This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of theencounter with Galakras in Siege of Orgrimmar. It is targeted at anyonewho desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft MoP 5.4.

Galakras is the fifth boss in the Siege of Orgrimmar. This is a fight that willremind Wrath of the Lich King raiders of the encounter against Razorscale. Insimilar fashion, players will have to defeat mobs and use Anti-Air turretsto bring the proto-drake boss down to the ground where it can be fought anddefeated.

1. General Information↑top

2. Loot↑top

2.1. Armor

Item Name	Armor	Slot	Main Stats
Bone-Inlaid Sandals (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloth	Feet	Intellect
Flameslinger's Fiery Cowl (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloth	Head	Intellect/Hit
Scalebane Bracers (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloth	Wrists	Intellect/Hit
Shoulderpads of Pulsing Protection (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloth	Shoulders	Intellect/Spirit
Skydancer Boots (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloth	Feet	Intellect/Spirit
Dragonmaw Emergency Strap (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Leather	Waist	Intellect
Korgra's Venom-Soaked Gauntlets (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Leather	Hands	Agility
Unrepentant Heels (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Leather	Feet	Agility
Grips of Tidal Force (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Mail	Hands	Intellect
Dagryn's Fuselight Bracers (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Mail	Wrists	Agility
Cannoneer's Multipocket Gunbelt (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Mail	Waist	Agility
Smoldering Drakescale Bracers (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Wrists	Intellect
Windfire Legplates (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Legs	Intellect
Thranok's Shattering Helm (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Head	Strength/Mastery
Krugruk's Rigid Shoulderplates (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Shoulders	Strength
Arcsmasher Bracers (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Wrists	Strength/Dodge

2.2. Weapons

Item Name	Type	Main Stats
Drakebinder Greatstaff (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Staff	Intellect/Spirit
Dagryn's Discarded Longbow (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Bow	Agility

2.3. Rings and Trinkets

Item Name	Type	Main Stats
Extinguished Ember of Galakras (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Ring	Intellect/Hit
Galakrond Control Band (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Ring	Strength/Dodge
Swift Serpent Signet (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Ring	Agility
Evil Eye of Galakras (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Trinket	Strength/Cooldown reduction on major abilities

3. Overview of the Fight↑top

The Galakras encounter is a two-phase fight.

Phase One requires your raid to defeat several groups of mobs,including 4 powerful mini-bosses, in order to gain access to two Anti-AirTurrets. Using these Anti-Air Turrets simultaneously forces Galakras toland, initiating Phase Two.

Phase Two pits your raid up against Galakras, a large proto-drake.The boss only has two abilities in this phase, and there is a soft enragemechanic in place that turns this phase into a DPS race.

Videos:

• PTR Preview —a short overview of the boss, based on PTR testing, which is extremelyuseful for getting a rough understanding of the fight.
• Video Guide— a video guide of the boss, based on live-realm experience.

4. Class-specific Advice↑top

On our forums, we are maintaining threads with class-specific advice for each of thefights of Siege of Orgrimmar. So, make sure to check them out, and if you have things toshare, do not hesitate to contribute!

Class	Forum Threads
Death Knight	Blood Frost/Unholy
Druid	Balance Feral Guardian Restoration
Hunter	All specs
Mage	All specs
Monk	Brewmaster Mistweaver Windwalker
Paladin	Holy Protection Retribution
Priest	Discipline Holy Shadow
Rogue	All specs
Shaman	Elemental Enhancement Restoration
Warlock	All specs
Warrior	Arms/Fury Protection

5. Fight Structure↑top

To start the fight, you have to talk to your faction leader.

