Malkorok (tactics)

Malkorok is the ninth boss of Siege of Orgrimmar. The encounter is a high-damage Gear check and contains an interesting healing mechanic due to the Ancient Miasma.

Adventure Guide
''Malkorok has been Garrosh's most loyal and trusted lieutenant throughout the Pandaria campaign. When the Warchief needed a volunteer to infuse with the power of Y'Shaarj, it was only natural that Malkorok would offer without hesitation.''

Encounter Design
''Players who stuck around after the completion of the Dark Heart of Pandaria scenario may have had some inkling that they would be facing off against Malkorok someday in the near future. This is our “Patchwerk-style” boss of the zone, though of course he does have a couple more mechanics than Patchwerk did.''

Overview
Malkorok's platform begins covered with a dark miasma that absorbs all healing done to players, converting it into an absorption shield instead. Malkorok strikes the ground with a large cone smash three times in sequence, and then causes the same three areas struck to erupt simultaneously with dark energy. Malkorok draws in the miasma, entering a Blood Rage and empowering his melee attacks but allowing players to heal normally for a time. Malkorok then exhales the dark energy, and the cycle repeats until he is defeated.

[[file:Dps_icon.png]] Damage Dealers

 * Be mindful of the locations of Malkorok's Arcing Smashes and avoid those locations when he casts Breath of Y'Shaarj.
 * If you have a strong absorption shield, stand in Imploding Energy to prevent raidwide damage.
 * Move away from allies if afflicted with Displaced Energy.
 * Clump to split the damage from Malkorok's attacks during his Blood Rage.

[[file:Healer_icon.png]] Healers

 * Heal aggressively to keep allies' Ancient Barrier maximized while Ancient Miasma is active.
 * Be mindful of the locations of Malkorok's Arcing Smashes and avoid those locations when he casts Breath of Y'Shaarj.
 * If you have a strong absorption shield, stand in Imploding Energy to prevent heavy raidwide damage.
 * Dispel Displaced Energy once allies are clear of the raid.

[[file:Tank_icon.png]] Tanks

 * Take turns tanking Malkorok to allow Fatal Strikes to reset.
 * Clump to split the damage from Malkorok's attacks during his Blood Rage.

Strategy
Malkorok is a simple, but extremely brutal, gear check encounter. The fight alternates between two phases on a set timer, and has both a soft enrage (Relentless Assault) and a six minute hard enrage timer.

Phase 1
At the beginning of the phase, Malkorok will apply Ancient Miasma which converts all heals into absorption shields with an upper limit of 100% of the target's maximum health (similar to the shields on heroic Tortos). This mechanic makes it important that players avoid taking unnecessary damage, as players who lose their absorption shield and take damage cannot be healed up in this phase. It is also to note that any damage event greater than 100% of the target's maximum health will still one-shot raid members, irrespective of the strength of the absorption shield. Ancient Miasma does additionally do low ticking damage which the healers should be mindful about.

The raid will need to spread out to minimize raid damage from Seismic Slam. Healers should try to top up the absorption shields for this, as the shields will soak fall damage.

Tanks will need to watch their Fatal Strike debuff and swap when necessary. The first swap should occur at 12-15 stacks; thereafter, the tank not on the boss should taunt whenever his stacks drop.

Malkorok will regularly cast Arcing Smash, with Imploding Energy immediately following. Avoiding Arcing Smash simply requires raid members to move, while Imploding Energy requires that one player (and only one player) stand in each void zone to prevent significant raid damage. 10-man groups will have 3 pools, scaling up to 7 pools in 25-man groups.

Around 10 seconds after the third Arcing Smash, Malkorok will cast Breath of Y'sharrj. This will cause the three locations previously struck by Arcing Smash to erupt again, and one-shot anyone caught within. There is no ground-effect warning and no time to move, so the raid leader or a raid assist should throw raid markers on areas affected by Arcing Smash, and the raid should avoid these areas as much as possible until the Breath of Y'sharrj cast.

After two minutes, which will be shortly after the second Breath cast, he will enter Phase 2.

Phase 2
Malkorok will apply Blood Rage to himself, causing his melee attacks to deal an insane amount of damage split amongst all targets. The entire raid will need to stack in front of the boss to split the damage, and chain any available defensive cooldowns in order to survive. Players who have experienced the Majordomo Staghelm encounter in the Firelands may find this mechanic familiar.

Raid members affected by Displaced Energy must move out of the raid, and wait until either they are dispelled or their debuff expires, at which point they may move back in.

Ancient Miasma will no longer be in effect, but any leftover absorption shields will soak any incoming damage until they run out.

After 20 seconds, Malkorok will gain a stack of Relentless Assault, permanently buffing his damage, before re-entering Phase 1. Notably, there will be a short window of time before Ancient Miasma comes back into effect, giving the healers their only chance to top the raid off before their healing is absorbed.

Achievement: Unlimited Potential
To earn Unlimited Potential, the raid will first need to locate the Corrupted Skullsplitter; this mob is located at the bottom of the stairs leading to Malkorok's platform. This mob will need to be kited to Malkorok and kept alive until Malkorok casts Breath of Y'shaarj, at which point the raid needs to make sure it gets hit by this ability (using stuns or knockbacks). If the Corrupted Skullsplitter is hit by Breath of Y'shaarj, it will transform into a Corrupted Amalgamation; the raid must kill this mob quickly, then proceed to finish the fight normally.

The Corrupted Skullsplitter has abilities that mirror Malkorok's Arcing Smash and Breath of Y'shaarj abilities in both effect and potency, and the raid needs to handle these abilities in the same way as Malkorok's. However, the Corrupted Skullsplitter can be crowd controlled, and a raid with good crowd control should keep the mob CC'd until it needs to be placed in Malkorok's Breath of Y'shaarj.

Unlike the achievement on the previous fight, the achievement mob will reset if the raid wipes.

Related Achievements

 * The Underhold (achievement)
 * Mythic: Malkorok
 * Unlimited Potential
 * Siege of Orgrimmar Guild Run

Quotes

 * Event
 * yell


 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Arcing Smash
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Breath of Y'shaarj
 * yell
 * yell


 * Blood Rage
 * yell
 * yell


 * Berserk
 * yell


 * Wipe
 * yell


 * Death
 * yell