#tier 13

Lootship 2.0!

Name: Warmaster Blackhorn

Raid: Dragon Soul

Tanks: 2

Phases: 2-ish

Trick: Lootship, less guns, more adds. Standing in bad is good.

This guide is for the normal encounter.

Phase I: Add Phase

In this phase you're more or less dealing with a plethora of adds.  As a range, you really just need to be aware of your kill priority, and to avoid standing in the way of the charge.  Purple swirlies, despite prior history, are essential to be stood in.

The fight begins by talking to the Captain of the boat, and the boss does a fly-over getting dropped in the middle of the boat. If you're ranged, you can do some damage to the adds that will inevitably spawn by going to the right platform (facing the cabin of the boat where the portals are).

Now, on to the adds you'll be dealing with.

Twilight Assault Drake – These drakes strafe across the deck of the ship, deposit their fierce riders onto the deck, and then retreat to a safe distance to bombard the gunship.

Twilight Barrage – The twilight drakes launch bursts of dark energy at a random location on the deck of the Skyfire. Twilight Barrage inflicts 140000 Shadow damage, divided evenly among all players within its 5 yard radius. If the attack strikes the deck of the Skyfire without hitting a player, the gunship suffers the full damage instead.

Twilight Elite Dreadblade

Blade Rush – The Dreadblade charges at the location of a random distant player, inflicting 92500 to 107500 Physical damage to all players in its path.

Degeneration – The Dreadblade carves a swath of destruction with its dark sword. The sword inflicts 38000 to 42000 Shadow damage to enemies in a frontal cone, and 3000 Shadow damage every 2 sec for 1 min. This effect stacks.

Twilight Elite Slayer

Blade Rush – The Elite Slayer charges at the location of a random distant player, inflicting 92500 to 107500 Physical damage to all players in its path.

Brutal Strike – The Slayer strikes a vicious blow with its jagged sword. The strike inflicts 150 Physical damage, and 3000 Physical damage every 2 sec for 1 min. This effect stacks.

Twilight Sapper – Sleek infiltrator drakes airdrop goblins strapped with powerful explosives onto the deck of the ship. These Sappers rush to breach the gunship bridge and detonate their destructive payload.

Detonate – Upon reaching the Skyfire's bridge, the Sapper detonates his explosives. The blast inflicts 243750 to 256250 Fire damage to players within 8 yards, damages the Skyfire for 20% of its total durability, and kills the Sapper.

Now that you know what you're dealing with, the kill orders are going to be different based on your role -- see the below table.

Awesome, right? Notice that Melee priority is the Dreadblades and the Slayers after the Sappers, whereas range should focus on the Drakes, then everything else.  This fight can be a little chaotic, not necessarily because of the add priority, but more so the amount of movement required.

Goriona – Blackhorn's mount throws things at you too.

Twilight Onslaught – Goriona unleashes a massive blast of dark energy at a random location on the deck of the Skyfire. Twilight Onslaught inflicts 800000 Shadow damage, divided evenly among all players within its 10 yard radius and the Skyfire. If the attack strikes the deck of the Skyfire without hitting a player, the gunship suffers the full damage.

You'll easily be able to identify these things by the giant purple swirlie on the ground. Your whole raid needs to stack up in those giant swirlies.  It's worth noting also that there are smaller purple swirlies that are tossed around, and are easily soaked by 1 or 2 people at a time.  You should try to soak as many of those as possible, but it's not the end of the world if a couple are missed.

In order to proceed to the next phase,  you have to survive 3 complete sets of adds. (2 drakes, 1 dreadblade, 1 slayer per wave)

Phase II: Blackhorn Himself

You'll be facing Blackhorn and Goriona together.  I'll get into what you need to watch for, but it's important to look at what each of them does first.

Warmaster Blackhorn

Devastate – Blackhorn sunders his current target's armor, inflicting 120% weapon damage and reducing the player's armor by 20% for 30 sec. This effect stacks.

Disrupting Roar – Warmaster Blackhorn screams fiercely, inflicting 47500 to 52500 Physical damage to all enemies on the gunship. The shout also interrupts spellcasting for players within 10 yards for 8 sec.

Shockwave – Blackhorn strikes the ground, unleashing a wave of force that inflicts 95000 to 105000 Physical damage to enemies in an 80 yard frontal cone and stuns them for 4 sec.

Vengeance – As Warmaster Blackhorn takes damage during the course of the fight, he inflicts 1% more damage for each percentage of his missing health.

Goriona – After depositing her master on the deck of the Skyfire, Goriona hovers alongside the Skyfire and rains destruction down on the players. Once Goriona has suffered sufficient damage, she will break off and flee, abandoning her master on the Skyfire.

Twilight Flames – Goriona launches a blast of dark energy at the location of a random player, inflicting 38000 to 42000 Shadow damage on impact to players in a 8 yard radius. Twilight Flames lingers on the deck of the Skyfire, inflicting 29250 to 30750 Shadow damage to players within 7 yards every 1 sec for 30 sec.

Once again, your raid will be split between melee and range damage groups.  Range will start off on Goriona, and will DPS her until she flies off, then swap over to Blackhorn.  Melee starts off on Blackhorn.

The challenge to this phase is avoiding bad things.

Goriona throws out purple puddles of Twilight Flames that need to be avoided.  They disappear after a bit, but you'll likely be dealing with 3 or 4 of them at a time.  Blackhorn throws out a cone of stun-badness that you need to get out of, otherwise facing potential death.  Range is at a huge disadvantage to start this phase of the fight just due to the fact that Blackhorn's cone can cover the entire surface of the boat if you're unlucky.  Every raid does the positioning a bit different, and it will take a bit of maneuvering to figure out what works best for your raid.

Once Goriona flies off, the fight becomes far easier, and range can get to min distance from Blackhorn, and quickly sidestep any cone quickly.  Obviously the further away you are from the boss, the more difficult it becomes.  This part lasts until Blackhorn is dead, which in the current landscape with the ~20% nerf, is pretty quick.

What does a Hunter need to know?

During phase 1, a Hunter's job is to burst DPS the dragons, and switch to Sappers when they spawn.  Make sure you stack up during Twilight Onslaught, and soak as many of the smaller purple waves as possible.

During Phase 2, focus on Goriona, and stay out of bad. (Shockwave and the purple puddles)  Ultimately, stay alive and damage things.

Hunter Loot from Warmaster Lootship Blackhorn

Crown of the Corrupted Protector

Starcatcher Compass

Belt of the Beloved Companion

Vial of Shadows

Need more clarification? Check out Learn to Raid's video.

Good luck!