During Phase One, you will only be fighting adds. Many types of adds comeinto the fight in waves. There are 8 waves and while some specific adds cannotcome together in the same wave, the composition of the waves appears mostlyrandom to us. That said, there are mini-bosses that come at predictable timesand appear either on the ground or atop one of the two towers where theAnti-Air Turrets are located:

• Wave 1: random mixture of different types of adds;
• Wave 2: random mixture of different types of adds;
• Wave 3: random mixture of different types of adds and ground mini-boss;
• Wave 4: random mixture of different types of adds and tower mini-boss;
• Wave 5: random mixture of different types of adds;
• Wave 6: random mixture of different types of adds;
• Wave 7: random mixture of different types of adds and ground mini-boss;
• Wave 8: random mixture of different types of adds and tower mini-boss.

When the mini-boss appears on top of a tower, the gate blocking access tothat tower opens, and your raid can start climbing up (through a stairwaylocated inside the tower). Raid members who enter the tower will notice aTower Control bar appearing on their screen. It starts out fully red, meaningthat your raid has no control over the tower whatsoever. As your raid membersmake their way up the stairs, they will be met by various types of (relativelyweak) adds, which they must defeat. Each add that your raid kills will pushthe Tower Control bar slightly in your raid's favour. Killing the mini-bosson top of the tower will affect the Tower Control greatly, ensuring that itbecomes fully controlled by your raid. When your raid controls a tower, youcan use the Anti-Air Turret located on top of it to shoot at Galakras.

Having access to both towers, and using both Anti-Air Turrets to shoot downGalakras at the same time will cause the boss to come down and engage yourraid, starting Phase Two.

5.1. Friendly NPCs

Throughout the fight, your raid will receive assistance from three prominentmembers of your faction. Alliance players will receive help fromKing Varian Wrynn, Lady Jaina Proudmoore, andVereesa Windrunner. Horde players will receive help fromLor'themar Theron, Lady Sylvanas Windrunner, andArchmage Aethas Sunreaver.

These NPCs have very high amounts of health, and if one of them is killedby the enemies, your raid instantly wipes. While it is possible to heal them,their large health pools make it unfeasible to do so. You are much better offprotecting them instead.

6. Phase One↑top

During Phase One, your raid will have to face a large number of adds. Thegoal of this phase is to gain control of the two towers located in the fightarea, in order to use the Anti-Air Turrets located on top of them to bringthe boss down.

6.1. Abilities

6.1.1. Mini Bosses

Korgra the Snake is the first mini boss that your raid will have toface. She enters the fight about 2 minutes after the start (as part of thethird wave), and she engages your raid on the ground, making use of severalabilities (more than any of the other mini bosses). TwoDragonmaw Ebon Stalkers enter the fight together with Korgra.

• Poison-Tipped Blades is a stacking debuff that Korgra applies to hermain tank, which deals Nature damage every second for each stack.
• Poison Clouds are damaging void zones that Korgra places at herlocation.
• Curse of Venom is a self-buff that Korgra casts when she reaches 50% health,and which lasts until her death. This grants her a new ability that sheregularly casts: Venom Bolt Volley.
  • Venom Bolt Volley is a standard,uninterruptible raid-wide nuke that does not leave behind any debuffs or DoTs.
• The Dragonmaw Ebon Stalkers often teleport behind random raid members,and, a few seconds later, inflict fatal damage to these players if they arestill in melee range. Players can move away from the Ebon Stalkers to avoidbeing hit.

Lieutenant Krugruk is the second mini boss your raid will face. Hespawns on the southern tower roughly 2 and a half minutes after the start ofthe fight (as part of the fourth wave). He uses two abilities against your raid.

• Arcing Smash deals damage in a cone in front of Krugruk, knockingback any affected targets. The boss turns to face a random direction each timehe casts this spell.
• Thunder Clap deals damage in a rather large area around theboss (covering almost the entire top of the tower), slowing any affectedplayers. The slow stacks.

High Enforcer Thranok spawns on the ground about 4 minutes after thestart of the fight (as part of the seventh wave). He uses three abilities against your raid.

