World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

Razorscale is a giant proto-drake found in Ulduar immediately after Flame Leviathan, directly across from the Colossal Forge.  She is one of the optional bosses found in Ulduar and does not need to be defeated.  She is a fun and relatively easy fight though, so is well worth fighting.


Health

10 Person Raid: 3,900,000 health
25 Person Raid: 12,600,000 health

Additional Creatures in the Fight (Adds)

Dark Rune Guardian – The Guardians attack with normal melee swings as well as a special Stormstrike which hits with both weapons at once.  In addition, Stormstrike applies a debuff on its target that increases nature damage taken by 20% for 12 seconds.  This debuff can be dispelled.

Dark Rune Sentinel – Sentinels are the largest of the adds and have a whirlwind attack that hits everyone in melee range for a large amount of damage.  It hits hard enough that it can kill a cloth wearer very easily. All players other than the tank need to stay at range.

Dark Rune Watcher – These are the smallest of the adds and while they have physical attacks are primarily casters.  They have access to a single target lighting bolt spell as well as a chain lightning spell.  The chain lightning spell is interruptible.

Abilities

Berserk – If the fight lasts for more than 10 minutes, Razorscale goes berserk.  Once berserk her attack speed is increased by 150% and all damage is greatly increased.  If she goes berserk se will wipe the raid in just a few seconds.

Devouring Flame – Razorscale can use this flame based attack to hit a player for roughly 10,000 (6,000 in 10 player raids) damage and leaving a flame effect on the ground.  Anyone in the flame effect suffers roughly 10,000 (6,000 in 10 player raids) damage per second that they remain in it.  The flames remain on the ground for 25 seconds.  

Fireball – This is a single target spell that hits for roughly 12,000 fire damage.

Flame Breath – This attack hits everyone in Razorscales front arc for roughly 21,000 fire damage (15,000 in 10 player raids).

Flame Buffet – This ability increases the fire damage that a player takes by 1,500 (1,000 in 10 player raids) per stack and lasts 1 minute. It can be dispelled.

Fuse Armor – This ability places a debuff on the main tank that reduces armor, attack, and movement speed by 20%.  The effect lasts 20 seconds, but can stack up to 5 times and resets the time with each stack.

Wing Buffet – Razorscale uses this ability any time she frees herself from the chains in phase 1.  It hits all players within 35 yards and knocks them back.

Strategy

The fight with Razorscale is a two phase fight.  The first phase consists of dealing with additional creatures (adds) while your helpers repair harpoons that allow you to snare Razorscale and pull her to the ground.  The second phase starts once Razorscale is at 50% heath and is stuck remaining on the ground.

Phase 1 – Add Phase

This phase required a few specific assignments.  First a player needs to be assigned to turret duty (that is, to launch the harpoons described below). Next there should be two tanks, one of which is assigned to the Dark Rune Sentinels.  All DPS players should be aware of their kill priority for the adds.  Ranged DPS focuses on Sentinels, Watchers, and then Guardians.  Melee DPS focuses on Watchers and then Guardians, leaving Sentinels for the ranged DPS unless you are short on ranged.

Once everyone is aware of their roles, you can get into position.  There are many possible positional strategies to use. The simplest, though, is for everyone to form up just inside the front edge of the circle in front of the harpoon launchers.  As adds spawn, the tanks will try to group them up as near as they can to this point.  The exceptions are when devouring flame is in the middle, in which case they will move towards the north or south edge, or when a sentinel is spawed.  When a sentinel is active, the assigned sentinel tank will move them away from the group but still close enough for ranged to hit them.  

This phase starts when someone in the group talks to the Expedition Dwarves in the room.  At this point they will start attempting to repair the harpoon turrets in the room.  In 25 man raids, there are four turrets; in 10 man raids there are only two.  Once the event starts players move into the positions as described above and work on adds until the turrets have been repaired.  While doing this, it is critical that they avoid devouring flame and keep moving out of it as quickly as possible.

The player assigned to launch the harpoons should fire them at Razorscale as soon as each one is available, with the exception of the last one.  Before firing the 4th harpoon (2nd in 10 player raids), the assigned player should check with the tanks and announce that they are ready to launch.  Ideally you want just a few adds left, and no sentinels or watchers active. As soon as this condition is met, you call that you are launching the last turret and do so.  

Once the last harpoon is fired, all DPS must immediately concentrate in the center of the ring on the ground and start damaging Razorscale who will be pulled to the ground.  The goal is to do as much damage to her while she is on the ground as possible and you only have about 25 seconds.  Players should use any burst damage abilities they have.  If there are any adds still alive, one tank holds them while the other helps DPS Razorscale.

After 25 seconds she will break the chains, cast wing buffet, and launch herself back into the air.  The group then returns to dealing with adds while the turrets are repaired again.  This cycle repeats until you drop Razorscale to 50% health.

Phase 2 – Ground Phase

Once Razorscale is reduced to 50% health, she remains on the ground and the adds stop spawning.  However, any of the Dark Rune minions that are still alive will need to be killed before the raid can truly focus on Razorscale.

The tanks job here is to continue to move Razorscale around the room, while keeping her facing away from everyone.  She needs to be moved as she will continue to use her Devouring Flame ability and leave the flame areas on the ground.  In this phase, she also starts using her Fuse Armor ability on the main tank.  If the fuse armor stack ever gets to 5 stacks the tank will not be able to move at all.  To prevent this any time the off-tank should taunt off of the main tank any time fuse armor reaches 2 stacks.  Once the off-tank has 2 stacks the main tank pulls threat back.

DPS and Healers follow the tanks path around the room, DPSing and Healing.  Since Razorscale has a large hit box, spread out around her sides and back as you follow her so that when devouring flames hits someone it is not underneath everyone right away.  Pay careful attention to the flames locations since everyone will be moving constantly.  You have up to 10 minutes from the time you started the encounter to defeat Razorscale, ideally you want to have her down on the ground with at least 3 minutes to spare.  Once on the ground the fight is relatively easy.