Boss Guide (Tomb of Sargeras III)

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.

Tomb Navigation Menu

Maiden of Vigilance

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

Maiden of Vigilance is a solid step up from the bosses that come before and is probably the most healing intensive heroic boss in the raid. She was stationed deep inside the tomb to guard it by Medivh’s mom but like most things in the Warcraft universe she got… corrupted. It’s actually a very fun boss fight, though we noticed it didn’t scale too well with the raid size so if you’re having trouble consider dropping down to ~20.

Tips

[Leytorrent Timing]: You can squeeze one in when you side is next to be targeted with the Hammer, and you are in the cleave zone. Global cooldowns can be valuable here though, so consider carefully whether that extra 80k mana is necessary.
This is an aura-like encounter with the Light Infusion and Fel Infusion debuffs persisting throughout the fight. We are a perfect counter to this kind of damage and you can expect to get good value out of a rejuv blanket. The damage is reasonably steady and so you can match your mana to the bosses health.
Hammer of Creation (and its brother Hammer of Obliteration) is a very dangerous cleave ability that will hit one half of the raid for 60-70% of their health. This is at least predictable with the ability alternating between sides. I’d highly recommend prioritizing healing the side that’s going to be hit next since if they are not topped off they can easily be one shot.
Efflorescence gets insane value in both phases since the raid is mostly stationary and hardly ever at full health. Get a mushroom tracker or weak aura if you need it but Efflo is a very high priority.
During phase 2 (henceforth referred to as the Guitar Hero phase) you’ll be able to pick up orbs for a +5% stacking healing increase which will help you deal with the Wrath of the Creators spell spammed by the boss. This is a heavy damage phase with a little movement and so tranquility shines. You can optionally pick up Inner Peace which will give you a tranquility for every Guitar Hero phase (but do consider how strong the two alternatives are).
Most of the challenge here is getting the raid to execute the mechanics and you should see a kill soon after that one rogue stops running Light Infusion through your Fel group. Make sure you get a lot of practice picking up orbs since on Mythic these will explode if you miss them, quickly wiping the raid.

Mythic

Mythic Tomb strategies coming soon.

Fallen Avatar

Debuffs to add to your healing frames: Black Winds, Dark Mark
Talents to run: Standard + Cultivation + Germination
Boss Guides: Wowhead, Fatboss (video)

The Avatar of Sargeras himself. This boss actually has a cool story behind it which you can read about here if you need some extra hype. As a boss fight he’s a two phase encounter with several very deadly mechanics. There isn’t too much room for error here and you’ll be punished for a weak phase 1 with a tough or impossible phase 2. Most of the raid damage is avoidable however your first kill is likely to be messy so expect to have to clean up after the raid.

Tips

[Leytorrent Timing]: In phase 1, after an Unbound Chaos completes. You might be able to get away with skipping it and popping a Potion of Prolonged Power to help with phase 2.

Phase 1

The most important mechanic for you as a healer is the [Unbound Chaos] mechanic. It hits every ~30 seconds and will cause you to spawn a circle on the ground every 0.5 seconds which will explode soon after. You have to be consistently moving during the debuff or you’ll kill yourself very quickly. The difficulty in the mechanic comes from managing your own debuff while not running into the circles left behind by another raid member. You can counter this by being very aware of the space around you and you’ll want at least 10 yards of space in the direction you intend to run. If you get desperate you can Displacer Beast, and Bear Form has similar value. Don’t die, and don’t kill anyone else. Try and triage slacker members of the raid around you with Swiftmend.
Shadowy Blades will spawn several times throughout the phase, pausing for a few seconds before zipping to the other side of the room, shredding anyone they pass through and leaving a black pool on the ground for extra damage. If they are not targeting you then you don’t want to be hit by them since space is very valuable and the fewer black pools you have the better. Anyone hit will need to be topped off but the spell doesn’t deal dangerous amounts of damage.
Time your Wild Growth with Rupture Realities to keep everyone topped off.
You are mostly dealing with spiky damage this phase, however the high amounts of required movement still makes us great healers for the phase.
Phase 1 is all about personal responsibility. Take care with the Unbound Chaos, soak any [Touch of Sargeras] that you are assigned to, avoid the shadow blades and run to the back of the room for Rupture Realities.

