Razorgore the Untamed

Razorgore the Untamed is a dragonspawn of the black dragonflight and the first boss of Blackwing Lair. He has been tasked by the lord of Blackwing Lair, Nefarian, with guarding the numerous and precious black dragon eggs located in the first room of the instance. To this end, Razergore has been given command of a cohort of orcs and other forces, and will stop at nothing to ensure that no harm comes to his grave charges.

Overview
The very first room of Blackwing Lair is the Dragonmaw Garrison (also called the Egg Chamber). To progress beyond this room, the raid must first defeat Razorgore.

The raid should be well equipped with Molten Core gear at least. The main damage from Razorgore is fire damage, thus the tanks should balance their gear well - they do need some fire resistance gear (but not all-out FR gear, because this impairs their ability to kite). Other raid members can also benefit from FR gear (esp. those dealing with the mages), but nobody should gimp himself too much just for fire resistance.

This encounter consists of three phases:

During Phase 1 the orcish orb controller, Grethok the Controller, and his two Blackwing Guardsmen are dealt with. On the pull a timer starts, at the end of which adds will start to spawn (phase 2). If the controller and his guards are dead before the timer expires, the raid will have a short phase out of combat at the end of phase 1. The Orb of Domination should be used right away to control Razorgore, else he will attack the raid. The controlled Razorgore is used to destroy all the eggs in the room.

In Phase 2, adds spawn in the rooms corners until 40 orcs (Blackwing Legionnaires and/or Blackwing Mages combined) and 12 Death Talon Dragonspawn are present. If some adds are killed, new ones will spawn to replace them. This phase ends when all the eggs in the room are destroyed, at which point all adds flee and Razorgore heals himself to full health. If Razorgore runs out of health before all of the eggs are destroyed, he will unleash a massive attack that instantly kills all units in the room (players and creatures), and resets the room.

The objective of Phase 3 is to kill Razorgore. Hopefully enough of the raid survived phase 2 to bring him down...

Abilities
While mind-controlled, Razorgore exposes these abilities to the controlling player, listed using their default hotkey:     

While not mind-controlled, Razorgore can also cast:

Phase 1
This is a quick and dirty fight. Aggroing this mob also aggroes Razorgore, so this phase needs to be completed as quickly as possible. The controller has a mind control ability, so kill him first. CCing his guards is not a good idea because it takes too much time; better tank them, some raids even use AoE. The faster these three are dead the better. When this is done, have someone take control of the controlling orb.

Phase 2
The following general strategy works best for raids while learning this encounter. There are variations possible (like using fear, or Razorgore's firebolt cluster), but the general idea mostly remains the same.

Three types of adds
In the room corners are two spawn points each (the little "rooms" which are lower than the normal floor). From these points, up to 52 adds spawn rather quickly, but randomly. The types of adds and how they should be dealt with are:


 * Dragonkin should be kited, crowd controlled or feared all the time. They are very hard to kill, and deal high amounts of damage.
 * Legionnaires (melee orcs) should be kited (e.g. by a few warriors). They aren't very dangerous, except for their cleave.
 * Blackwing Mages (mage orcs) should be killed as fast as possible. They die quick, but can deal nasty damage (ranged and AoE).

All adds have initial aggro on the Razorgore controller. The mage types will run to the center of the room and start to attack the controller with their ranged fireballs - this must not happen.

Since the number of adds is limited (12 dragonkin and 40 orcs), killing only the mages will eventually lead to a room full of melee orcs and dragonkin.

Corner groups
It's a good idea to set up at least one 5 players group (consisting of rogues, mages and warlocks) to watch each corner and kill the mages spawning there. Have an assist target set up in each corner group.

Controlling Razorgore
When controlled, Razorgore has the following abilities:    </li> </ol>

Pet controlling classes must dismiss their pets if they are to control Razorgore!

It is a good idea to have the MT or at least some "hard" class (warrior, paladin or feral druid) control him, because Razorgore will have an infinite amount of aggro on his former controller in Phase 3. Controlling Razorgore is a channeled effect which regularly wears off after 90 seconds. The "destroy egg" ability has a cooldown of 1.5 sec, so it is possible to destroy twenty of the eggs in a single control period. Beyond this, Razorgore has a fire ball volley, and the ability to sleep dragonkin.

It can help to position Razorgore away from the orb near the end of the control periods, so he cannot immediately attack the controller. Do not double-click the orb. If you do that you will get the mind exhaustion debuff which means that you can't control him and someone else will need to take over. The boss will be loose while this happens and that's bad. If you want to end a control period early, the /dance emote (or repeatedly hitting ) is an appropriate method.

If the sleep dragonkin ability is to be used, a dedicated assist for this purpose should be set up. This person keeps a lookout for loose dragonkin, and targets them. The Razorgore controller can then assist and sleep while waiting for the destroy egg cooldown. There appears to be no cap on the number of dragons he can sleep, so a skilled controller can take as many as four dragonkin out of the fight.

