Dragonflight Endgame Bonus: Five tips for defeating raid boss Raszageth

While the race for world first is over that doesn't mean that the final boss of Dragonflight's first raid is a pushover. The Storm-Eater Raszageth is a marathon encounter, taking up to fifteen minutes. Additionally, it's a mechanics-intensive boss battle that requires every party member to know what's up. While we're inbetween Dragonflight Endgame pieces, let's take a quick detour to the Vault of the Incarnes and check out five things to know about Raszageth.

Phase one of the Raszageth encounter is hallmarked by multiple lightning spells the players must avoid. However, there is one that absolutely must be contended with, lest the entire raid be put in danger. At various points during phase one the boss will tag three players with a DOT called Static Charge.

While it's important that these three players get away from the raid to minimize damage, it's the after-effect we're more worried about. When the DOT expires a Static Field will drop and expand underneath that player, leaving an electric cloud in its wake. It's crucial that these fields drop on the outmost circle of the platform and behind wherever your party fights the boss.

After this happens Raszageth will use her Hurricane Wing ability. This will knock any player not standing in the aforementioned electric cloud right off the platform to their death. The Static Charge fields should somewhat overlap one another to keep players from being blown between the fields. This becomes easier if every player is instinctively looking for the blowback, but there's always one or two that won't.

There's always a bit of randomness in every fight and Raszageth is no different. Her Lightning Breath ability is a literal one-shot that targets a random player in the raid, regardless of aggro. The move is fast and, if you're hit you more than likely won't be able to react to it in a way that lets you live. It's important to keep an eye on Raszageth's casting bar so that you know when Lightning Breath happens and plan accordingly.

On the LFR version of this fight you might have enough time to step out of the way or pop a cooldown to try and live. However, this will just create bad habits if you ever do harder difficulties. Therefore, try to anticipate Lightning Breath and get out of the way.

The end of the first phase is marked by Raszageth blowing everyone off the platform and onto new, small arenas. It's important to note that this isn't automatic and if you aren't in position then you'll die. Typically, the raid leader will instruct members of certain group numbers to line up on opposite sides so that an equal number of players go to each platform. This will require you to move to each side and use the air blast to launch you into the new platform.

You'll know when to move into position because Raszageth will fly up into the air and start talking. Use this time to immediately stop DPS or whatever you're doing and follow the group to either side.

Once down on your platform you'll need to kill three large cyclone monsters that spawn before the teleporter will activate. A note: Raszageth will use Lightning Breath across the middle of the platform you're on during this phase. Move around the outer ring of the circle and avoid going into the middle, lest you die.

Once the adds are down, take the teleporter to the third platform. This endgame with Raszageth is far from over.

Phase two takes place on this new platform and boils down to dodging a lot of lightning. However, at various points Raszageth gains a shield that needs destroyed by the raid. When this happens everyone alive will get either a positive (blue) or negative (red) charge. It's crucial that players separate themselves and stack on top of everyone else with the same charge. Not only will this provide a dramatic damage increase, but failing to separate the charges will result in huge, raid-wide damage.

This phase is largely a DPS check, as in addition to the shield players will also need to nuke down yet another cyclone enemy. However, this time the big cyclone will spawn smaller ones that will attempt to reach the big one. Make sure you nuke the small ones down completely before going back and attacking the main cyclone.

The final phase begins the same way the first one ended: Raszageth will fly up into the air, talk a bit, then blow everyone off the platform. However, this time the entire party will want to line up so they are blown back onto the original platform. You won't have a lot of time to move back into position for this last gust of wind. Save yourself some time and fight on the southern part of the platform during phase two so that you're already lined up for the last wind buffet.

At this point the encounter is a DPS race. Raszageth needs killed before AOE damage swallows the entire arena. Avoid the growing storm cloud that swallows the platform while the tanks use mitigation cooldowns on Thunderous Blast to avoid killing the entire raid.

Congrats, you've beaten the first Dragonflight endgame raid available! With any luck you now have some loot, experience, and a few good memories of falling off a platform.

Join us here again shortly as we continue our look into the Dragonflight Endgame with a peek at Mythic+ dungeons.

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