The Path to Jan'Alai

The trash leading to the Dragonhawk Avatar is relatively difficult, but Blizzard apparently was concerned we might bored along the way, so they added the extra fun of Scouts to make the whole journey that much more interesting.

Amani'shi Scouts

These non-elite mobs patrol the area along the path to the boss and will often be part of of the Amani'shi groups that block your path forward. You will also see a number of large near these groups. These drumsThe Scouts die with relative ease and the drums pose no serious threat on their own. However, Scout + Drum = Adds. If a Scout spots anyone in the raid party, it will make a mad dash for the nearest drum and, if it makes it there, will strike the drum and summon forth 2 additional elite guards. Therefore, it is important that the raid continually keep an eye out for scouts while traveling along the path to the boss and take try to kill them before they spot you and make it to a drum.

The Scouts are immune to all CC but snares and stuns making it critical to both root/snare/stun and heavily DPS them to prevent having to deal with even more enemies as you push forward.

These Scouts also have a habit of spawning on top of you and sometimes 2 or 3 will patrol right next to each other, just to add that extra level of fun to the area. Keep your eyes peeled for them, try and stay in the "safe spots" and make sure that, if you are going to agro one, you keep it from getting to the drum. The only good Scout, is a dead Scout.

Aside from the solo wandering Scouts, there are 5 pulls of other mobs that we will describe below.

First Pull

This pull typically consists of 2 Flame Casters, 1 Guardian and 1 Scout. The best strategy is to immediately stun/root the Scout and have the DPS unleash on it before it can summon extra guards. CC one of the Flame Casters (sheep is the best option) and burn the other Caster down quickly. Keep in mind that the Guardians love to dispell CC, so it will be necessary to constantly reapply the CC to the Flame Caster to avoid it getting free prematurely. It is also a good idea to drag the Guardian far away from teh CCed Flame Caster to prevent the Guardian from being able to inst-dispell the CC due to range. Once the first Caster and the Guardian are dead you can focus on the final Caster and wrap up this pull. Mages should watch the Flame Casters for the Haste buff they like to cast on themselves and Spellsteal it immediately. Not only will this minimize raid damage, but it will turn the mage into a blazing fast runner that casts spells at lightning speed...don't forget that agro still exists mages...

Second Pull

After you have cleared the first pull and taken care of any wandering Scouts you can move forward. Be VERY careful to stay to the left initially because there is a group of mobs hidden to the right behind the wall. They are avoidable, but all too often absent minded adventurers wander to close and cause unnecessary pain and frustration by pulling thish extra group. Ahead you will see a Trainer, a Scout and a pack of 4 Dragonhawks. To the right along the hillside right next to this group of mobs you will see a single tree. Have the enitre raid huddle in behind this tree, its a relatively safe spot to position. Destroy the Scout quickly and have your tanks pull the trainer and Dragonhawks back behind the tree to dispense with. The Trainer will put random people to sleep, its dispellable and not that big of a threat. Be very careful here, there are two Scouts that patrol very close to this area, so make sure to stay smashed in a big pile behind the tree to avoid agroing them. If you do get Scout agro, simply stay behind the tree, have the tanks pick up the guards and clean up before moving on.

Third Pull

From here head North past where the last pack of mobs were standing and hug the stone wall to the North. You can follow this wall all the way till it hits a set of trees. This little cubby hole is a safe spot and a good place to set up for the next pull. Once you blow up the single Scout standing on the little hill in front of you, you will see a pull of 2 Flame Casters, 1 Guardian, 1 Scout and 1 Dragonhawk. Treat this pull just like the first pull with the addition of the Dragonhawk. Blow up the Scout, perma-CC one of the Flame Casters, burn down the other Flame Caster and then move on to the Guardian, the Dragonhawk and finally the CCed Flame Caster. Make sure to drag all these mobs back into the corner to prevent having to deal with Scouts and possibly summoned guards during this pull.

Fourth Pull

Move to your left past the last group's position and set up at the bottom of the first staircase. You will not have to deal with Scouts from this point forward. There is a patrol of 1 Trainer and 2 Dragonhawks that wanders the area and will eventually walk right up the stairs you are standing on. Be careful not to move to far to the right on the stairs or you will agro the group standing down below. Simply blow up the Trainer, then clean up the Dragonhawks and prepare for the final pull.

Fifth Pull

This last pull is usually 2 Flame Casters and 2 Guardians. Perma-CC a Flame Caster, burn down the other and then clean up the Guardians one at a time. You are now standing at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the Dragonhawk Avatar and are ready to begin.

Raid Composition

Two Tanks

This boss fight will require two tanks: one for the boss, and one for the dragonhawks. We highly recommend bringing a protection paladin as one of your tanks to round up the hatched dragonhawks during the boss fight.

Three Healers

Some raids can probably get away with only two healers for this particular fight, but like the tank situation, the trash leading to Jan'alai is rather rough, so having more heals makes it easier.

Five DPSers

You'll need a decent amount of AoE DPS for this fight, having a mage and warlock should be enough. Other than this, any variety of classes should be fine.

Jan'alai the Dragonhawk Avatar

Jan'alai hits tanks for 3,500 melee damage and has well over a million hit points.

Flame Breath

Jan'alai uses this on random party members, shooting a narrow spout of fire out in a straight line towards his target, it can hit multiple players so to avoid the splash damage don't stack up or stand right behind each other. It deals 4,000-5,000 fire damage.

