Al'ar

Al'ar is the first seen boss of the Eye in Tempest Keep. This boss is more often than not skipped at first and attempted after Void Reaver because of Void Reaver's lesser difficulty.

Lore
Al'ar is Kael'thas Sunstrider's precious pet phoenix that he cares for deeply. Kael'thas summoned Al'ar to destroy the undead blocking the way into the Sunwell Plateau during his mission to destroyed the tainted Sunwell.

His children reside near their father and aid in attacking those invading Kael'thas's sanctum. As with all phoenixes, he is reborn from his own ashes, so adventurers wishing to take him down may have to do so more than once during the encounter.

Kael'thas often boasted that death would never claim it. Perhaps he was right.

Some of the Dawnblade blood elves had heard that Akama and his brethren were the ones who broke into the Eye and slew Al'ar, likely referencing the quest Ruse of the Ashtongue, in which heroes disguised themselves as broken draenei while battling the phoenix god.

Both Phases

 * Stackable debuff incurred every 1.5s that causes 2000 fire damage and increases fire damage taken by 10% per debuff. Lasts 10 seconds. Cannot be avoided by line of sight. This is only cast if the person with the highest threat isn't within melee range
 * Sometimes Al'ar will cast Flame Buffet even if there is a tank in melee range. If this happens, your tank should move forward and quickly back into position to fix the bug.
 * Sometimes Al'ar will cast Flame Buffet even if there is a tank in melee range. If this happens, your tank should move forward and quickly back into position to fix the bug.

Phase 1

 * Occasionally, Al'ar will fly to the center of the room instead of switching platforms. Al'ar then launches quills that hit anyone on the platforms or the outer part of the ramps. Deals ~8k Fire damage per second, for several seconds. Unknown cooldown
 * Explodes upon 'death', knocking back any player in range (~15 yards). Deals ~10k fire damage, and an additional ~1000 fall damage.  Used just before transitioning to Phase 2.
 * Explodes upon 'death', knocking back any player in range (~15 yards). Deals ~10k fire damage, and an additional ~1000 fall damage.  Used just before transitioning to Phase 2.
 * Explodes upon 'death', knocking back any player in range (~15 yards). Deals ~10k fire damage, and an additional ~1000 fall damage.  Used just before transitioning to Phase 2.

Phase 2

 * 5000 fire damage to anyone in melee range, with a knockback across the room. This occurs a few seconds after a Dive Bomb, in the same location where the Dive Bomb hit.  Al'ar also uses this ability at the start of Phase 2, when resurrecting in the center of the room.
 * Al'ar flies up, and targets the ground beneath a random player. Al'ar then crashes into the ground at that location.  This deals ~5000 fire damage, and spawns two Ember of Al'ar adds.  Al'ar then uses Rebirth at that location.  30 second cooldown.
 * Spawns under a randomly targeted player, deals ~3000 fire damage per tick, and applies a stackable debuff similar to Flame Buffet.
 * Target's armor is reduced by 80% for 60 seconds, tanks must taunt immediately when this happens. 60s cooldown.
 * Al'ar's damage is increased by 500% and attack speed is increased by 150%, wiping the raid very quickly. This occurs 10 minutes after the start of phase 2.
 * Spawns under a randomly targeted player, deals ~3000 fire damage per tick, and applies a stackable debuff similar to Flame Buffet.
 * Target's armor is reduced by 80% for 60 seconds, tanks must taunt immediately when this happens. 60s cooldown.
 * Al'ar's damage is increased by 500% and attack speed is increased by 150%, wiping the raid very quickly. This occurs 10 minutes after the start of phase 2.
 * Target's armor is reduced by 80% for 60 seconds, tanks must taunt immediately when this happens. 60s cooldown.
 * Al'ar's damage is increased by 500% and attack speed is increased by 150%, wiping the raid very quickly. This occurs 10 minutes after the start of phase 2.
 * Al'ar's damage is increased by 500% and attack speed is increased by 150%, wiping the raid very quickly. This occurs 10 minutes after the start of phase 2.

Ember of Al'ar

 * ~70,000 health.
 * Hit for ~1500 damage.
 * One is spawned after each position change in Phase 1, and two are spawned after each Dive Bomb in Phase 2.
 * Each time one is destroyed, Al'ar's health is drained by 2% of max health.
 * Explodes upon death, knocking back any player in range (~15 yards). Deals ~7000 fire damage, and an additional ~1000 fall damage.
 * Can be stunned. Immune to all other forms of Crowd Control.
 * Can be stunned. Immune to all other forms of Crowd Control.

Strategy
This is a heavy mobility fight. Contrary to popular belief, no amount of fire resistance is generally needed for the fight. It may help certain individuals (e.g. the tank that handles the Embers) but you should avoid sacrificing more important statistics. Fire protection potions are helpful if their use is timed properly. Al'ar was (until Patch 5.1.0) immune to fire damage, but is no longer.

Phase I
Phase I is straightforward.

Al'ar will always fly to the left ramp when pulled. A tank needs to wait there to avoid Flame Buffet.

During this phase it is impossible to draw aggro at range; like Ragnaros, Al'ar will not aggro on people outside melee range. Melee can draw aggro from tanks, however. Al'ar spends around 30 seconds on each platform, then moves on to the next, flying clockwise (W, NW, NE, E, repeat). Tanks should stay on the edge of their platform to maintain line of sight with the healers. Two tanks is enough for this simple rotation, but three makes it easier to react to Flame Quill.

Adds
Al'ar will summon an add every time it switches position. This add spawns at the very position it just left. The adds need to be off-tanked away from the rest of the raid and DPS'd down as soon as possible to keep the total number of spawned adds to a minimum. The adds do not deal much damage but explode on death for a significant amount of fire damage (healers should be prepared to respond as the adds approach death). They are immune to crowd control and fire damage.