• Shattering Strike is a cleave attack that hits his current targetand other targets near it.
• Crusher's Call hooks a number of random raid members with chains,pulling them to him. In 10-man, Thranok pulls 5 players, and in 25-man hepulls 10 players. Immediately after pulling them to him, Thranok beginschanneling Skull Cracker for 2 seconds.
  • Skull Cracker deals a massive amount of Physical damage to all playersin a 10-yard radius of the boss.

Master Cannoneer Dagryn is the fourth and final boss to spawn. Heappears on top of the northern tower, about 5 minutes after the start ofthe fight (as part of the 8th and final wave). He uses two abilities against your raid.

• Shoot deals moderate amounts of Physical damage to randomraid members. Dagryn spams this attack.
• Muzzle Spray is a succession of a several frontal cone attacks thatdeal damage and knock players back. Dagryn moves to the center of the tower,and then casts this ability. Each separate frontal cone attack is oriented ina different, random direction.

6.1.2. Other Adds

In addition to the 4 mini-bosses listed above, your raid will have tohandle a large number of smaller adds, which enter the fight in waves ofdifferent compositions.

Dragonmaw Bonecrushers charge a faction leader and cast Fractureon them, dealing 10% of the target's health in damage every second.

Dragonmaw Tidal Shamans cast interruptible healing spells on theirallies, and they also create Healing Tide Totems, whichcan be attacked and killed (their health is very low).

Dragonmaw Flameslingers shoot fire-tipped arrows at random raid members,dealing damage to them and leaving behind small fiery void zones on theground.

Dragonmaw Grunts deal heavy melee damage, and sometimes use a rangedattack on random raid members.

Dragonmaw Wind Reavers enter the fight on the backs of flyingproto-drakes called Dragonmaw Proto-Drakes. On the PTR, these adds used toengage your raid on the ground as well as flying above it, but so far from ourlive server experience we have not seen them fighting on the ground. All theyappear to do is fly around in the air and damage random raid members. They canbe attacked from the tops of the towers, but it is much more efficient todamage them using the Anti-Air Turrets.

Dragonmaw Flagbearers put down banners that buff other enemies,increasing their melee, ranged, and casting speed, as well as increasing theirdamage. The banners can be destroyed (their health is very low).

Kor'kron Demolishers enter the fight one at a time, and immediatelybegin firing projectiles at the tower that your raid is currently trying totake control of, dealing heavy damage to any raid members inside the tower.

6.2. Strategy

Despite appearing very complicated, the strategy for this phase is actuallyquite simple. Your raid will often be faced with such an overwhelming number ofadds with different abilities that carefully strategising is simply notpossible. Instead, you will have to react instinctively to the mechanics youare up against, while keeping a few broad guidelines in mind.

There are a few very important things to keep in mind during this phase.We will outline them before going into more details.

• Always kill Healing Tide Totems and the banners created byDragonmaw Flagbearers right away.
• Kill the Kor'kron Demolishers as soon as they appear.
• Be very wary of the Dragonmaw Ebon Stalkers and move away from whereyou were standing as soon as they teleport behind you.
• Kill Dragonmaw Bonecrushers as soon as they appear, because these mobsdeal very heavy damage to your friendly NPCs.

6.2.1. Handling the Mini-Bosses

The abilities of the mini-bosses are very straightforward.

In the case of Korgra the Snake, you can simply attack and kill her whilethe tank moves her whenever she places a Poison Cloud at her location.Aside from that, remember to avoid the attacks from theDragonmaw Ebon Stalkers that come with her.

Lieutenant Krugruk requires that the raid members who engage him alwaysmake sure not to get hit by Arcing Smash, because the knock-back canthrow players off the tower, causing great problems for the raid.

High Enforcer Thranok's lethal Skull Cracker can be avoided bysimply running away from him as soon as he casts Crusher's Call. No oneshould try to survive the damage of Skull Cracker, not even tanks.

