The gigantic molten worm Magmaw is one of the co-first bosses of Blackwing Descent. He is generally regarded as the easier of the two and is a good place to start in this raid instance.

The key point of this fight is add management. Periodically Magmaw will use an ability called pillar of flame which will create an orange circle on the ground which must be moved away from. When the pillar explodes it will spawn many small parasites. These parasites will ‘jump’ to players within 5 yards of them causing them to become infected and vomit on nearby players if they are facing them. Infected players will spawn additional parasites as well. Keeping the adds contained and killing them from range without players being infected will make this fight a cinch.

Abilities

• Mangle – Deals massive damage every 5 seconds. Kills the target after 30 seconds. This ability is used on the tank that currently has threat on Magmaw.
• Magma Spit – Inflicts damage to an enemy target when no player is in melee range.
• Molten Tantrum – When Magmaw has no one in melee range he goes into a frenzy and increases fire damage dealt by 100% stacking up to 10 times.
• Lava Spew – Deals massive fire damage to all players within 60 yards.
• Parasitic Infection – Deals damage every 2 seconds while infectious lava parasites occupy your body. Infectious Vomit begins to occur after 10 seconds of infection.
• Ignition – Ignites the ground causing around 25,000 fire damage per second.
• Pillar of Flame – Throws a bolt of magma at an enemy target (prefers ranged) which deals massive fire damage and knocks them into the air. Spawns lava parasites.
• Infectious Vomit – Deals damage to all friends in an 8 yard frontal cone and creates a lava parasite.

Setting Up

Tanks: 1

Healers: 3

DPS: 6

While a second tank can be used for the adds it is not necessary or advisable. Magmaw adds can easily be controlled through crowd control and snares used by casters, Hunters, and Death Knights. More DPS will help a ton with adds and make this fight much easier.

Tactics

You’ll want to begin this fight with a tank located on the far right side of Magmaw’s ledge. This will allow your melee DPS to hit Magmaw from behind. Your ranged will want to stand in a stack somewhere out in the room. This stack is to make sure that you can control the location of the Pillar of Flame and avoid the adds that spawn after it.

When Magmaw casts Pillar of Flame you’ll need to have all of your ranged more out of the way, preferably as a group. When the adds begin spawning control them by any means necessary. Frost traps, Frost Nova, and any other form of ranged snares will help you to keep them in the same location while you AoE them down. Frost DKs in blood presence work wonders for this since they can snare them from range and easily hold aggro while doing fantastic damage. It’s vital that no one comes within 5 yards of these adds otherwise they will become infected and start vomiting and creating other adds. When this process starts it can become very difficult to regain control of the adds, so avoid being in range of them at all costs.

Magmaw will periodically cast an AoE fire ability that consumes half the room. This is easy to avoid as the floor on that side of the room becomes discolored. After he does this AoE two members of the raid will need to go up to Magmaw, click him, and jump up onto his back. They’ll gain a vehicle ability called “Constricting Chains” which they will need to cast on the spike on the ground near the center of the ledge. This ability must be cast by both players within 5 seconds or it will fail and Magmaw will begin Molten Tantrum.

If this is done successfully Magmaw will be impaled on the spike and you’ll have 20 or so seconds of free DPS on his exposed head which takes double damage! Once this phase ends he’ll go back to the same routine as the start of the fight.

If you can control the adds and master the use of Constricting Chains (not hard) then you’ll be able to take this guy down without any problems. Good luck!

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