Fathom-Lord Karathress as a Mage
So, I’ve decided to keep a blog about my progression through SSC/TK with my guild, <Chaos and Mayhem> on the Silvermoon server. First and foremost, I have to say after a few days of being in the guild that I’ve been welcomed warmly and everyone has been kind and jumped to get to know me.
Fathom-Lord Karathress as a Mage
We spent a few hours Saturday night in Serpentshrine Cavern, focusing on Fathom Lord Karathress. After 6 attempts, we wiped the naga to the floor. I found the fight fairly fun as a mage — it put me to the test at managing mana efficiency with just relying on the basics. I walked in buffed with 1235 spell damage, 27%~ spell crit and just 8.6k hp.
You must have at least 8k hp for this fight. From the Spitefire totems, Karathress’ shadow bolt, waterbolt volley and more, you’ll be taking a lot of damage. Grab healthstones — you’ll need to use them over Mana Gems if it comes down to it as a dead mage = 0 dps. I highly recommend coming stocked with a stack of Heavy Netherweave Bandages. On our final kill, I used two bandages, a healthstone and iceblocked as well as mana shielding once when I was targeted by the spitfire totem. So, here’s a breakdown of your job against Fathom-Lord Karathress:
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Keep yourself alive at all costs (healthstones, health potions, bandages, iceblock, mana shield, ice barrier)
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Go through mana smoothly and normally. Don’t evocate until you really have no other choice.
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Watch for the tornado, it tosses you in the air and stuns you (no fall damage).
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Use the following Macro when your mod or raid leader calls out Spitfire totem (it has a lot of hp and it’s common to spam 2-3 times):
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/target spitfire
Cast Scorch(Rank 9)
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Remember to kill the Hunter Add’s pet.
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Counterspell the priest if you’re near here and she’s about to heal.
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Use Mage Armor if you’re prone to having mana issues.
If you’re an arcane mage, I highly recommend you asking your raid leader to sit you in a group with spellsurge, Mana-Spring totems or a Shadow Priest. This fight really benefits from 2-3 shadow priests as the healers will be burning through mana extensively keeping each tank up through enrages and totem damage. Be prepared to be extremely conservative with mana and keep you a lower-mana use spell rotation (I stuck with Arcane Blast x3 > Arcane Missiles > Scorch > Repeat ). Once we had Karathress by himself, I stuck to a Scorch > Fireball x 3 > Repeat rotation to allow myself some mana regeneration for the end of the fight. I found it necessary as mana regeneration in my group was limited. I also counterspelled the priest once to stop her heal.
He seems to be a gear-check sort of fight as well as raid coordination, since in our raid a lot of people were switching heals and the like. The pull was just like High-King Maulgar. Anyone with low HP (below 8k~) will have to watch their health as healers are sparse to heal the raid until the first two adds are dead. Just be smart, keep constant dps going and burn the naga down (keeping at least a good 700 dps on this fight helps, anything under 650 should lead to a re-evaluation of your mana usage, gear or health problems). He seems to be a gear check and survivability check just like Al’ar. If you can down him quickly, (2 minutes+ left on the enrage timer), it seems that you should have the DPS to bring down Leotheras the Blind.
Just my two cents on it all, really. Good luck.
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