Master Cannoneer Dagryn's only problematic ability is Muzzle Spray,for which raid members will have to dance for a few seconds in orderto avoid being knocked back.

6.2.2. Handling the Adds

Most of the abilities of the adds should be handled in obvious ways (whichis not to say that doing so is always easy). Damage that is done to randomraid members has to be healed through. Players have to avoid standing in thefiery void zones left behind by the Dragonmaw Flameslingers, and soon.

It is not easy to set a priority for killing the adds, since this candepend on many factors. Also, if you consider that certain mobs, such asthe Dragonmaw Bonecrushers and the Dragonmaw Tidal Shamans, haveas much as 10 times more health than some other mobs, a kill order oftenbecomes quickly apparent. Use the following guidelines.

1. Dragonmaw Bonecrushers and Dragonmaw Tidal Shamans should beAoE-ed together with any smaller adds that join the fight with them (Bonecrushersand Shamans will not be in the same wave at the same time). The smalleradds will die very quickly.
2. Kor'kron Demolishers (which mostly spawn on their own) should bekilled very quickly.

The Dragonmaw Proto-Drakes should be damaged with the first Anti-AirTurret that your raid takes control of.

6.2.3. General Timeline of the Phase

At the start of the phase, your entire raid will be together on theground, and you will face the first three waves of adds together. As soon asthe southern tower opens, half of your raid (complete with one tank and one ormore healers) will have to make its way up the tower. Once at the top, theywill have to defeat the mini-boss present there.

When the second tower opens up, your tower team will have to takecontrol of this tower as well, in the same way as with the first tower. Whenboth towers are under control, one raid member should enter each of the twoAnti-Air Turrets, and shoot at Galakras at roughly the same time. This willcause the boss to descend, starting Phase Two.

Note that any adds that are still alive when you shoot down Galakras willnot despawn, and you will have to fight them at the same time as the boss,so you may want to consider clearing the area before bringing the bossdown.

7. Phase Two↑top

During Phase Two, adds stop spawning, and your only enemy is Galakras, soengages your raid on the ground.

7.1. Abilities

Galakras uses only three abilities during this phase.

• Galakras has a stacking DoT that it applies on its current target.This deals Fire damage and it requires a tank switch.
• Flames of Galakrond is the main attack that Galakras uses duringthis phase. The boss shoots a large ball of fire at a random player, whichtravels slowly through the air. Each player that intercepts the ball of firehas a moderately damaging, 15-second Fire damage DoT stacked on them, but alsocauses the ball of fire to lose potency, causing it to deal less damage tosubsequent players. When the ball reaches its final destination (the locationof the targeted player), it lands, exploding and dealing a large amount ofraid-wide damage. The amount of damage that this explosion does is reduced foreach player that had intercepted the ball of fire while it was flying.
• Pulsing Flames is a raid-wide damaging aura that ticks throughout thisphase. It deals a moderate amount of Fire damage to all players, and each tickstacks a buff on Galakras that increases the boss' fire damage done by 2%per stack.

7.2. Strategy

The strategy for Phase Two is fairly simple. Your tanks must perform a tankswitch on Galakras to handle the stacking tank DoT.

In order to handle Flames of Galakrond, the raid should employ thefollowing positioning. Your melee players should be stacked into a group andpositioned behind the boss. All ranged raid members should form a grouplocated about 30 yards behind the melee group. This way, the damage of everysingle ball of fire from Flames of Galakrond will be reduced by the melee group,and in the event that it targets a ranged raid member, it will also be reducedby the ranged group. The result is that each ball of fire will end up doingvery little damage, and your raid can remain stationary. As you can guess, thedrawback of this strategy is that all the players who soak the balls of firewill have stacks of the Fire damage DoT placed on them. Depending on howquickly Galakras dies, this may not be a problem. If the phase ends up takinga very long time, though, you should have those players with the higheststacks move out of the group for a short while until their stacks drop off.