If Razorgore dies before this phase is complete, he will produce a large death explosion which will kill everything in the room. Well-timed Ice Blocks will save a death and enable wipe recovery, though the run back is short.

Healing
All healing classes should be used to heal because healing aggro is the reason for most wipes here. Since it is impossible to establish solid aggro on 52 mobs, healers must be extremely cautious. In order to distribute healing aggro as much as possible, use shield all the time, and ranked-down heals (and healing stream totems if available), and take care to heal as many different targets as possible. Wipes usually happen because some healer draws healing aggro and gets killed, then the other healers have to heal more, and get aggro in turn. Alternatively, the wipe happens when a kiter dies (because he didn't get healed enough), and his train then turns on the healers.

Avoid the use of HoTs; their frequent ticks are more likely to cause the caster to the threat-lead as adds join the fight. Conveniently, however, Power Word: Shield has a reduced threat per hp shielded, in addition to a threat gain on application. This spell applied to kiters before they enter combat is very threat-efficient.

Kiting
When kiting the adds, it is important to gain a speed advantage over them. Hunters have their speed increase buff, while warriors have an AoE slowdown debuff. Dragonkin are immune to the latter, they also ignore the effect of stoneclaw totem. Thus if warriors kite dragonkin, they should use the platforms and stairs to gain a speed advantage. The trick is to jump off the platforms, because the mobs will not jump, but instead run down the nearest ramp. The kiter should then run across the room up the opposite ramp, wait on the platform, and jump off when the chase is within 5-10 yards. The pause is important because if they run too fast, the mobs will not run up the platform but instead take the shortcut. Next run back to first ramp, run up, and repeat - this leads to a "figure 8" pattern. During this whole time the kiter should be spamming demoralizing shout (or use scatter shot) to hold aggro. If done properly, the kiters take only little damage during this. Boots enchanted with the +speed enchant help a lot.

If one kiter has both mob types (dragonkin and legionnaires) in his train, slowdown effects are not a good idea, because the Dragonkin are immune, while the orcs are not, resulting in a splitting train.

Kiting with Razorgore
It is possible to kite Razorgore. With his fireball volley, he can easily hold aggro on the whole room. The problem is to keep him alive, esp. the melee orcs do quadruple damage on dragons. The raid must concentrate on freezing, fearing and sleeping most of the mobs, while the healers keep Razorgore up.

If Razor takes too much damage, release control. In that case, the aggro is transferred from Razor to his former controller, who now can start to kite the whole room (while somebody else takes control and continues to destroy the eggs). Pay attention not to break the train in this case (avoid using fear, and don't heal).

Finer points

 * The mages in the corner groups can sheep the legionnaires (to make them harmless until a kiter adds them to his train).
 * Similarly, druids can sleep the Dragonkin, until they are added to some train. Unfortunately this increases aggro from the Dragonkin they slept, reducing the amount of healing the druids can do.
 * Fear should be used only sparingly until nearly all eggs are destroyed (because it breaks trains)
 * Combat rezzes by druids (and shaman ankhs) should be saved until it is certain that phase 3 will be reached
 * In order to get down the mages fast, a targeting macro ("/target blackwing mage") can help (for corner group members)
 * Turning on the mob nameplates (V, shift-V, or ctrl-V) can help to reduce the general confusion
 * If the mages are silenced, they run into melee range, and use their deadly AoE as soon as the silence wears off. For this reason it's a good idea not to silence/counterspell/earthshock/whatever them.
 * If hunters kite dragonkin and warriors kite legionnaires, there is the danger that the orcs cleave the hunters if a hunter has to cross the path of an orc train. Therefore in this scenario, hunters and warriors should try to find paths which don't cross.
 * Have a warlock or two on the controllers platform to fear all loose adds that get up there.
 * Keep a shield on the controller the whole time, being hit reduces the control time.
 * Give raid icons to the kiters, this makes it easier for the healers to identify whom they should heal

Phase 3
Razorgore alone isn't very strong and it is possible to win with two surviving tanks, 4 healers, and a few DPS, though it is obviously preferable to have more. The only difficulty is to manage his aggro, like all dragons he's immune to taunt. Fortunately his former controller is fixed on the top of his aggro list (until the former controller dies).

Razorgore has a Conflagration spell which he sometimes uses against his current target, which disorients the target for some time. While that confusion lasts, Razorgore attacks the next highest target on his threat table. After the effect wears off, he returns to his normal threat mechanics, so if the confused person was the former controller, Razorgore will always return to him.

The usual method to deal with this is to have at least two tanks, positioned far enough apart not to be hit by the conflagration at the same time.

Since the conflagration is an AoE effect, the main damage should be ranged (similarly to the Onyxian Warder encounters). Rogues should bandage the range DPSers at this time, as well as help with their bows.