Phase 2

The Black Winds debuff is caused by an ally getting hit by the giant tornadoes streaking around the arena. They do move quickly and you’re likely to see quite a few debuffs go out on your first few attempts. The debuff isn’t terminal but with all of the other damage going out in this phase they will require quite a bit of healing.
The Dark Marks are the other major mechanic new to this phase and you’ll need to soak them in groups of 4-5. The mark will launch you in the air upon expiring and you do take fall damage on the way down. You can negate this with Cat Form.
The frequency of the Dark Marks combined with any Dark Winds debuffs picked up lead to this phase being very heavy on healing and you should aim to have enough mana to be constantly casting.
The tank damage is very high so aim for a high Lifebloom uptime (along with everything else that’s going on).
Save Tranquility for when all seems lost (usually around the time when 3-4 people pick up Black Winds at once).
The lava is bad.

Mythic

Mythic Tomb strategies coming soon.

Kil’Jaeden

Debuffs to add to your healing frames: Armageddon Rain, Choking Shadow, Gravity Squeeze
Talents to run: Standard + Cultivation + Germination or Spring Blossoms
Boss Guides: Wowhead, Fatboss (video)

Ahhh, one of Sargeras’ trusted lieutenants. Archimonde got two boss fights so I suppose it’s appropriate you get to match him. Kil’Jaeden is a fitting finale to legions fourth raid and will test your ability to stand in the right place at the right time. On the healing front there is plenty to do but you’re unlikely to feel overwhelmed at any point and there aren’t really any DPS checks so if you need to bring an extra healer then there isn’t a big cost to doing so.

Tips

[Leytorrent Timing]: You can squeeze one in late in phase 2 so long as there are no [Gravity well]s or add spawns coming up. You really just have to look at your timers and take the first opportunity you get.

Phase 1 + First intermission

Phase 1 is a bit of a practice phase, no abilities overlap and as such there isn’t too much healing to do. Keep some HoTs on the tanks (who will get consistently destroyed throughout the fight) but otherwise you can spend phase 1 DPS’ing and practicing the mechanics.
You will need a healing cooldown when the Shadow Reflection adds spawn and start nearing the end of their cast. Assuming they get two casts off (three is usually a wipe) one healing cooldown should cover it.
The first intermission is when things start to get interesting with two new mechanics joining the [Gravity Well] and [Armageddon] from phase 1. Keep rejuv on anyone with the Armageddon rain debuff to keep them topped off. Other than that the raid damage should be mostly minimal if the fight mechanics are done correctly and you should focus on them yourself. Mastering the four mechanics present in this phase is essential for pushing a kill. You’ll only need ~500k HPS each over the first two sections of the fight.

Phase 2

Phase 2 brings all of the mechanics of the first intermission along with the add spawns of phase 1. They also overlap in nastier ways than previously seen.
Healing wise you’ll need to assign a cooldown for each set of Shadow Reflection adds. You can expect to see two sets.
Overall raid damage is reasonably low and so you’ll want to be picky with who you are hotting. The tanks come first, followed by anyone with Armageddon Rain.

Second Intermission (Illidan phase)

Demon Hunters can find Illidan quickly with Spectral Sight. This might get changed. It may also be possible to see Illidans landing animation before the fog sets in.
The phase begins with a 100% healing debuff on all players so it is essential to top everyone off before the phase begins. Once your raid knows where Illidan is you should Displacer Beast or Dash to him immediately so you can begin healing the raid back up.
Always refresh your [sight buff] before you move, and stay with your group as much as possible. The healing requirement in this phase is reasonably high and it can be a pain to heal people that wander out of range. Communicate with your raid when you have to go back to refresh your buff.

Phase 3

The damage here ramps up quite a bit with the introduction of two new mechanics. Darkness of a Thousand Souls pummels the raid for heavy damage and leaves a nasty DoT that you’ll have to contend with throughout the phase. You’ll get your first immediately at the start of the phase and I recommend popping a raid cooldown at the beginning of the phase.
Rejuv blanket ten seconds before each Darkness of a Thousand Souls cast. Your raid will soak them by standing next to the Torn Rifts however the rifts themselves deal heavy damage through Gravity Squeeze and your blanket will buy them an extra second or two to get back out. This is an ideal time to use your raids healing cooldowns as they come back up from their phase 2 usage.

Mythic

Mythic Tomb strategies coming soon.