As with other dragon bosses, avoid his tail or his frontal cone if you are a dps or healer. Kalecgos' Frost Breath can be dispelled but not necessary.''

Evil

 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Turns
 * yell


 * Spell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Killing a player
 * yell
 * yell

Good

 * Intro
 * yell


 * Losing
 * yell


 * Nearly lost
 * yell


 * Win
 * yell