Solo strategy
The most challenging part of this fight is keeping Razorgore alive during the egg-destroying phase long enough to destroy all thirty eggs in the room. As the adds appear, they not only aggro on the controlling character, some of them will also aggro on Razorgore. The damage from these adds is sufficient, given enough time, to kill Razorgore -- at which point he will explode and instantly kill everyone in the room, including the controller. The dragonkin adds do the most damage, so if one is attacking Razorgore, use his Calm Dragon ability (key 5) to put it to sleep while waiting for the Destroy Egg cooldown to finish.

Pet controlling classes must dismiss their pet, or they will not be able to control Razorgore!

Get behind Grethok the Controller and his Blackwing Guardsmen who are guarding the Orb of Domination, then blow them up to start the encounter. Quickly interact with the orb (just click it once!), in order to keep Razorgore close to his starting platform. Razorgore does not have to be on top of the egg that is targeted for destruction, but he does need to be facing it and within a few yards of it. It helps to target Razorgore ( should work while he is mind controlled) to see his cast bar. The mind control channel will not break if the controller takes damage.

Begin clearing eggs near his starting position on the platform and then work across the room to the controller platform. Destroy egg has a 3.0 second cast time, and there is a 1.5 second cooldown after the cast has finished. Use the cooldown time to move to the next egg. While the destroy egg cast is in progress, look for the next egg to destroy, then move to it the instant the cast completes. The Dominate Mind channel has a 90 second duration, so with optimal play, 20 eggs can be destroyed in one channel.

With at least 4 seconds left in the first channel, cast Fireball Volley to aggro all the adds. When the channel breaks, they will turn to the player and get off Razorgore. Don't even bother cleaning them up, but quickly resume the mind control. Another Fireball Volley may be necessary around the 45-second mark of the second channel. Quickly cast escape after the volley goes off, then resume the mind control channel again.

Work quickly, as there is a roughly 45-second pause before adds start streaming in. Plan a route so Razor is not near the orb of domination when the channel wears off. Use the forced break in the control channel to quickly mop up the adds whaling on the controlling character, then interact with the orb again to regain control of Razorgore. Don't mess with the adds close to Razor, as splash damage from the character's attacks probably will do more damage to him than the trash mobs.

As soon as the last egg is destroyed, all of the trash will turn and flee. Razorgore hits for a trivial amount of damage against a character attempting to solo him, but the 8-second disorient and 5-second stun will still be an annoyance.

Alternative strategy
Summary: An alternative strategy to soloing Razorgore is to park him behind the player, wait until the number of adds in the room has reached their cap and are focused on the controlling player, and then destroy the eggs without any distractions.

IMPORTANT: Before attempting this, dismiss any active pets and be sure you have no abilities or spells active that could potentially cause damage to attackers (such as the shaman's Lightning Shield).

Kill Grethok and his adds and let Razorgore cross most the room before using the orb. You will have some time to destroy a few eggs, so deal with the ones directly in front of the orb platform and the couple on the orb platform itself. Once done with that, stay on the orb platform and move Razorgore to the back of it. The adds will begin spawning from the side entrances of the room and head towards your platform. The key to this strategy is that by moving Razorgore to that spot, the adds will immediately focus on the controlling player due to proximity aggro rather than attempting to kill the boss.

Occasionally an add will either attack or at least appear to focus on Razorgore — don't panic. It can take a second or two for the add to re-focus on the controlling player (as intended), so don't make any moves. On the very rare exception that an add doesn't re-focus, you can use Calm Dragonkin (if it's Death Talon Dragonspawn) or carefully single-target melee the orc to death. This will cause a new add to spawn, but better that than risking a wipe later on.

The mind-control channeling will expire while the adds are busy capping out, so quickly and carefully click the orb again to regain control of Razorgore. It helps ahead of time to pick a "good" spot by the orb for when you're encircled by the adds, as well as turning off nameplates. Following these tips should make it easier to view the orb and — most importantly — interact with it.

After immediately moving Razorgore back to his parking spot, keep an eye the side entrances. If you think no more adds are coming out, wait several seconds to be certain of it. You can then freely move Razorgore about the room, destroying the eggs in whichever pattern you prefer. Most prefer to start at the opposite platform, however, in order to give themselves more time to regain control over the boss. When the channeling runs out, you can quickly move your character away from the orb to force the melee adds to re-position themselves if you're finding it too cluttered to easily interact again with the orb.

At this point, it is simply a matter of rinse and repeat with the orb while destroying all the eggs.

Quotes

 * Destroy Egg
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Death (before all of the eggs have been destroyed)
 * yell


 * Arcane Explosion
 * yell

Trivia

 * Razorgore is voiced by Marc Graue.

Bugs and other known effects

 * The adds may continue to spawn after the defeat of Razorgore. Whether this is due to a minimum number of adds not having been reached or other causes is unknown.  Typical reactions are for the raid to exit the instance and re-enter.  There may be adds up that must be killed at that point, but further adds may be suppressed.
 * If the Mind Control effect on Razorgore drops when he is not in combat, he will do his arcane explosion, wiping the raid.
 * Prior to the changes to older raids in Patch 5.1.0, Razorgore the Untamed was very difficult, if not impossible to solo due to mechanics.