Dealing with the stacking buff that Galakras gains, and thedamage that Pulsing Flames does, is just something that the healershave to be prepared for (so, save healing cooldowns).

8. When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp↑top

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp duringPhase Two, specifically when Galakras reaches 40% health or so. This part ofthe fight is the most difficult one, and it is here that your raid will haveto contend with increasing damage due to Pulsing Flames, so you will needas much raid DPS and healing as possible.

9. Summing Things Up↑top

In this section, we will very briefly summarise what the players belonging toeach of the three roles have to do during this fight.

9.1. Tanks

• Tank all the mobs that enter the fight. Move Korgra around to avoid hervoid zones. Face Thranok away from other players.
• Tank Galakras in Phase Two, and perform a tank switch.

9.2. Healers

• Beware of the many sources of damage that your raid will be subjectedto.
• In Phase Two, beware of the increasing raid-wide damage caused by Pulsing Flames, and by Flames of Galakrond explosions.

9.3. DPS

• Always DPS adds based on their priority (or on your raid leader'sinstructions).

9.4. Everyone

• Avoid the many ground-based attacks in the fight ( Arcing Smash, Muzzle Spray, etc.).
• Immediately move away from Dragonmaw Ebon Stalkers if they arebehind you.
• Move away from Thranok when he is casting Skull Cracker.
• Dispatch part of your raid to deal with the mini-bosses on top of thetowers.
• In Phase Two, intercept the ball of fire caused by Flames of Galakrond.

10. Learning the Fight↑top

It is not really possible to boil down the learning process of thisfight to one or two steps. The most difficult aspect to learn will be how tobest handle all of the abilities of the many adds that your raid has to faceduring Phase One, and this is something that has to happen throughpractice. If you follow the guidelines that we have laid out in the guide(killing the Kor'kron Demolishers and the Healing Tide Totems,and so on), you should be well on your way.

Another important aspect to consider before you pull the boss is how tosplit your raid up into a tower team and a ground team, so that the teams arewell balanced and so that each one is suited for its task. You can and shouldlook to rebalance this split after you have pulled the boss a few times, inorder to improve the groups.

11. Heroic Mode↑top

The Heroic mode of the Galakras encounter is almost identical to its Normalmode counterpart, and it is quite accessible to raids.

11.1. Differences From Normal Mode

All mobs in the encounter have increased health and deal increaseddamage.

As far as mechanics are concerned, there is only one difference. Instead ofthe two towers becoming accessible to your raid automatically, each one isunlocked by a friendly NPC. The NPC takes about 90 seconds to unlock a tower,during which time some Dragonmaw Grunts will attemptto kill it. If the NPC dies, a new one will spawn shortly afterwards, and thetower-opening process will be re-started (that is to say, the progress of theprevious add will be reset).

11.2. Strategy

The strategy for this Heroic mode is practically unchanged. The onlydifference is that your raid should assign a few DPS players to stand near thetower that is going to open next, and protect the NPC that attempts to openthe tower. Ranged DPS players are ideal, since they can deal damage to theother mobs when there is nothing to attack near the tower, but melee can worktoo.

12. Concluding Remarks↑top

This concludes our raid guide for Galakras. We hope you havefound it helpful. Please do not hesitate to post any feedback you may have onour forums.

13. Changelog↑top

• 15 Nov. 2013: Added Heroic mode strategy.
• 20 Sep. 2013: Improved the Phase Two strategy somewhat, removingmentions that implied that Flames of Galakrond can only be cast on rangedraid members (it can be cast on melee and ranged alike).
• 16 Sep. 2013: Added a link to the video guide.
• 15 Sep. 2013: Made several updates.
  • Added 25-man health values.
  • Clarified the mechanics of the Proto-Drakes, and mentioned that you can(and should) damage them with the Anti-Air Turrets.
  • Improved the strategy and positioning for Phase Two.
• 29 Aug. 2013: Added Summarising Things Up section.