Hatchers and Dragonhawks

Periodically Jan'alai calls for two Hatchers to come out, they have around 6,000 hitpoints. They will go to one of the smaller platforms off to the side that contain all the dragonhawk eggs and start hatching them, releasing dragonhawks onto the raid. The dragonhawks have about 6,000 health as well and hit for just a few hundred on plate, but apply a flame buffet debuff that does 450 fire damage and increases fire damage taken by 3% per stack. There are 20 eggs on each side, whatever eggs are left when Jan'alai gets to 35% will all hatch at once. This means you should let the hatchers break some of the eggs and kill the dragonhawks, five or more should be fine every time the hatchers are called, to prevent the raid from being overwhelmed at the 35% mark.

Teleport and the Balls of Firey Doom

Frequently throughout the fight Jan'alai will teleport everyone to the middle of the platform and start popping out his Balls of Firey Doom all over the area, after 10 seconds all the bubbles will explode dealing about 5,000 fire damage to anyone within a 5 yard radius. When the Balls of Firey Doom start coming out, quickly find the gaps and free spaces to avoid the blasts. We suggest panning your camera to a top down view to best locate the Balls of Firey Doom. During this little minigame event Jan'alai also raises flame walls around the outside of the area, so dont hug the walls. We would tell you how much damage they deal, but we run under the assumption that you aren't a bunch of retards and thus such information is not necessary. It's a firey wall...stay the hell away.

Enrage

At five minutes into the fight Jan'alai will do an enrage, it will significantly boost his physical damage output. Healers will need to be ready for this and make sure to watch for burst damage on the tank.

The Fight

Pre-Pull Positioning

Jan'alai stands at the back of his platform, allowing your raid plenty of room to step up and spread out before starting the fight. Pass out buffs and be ready to fan out.

The Pull

Simply have the main tank charge up to initiate combat. Once the main tank engages Jan'alai, pull him to one of the corners and make sure everyone else spreads out and gets in their appropriate spot.

The Plan

Once threat is established begin a steady burn down on Jan'alai. He is fairly tank and spank with a few twists. There will be two major obstacles during this fight: the dragonhawks and Jan'alai's fireball minigame.

One quick important note though about Jan'alai's Flame Breath attack, he will target any player in the raid and shoot a narrow cone of fire that will hit anyone standing close or in line with his target. If your raid gets too clustered together, then a bad Flame Breath can really put your healers behind. Spread out and don't stand right behind each other to avoid taking splash damage.

How to deal with the eggs: 

First on the list is the dragonhawk adds. Shortly after combat has started Jan'alai will call forth his first two Hatchers. The Hatchers will come up the entrance staircase, stop for a second, and then pick a side to run to. You should designate one Hatcher to always focus fire down imediately, as soon as that one gets to the top of the stairs. After the first one dies, apply some controlled DPS to the second Hatcher (picking only one person for this job works best). You'll want to hurt him but make sure to keep him alive long enough to hatch some of the dragonhawk eggs, then you can finish him off once he has hatched 3-5 eggs. The objective behind all this is to control the amount of dragonhawks you must face at one time. When Jan'alai gets to 35% he will hatch all remaining eggs. If you have left too many unhatched, then the chances of being overwhelmed are pretty high.

There are a few tricks to help balance the dragonhawk spawn rate. The first we suggest is to have a protection paladin as one of your tanks. Having a prot paladin makes it extremely easy to handle extra dragonhawks per Hatcher set. This allows your raid to keep burning Jan'alai down without worrying about having too many eggs still out. The second is to hold DPS on Jan'alai, allow extra Hatchers to come out, and thin out the amount of eggs you have by a small number every time. This draws the fight out, but lets you maintain full control over the dragonhawks. Your worry here is that your healers run out of mana, or the Enrage actually makes it too difficult to keep a weakly geared tank alive.

Putting a throttle on the dragonhawks also involves controlling and killing them quickly once they hatch. If you have a paladin tank in the group, then rounding them up and AoE'ing them down shouldn't be much of a stretch. Have two mages or warlocks ready to blow up the dragonhawks.

If you only have an extra warrior or druid tank, have them do what they can to hold as many dragonhawks as possible. You might need to resort to holding off DPS on Jan'alai to allow extra Hatcher sets, this way you can safely do only three or four dragonhawks at a time.

Another strategy is to move all of your DPS to one of the side bridges when the Hatchers come out. With a tank and all your DPS focus firing the dragonhawks you should be able to control more of them at one time. If you let enough hatch, this should allow you to keep full DPS on Jan'alai as you return to him. This also cuts down on potentail raid damage from the Flame Breath, being on the bridge cuts line of sight with Jan'alai.

It will most likely take a few attempts and some experimentation, but once you figure out your raids capacity you can then apply the best strategy.

Balls of Firey Doom!

The second hurdle in this fight, and the more fun of the two by far, happens periodically when Jan'alai teleports all the players to the center of his platform and begins chucking out random fire globes everywhere. We like to call them his Balls of Firey Doom, and you must avoid them at all costs. Standing within five yards of one of his firey globes will most likely lead to your death. There will be plenty of open space between all the Balls of Firey Doom for you to stand in safely. You only have ten seconds though, so once you get teleported move out and get away from the fire. Keep in mind that if your tank is working on building agro on the dragonhawks when the teleport occurs it may produce a lack of agro control on the dragonhawks and require some extra work to get the fight back under control. If this happens, the entire raid's DPS needs to help burn down the dragonhawks in order to help get things back in order.

Figure out your raids best dragonhawk strategy and get a good control over the Hatchers and eggs. Stay away from the Balls of Firey Doom. Keep tank and raid heals high. Jan'alai is a tough encounter, but once you find the rhythm of the fight, he should fall.