The adds will generally fly to the healers, particularly if a paladin keeps Righteous Fury up; have an off-tank waiting downstairs to pick them up. It is usually a good idea to have the melee DPS take care of these adds, since they can't move fast enough to keep steady DPS on the boss herself, but be very careful with the explosions. Note that these adds can be stunned, and a useful technique is for a rogue to save up 5 combo points, wait for the add to get low on health (around 4%), stun the add while everyone else moves away, and then use Cloak of Shadows and finish off the add.

Flame Quills
Occasionally when leaving a platform, Al'ar will fly to the center of the room and begin spinning, which signals the upcoming Flame Quills. Every person in the raid needs to be aware and fall down from the upper platform, especially the tanks, since anyone left there will take 6-8k fire damage per second. People standing on the outside of the room on the floor (south near the entry door) are also susceptible. Unobservant tanks will be killed very quickly by this ability, most likely causing a wipe (if no soulstone was set). So whenever Al'ar is about to leave a platform, rotate the camera appropriately to keep an eye on the movement. Don't just run blindly to the next platform, wait a bit to see where exactly Al'ar goes next.

Once the Quill ends, Al'ar will land on platform 1 or 4. One tank needs to be positioned on each side, at the base of the ramp, ready to quickly reach their platform before Al'ar does more than two buffets. Intercept is useful. A third tank can be helpful here; if you have only two tanks, and both are on the same side of the room as Al'ar leaves a platform to start Flame Quills, they may have trouble crossing the room to reach the far platform. Priests can summon their shadow fiend up to Al'ar if the tank is having trouble getting to the platform in time to minimize buffets.

Between handling adds and avoiding the Flame Quills, heavy DPS needs to be put out on the boss. In an ideal scenario, Al'ar should die within 2-3 flight cycles.

Keeping the Adds
Alternatively, you can "save" the phase 1 adds for phase two (when the enrage timer becomes important). Have melee bring each add to 10% and have a warrior spam Demoralizing Shout and Thunderclap. If you have access to a Paladin tank, they can solo the adds from phase 1 to 10%-20% by spamming Consecration and Holy Shield. The tank will have about 10 adds on him by the end. The damage is difficult to heal through, but not dangerous if the healers pay attention. Once Al'ar has respawned at the start of phase 2, use AoE to kill all the adds simultaneously, and Al'ar will lose about 20% HP instantly. The add tank will usually be knocked away by the first explosion and should not take damage from any of the others; however it is possible to be hit by several and killed. Therefore, it is sensible to Soulstone him. The add tank could also use a Major Fire Protection Potion before the first add explodes, to avoid high peak damage.

Phase II
Phase II begins right after Al'ar reaches 0%. At this point it will explode for ~5000 fire damage with AoE knockback and reappear roughly at the center of the room, where it will cast a powerful AoE knockback with fire damage. After this, it must be immediately tanked or it will start casting its flame buffets once again. Phase II is not an aggro wipe and Al'ar should fly to the top threat person. But it may decide to stay put and cast flame buffet if not picked up immediately. In case there are still some adds up from phase I, raid should focus on getting them down as soon as possible, preferably before Al'ar casts the first Dive Bomb. Other than that, phase II is all about survivability. Melee DPS should focus on the boss while ranged DPS focuses on the adds and then Al'ar if no adds exist.

While being on the ground, it will occasionally spawn flame patches on random people that work in a similar fashion to void zones. People need to be aware and move away from the fire trails as soon as possible. Al'ar can charge people for 5000 damage leaving them momentarily stunned. It usually flies back to its previous target but can sometimes remain next to the charged target and cast flame buffet until taunted.

It also casts a Melt Armor debuff on the current MT every 60 seconds. The other tank must taunt immediately when this happens. Having both tanks wear a high amount of +hit helps a lot. Al'ar's melee damage is fairly weak, so reaching the hit cap is more important than damage mitigation. Note that the current MT can use Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch every time the debuff is applied. After Dive Bomb, Al'ar sometimes targets the tank having Melt Armor, so the current MT should be ready to taunt, and never move too far away from the other tank. A Warrior MT can also Intervene. While most boss mods will announce when Melt Armor is cast and its duration, it will be beneficial to many to announce this over Vent or Teamspeak. Healers must be ready to change targets when needed.

Last but not least, while airborne, it will cast Dive Bomb on a seemingly random target. The Meteor does about ~5000 fire damage on a single target and should be survivable or avoided by running from the area. Using consumables/abilities that can mitigate this sort of damage (fire protection potions, ice barrier, mana shield, barkskin etc.) is also recommended. People should be aware of the fact that Al'ar spawns with an AoE fire knockback where the meteor hits the ground as well as with two ember adds, so your raid should move away from that spot as soon as possible. The adds spawn immediately when the meteor hits the ground, whereas Al'ar spawns roughly 2 seconds afterwards, giving a small window to pull the adds out without accidentally hitting or taunting Al'ar. Failure to do so will result in them being knocked across the room taking both fire damage and potentially some falling damage. Also be sure to NOT kill adds during a meteor or Al'ar won't take the 2% damage from its death.

Note: Everyone should stay off the ramps and in the room completely, if Al'ar targets a person for Dive Bomb while they are on the ramps, Al'ar will evade glitch and go back to full health.

Soloing Al'ar
Al'ar is straightforward, so long as the room is clear before engaging him. Just stand in one spot (on the ground in the center of the arena) and nuke him. Remember that Al'ar must be killed twice, since it is a phoenix.

Trivia

 * Alar is present in the lists of words created by the in-game language parser for the Draconic, Draenei and Eredun (Demonic) languages. It may not be an actual word, though.
 * Kael'thas can summon Al'ar in Heroes of the Storm.