Boss Guide (Tomb of Sargeras I)

Tomb of Sargeras is the culmination of the Broken Shore content, starring nine bosses with a variety of new mechanics. So far it’s looking like the expansion’s best raid so far with plenty of really cool fights.

Boss strategy is currently geared toward the Heroic versions of each encounter, and will be updated for Mythic as it’s cleared. The Tomb of Sargeras guide is split into three parts for ease of navigation. You’ll want to read or watch a standard guide before you read through here since basic knowledge of the fights is assumed and only the healing side of the encounter is discussed.

Goroth

Debuffs to add to your healing frames: Burning Armor, Infernal Burning
Talents to run: Standard Set + Cultivation + Germination
Boss Guides: Wowhead, Fatboss (video)

Goroth is a soft opening to the new raid, with a few easy to execute mechanics all that’s standing between you and a kill. The healing requirement is very low, so you can focus mostly on executing the fight correctly.

Tips

[Leytorrent Timing]: You should get frequent opportunities between Crashing Comet / Shattering Star casts.
The tanks will require a little bit of attention while they’re running out the Burning Armor debuff. The tanks are more likely to die than anyone else here so keep up your HoT stack.
Most raid damage occurs after the Shattering Star bursts through several pylons and knocks over the person targeted. You should pre-hot for this, and Wild Growth as it hits however it still isn’t a particularly dangerous mechanic.
Consider spending some of the fight DPS’ing, or running less healers than normal in order to give yourself something to do.

Mythic

On Mythic you can expect heavy damage whenever several pillars are destroyed at the same time. This is mostly after the Shattering Star and Infernal Burning casts and you should assign healing cooldowns to them.
Keep a double rejuv on all targets with the Crashing Comet debuff.

Demonic Inquisition

Debuffs to add to your healing frames: Unbearable Torment, Echoing Anguish
Talents to run: Standard Set + Cultivation + Spring Blossoms
Boss Guides: Wowhead, Fatboss (video)

The Demonic Inquisition is a nice step up from Goroth and there’s significantly more damage to heal. You can expect to pull anywhere from 500k-700k HPS each on an early kill. It also features an ‘extra action button’ in [Confess] which you’ll use to dump your Torment stacks.

Tips

[Leytorrent Timing]: Take a drink late in the fight but make sure you time it around Calcified Quills and Suffocating Dark.
[User interface] For those of you with cluttered UI’s, make sure your Torment bar is visible. You can use the MoveAnything addon to move it if you’ve got other stuff in the way. You’ll also want to keybind your extra action button (Confess) for easy access. You can bind it by opening the keybindings menu and then navigating to Extra Action Button 1 under ‘Action Bar’.
Communication between healers is key for managing Torment as when you hit your extra action button you’ll be sent to a confession room – miles away from everybody else. Useful for relieving your mind of that thing you did last night, but not so good for healing the raid. You’ll be down there for about 10 seconds so just call it out when you head down so that you don’t overlap.
Don’t wait until you hit 100 torment to confess. Anything above 50 is fine.
Most of the incoming damage comes from two abilities: [Fel Squall] and [Bone Saw]. These deal huge damage to anyone silly enough to stand in them, and ~400k to the entire raid every few seconds. You’ll get about nine of these ticks per cast and a good rejuvenation blanket is a fantastic buffer.
Three Echoing Anguish go out every 30 seconds or so and this needs to be dispelled quickly however the target must be 8 yards away from allies or they’ll all get a hearty helping of Torment. Nice. It’s up to you how you manage this, we aimed to dispel it after 2 seconds to give them a chance to move into position however your raid is likely to be well spread anyway so this might not be necessary.
If you do get to 100 torment, head down to the confession room immediately (so long as there’s a tank down there) since the healing reduction is severe and you’ll be a burden on your other healers with +90% damage taken.

Mythic

Mythic Tomb strategy coming soon.

Harjatan

Debuffs to add to your healing frames: Drenched
Talents to run: Standard Set + Cultivation + Spring Blossoms
Boss Guides: Wowhead, Fatboss (video)

Harjatan is actually the first Naga raid boss since High Warlord Naj’entus in Black Temple (10 years ago). Lore wise he’s a murloc god who killed a bunch of things and we’re next (or something). Who knew Murlocs were religious? Healing wise he puts out consistent, predictable, moderate bursts of damage and the tips will focus on how to make sure you’re prepared for them.

Tips

[Leytorrent Timing]: You’ll have plenty of opportunities to Leytorrent here. Just time it after Frigid Blows wears off.
A key part of the encounter are the [Drenched] stacks that the raid will pick up from standing in pools and murloc attacks. They are permanent, stack and cause you to take increased Frost damage (as well as a small DoT). Keeping your stacks low is an absolute priority. By adding the debuff to your frames, you can prioritize HoTs on your allies that have the most water in their boots.
Most of the incoming damage comes from two sources. Number one is [Frigid Blows] which is a buff that the boss gains after each [Draw In] that causes the bosses melee attacks to splash the rest of the raid with Frost Damage. It deals around ~400k a hit but scales up through the fight as the raid accumulates more and more [Drenched] stacks. It’s not a bad time for your raid cooldowns – especially near the end of the fight but shouldn’t be too dangerous.
The other big hit you’ll take is [Unchecked Rage], a heavy cleave attack that must be faced toward the raid to split the damage. You’ll see one of these whenever the boss hits 100 energy and if split correctly you can expect it to drop the raid to about half health. Time your Wild Growth to hit half a second later to keep your raid healthy.
Tank damage is moderate to high so don’t neglect them.

Mythic

Mythic Tomb strategy coming soon.

Boss Guide (Tomb of Sargeras I)