This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of theencounter with Iron Qon in Throne of Thunder. It is targeted at anyonewho desires to understand the fight mechanics.
This guide is updated for World of Warcraft MoP 5.4.
Iron Qon is the tenth boss of the Throne of Thunder instance. This isa very engaging encounter with many phases, but with a clear and easy tofollow structure.
Defeating the encounter requires your raid members to have excellentcommunication and situational awareness. A solid amount of healing is alsoneeded.
The encounter against Iron Qon is a four-phase fight.
During Phase One you will fight Iron Qon while he is mounted onRo'shak, one of his three Quilen champions.
During Phase Two you will fight Iron Qon while he is mounted onQuet'zal, another one of his three Quilen champions.
During Phase Three you will fight Iron Qon while he is mounted onDam'ren, the last of this three Quilen champions.
During Phase Four you will fight Iron Qon alone.
Phases One, Two, and Three each last until the respective Quilen championhas been killed (Iron Qon himself does not take any damage during that time).Phase Four lasts until Iron Qon is killed.
Each phase contains a set of unique abilities, specific to that phase.In addition to this, there is one ability that Iron Qon uses throughout theentire fight, regardless of what phase he is in.
We have prepared the following video preview of the fight against Iron Qon,based on the testing from the Public Test Realms. Once we can do the fight onlive realms, we will also publish an up-to-date video guide. We stronglyrecommend watching the video in order to get a better visual idea of thefight.
On our forums, we are maintaining threads with class-specific advice for each of thefights of Throne of Thunder. So, make sure to check them out, and if you have things toshare, do not hesitate to contribute!
Throughout the entire duration of the fight, Iron Qon will stack a debuffcalled Impale on his main target. This causes the player to bleedfor a rather large amount of Physical damage every 2 seconds, requiring atank switch.
At the start of the fight, Iron Qon will be fighting the raid while on topof Ro'shak, the first of his three Quilen champions.
7.1. Abilities
Ro'shak has a Molten Energy bar, which increases slowly over time,independently of the raid's behaviour.
During this phase, Ro'shak uses serveral abilities.
Ignite Spear: Burning Cinders causes Iron Qon to throw his spear at thelocation of a random raid member, and then ignite the spear. Lines of magma moveout from the spear in several directions, and persist on the ground for a longtime. Standing on one of these lines applies a stacking DoT effect that dealsFire damage every second.
Molten Overload happens when Ro'shak reaches maximum Molten Energy.The boss gains a 50% increase in damage done, and he begins spammingMolten Inferno at the raid until his energy is depleted.
Molten Inferno is a raid-wide damaging attack that deals a moderateamount of Fire damage to all players. Using this ability costs Ro'shak 10Molten Energy.
Unleashed Flame is an ability that Ro'shak casts on the largest groupof raid members stacked within 10 yards, provided that the group is comprised ofa minimum number of players: 3 in 10-man and 5 in 25-man and LFR. It deals a largeamount of Fire damage, split between all players in 10-yard radius. Using thisability costs Ro'shak 30 Molten Energy. Players who are hit by this abilityreceive a stack of a debuff called Scorched.
Scorched increases Fire damage taken by the target by 20% for 30seconds.
In other words, as long as at least 3 players in 10-man, or 5 in 25-manand LFR are stacked within 10 yards, Ro'shak will keep castingUnleashed Flame on them. This prevent effectively prevent himfrom capping his Molten Energy, meaning that he will not castMolten Overload. In case multiple such groups exist, Ro'shakwill target the one that has most players present. If no such groupsexist, Ro'shak will not cast Unleashed Flame at all, and will insteadgo on to cap his energy and use Molten Overload, something that youmust avoid.
7.2. Strategy
The strategy for this phase is straightforward, but it requires goodcoordination from your raid.
Your goal is to avoid having Ro'shak reach maximum Molten Energy, becausethe damage caused by Molten Overload is extremely high and it is notreally healable for more than a few seconds. As such, you must constantly makesure that Ro'shak's Molten Energy is used up on casts ofUnleashed Flame.
Because of the fact that players affected by Unleashed Flame receive stacksof Scorched, you cannot have your whole raid stacked up. Instead,you will have to split your raid up into several groups of players (3 groupsin 10-man and 5 groups in 25-man seems appropriate). Then, you will need touse a rotation, such as the one we describe below.
Group 1 stacks together in one location, while players in the othergroups remain spread out. This will cause Ro'shak to castUnleashed Flame on Group 1.
After a few casts (3 at most), have players in Group 1 spread out, andplayers in Group 2 stack up. This will cause Ro'shak to target Group 2 withUnleashed Flame.
Proceed like this, and by the time the final group has taken a few casts ofUnleashed Flame, the first group's stacks of Scorched should be gone, andthey can stack up once again.
Given the limited number of players in the raid, the tanks will have to beincluded in one of the stacking groups. Whoever is meant to stack with thetanks can safely stand in front of Ro'shak, since he does not have any kind ofcleave or breath attacks.
After Ro'shak is killed, Iron Qon will mount Quet'zal, his second Quilenchampion, and engage your raid again.
8.1. Abilities
Strike Spear: Storm Cloud causes Iron Qon to throw his spear at thelocation of a random raid member, and then strike the spear. Lines oflightning move out from the spear in several directions, and persist on theground for a long time. Standing on one of these lines deals a massive amountof Nature damage, and applies a stack of a debuff. The debuff is harmless, butwhen reaching 3 stacks, the player becomes stunned for 20 seconds.
Arcing Lightning is a debuff that Quet'zal casts on a random raidmember. A cloud appears over the player, causing them to be stunned for 30seconds, and absorbing healing done to the target during this time. Whilestunned, the player deals damage to other nearby allies. The stun cannot bedispelled, but players can be freed from this effect if another raid membermoves close to them and clicks the cloud. This effectively "pulls them out ofthe storm", and all of the effects of the spell are removed.
Windstorm is a spell that Quet'zel casts relatively rarely (at most2-3 times throughout the entire phase). He flies up into the air, and pullsall raid members to the center of the room. He then summons a large number oftornadoes (called Rushing Winds), which move around a large circle in thecenter of the room. Each Rushing Wind moves in its own small circularpattern. Anyone who comes in contact with a tornado is picked up for a fewseconds, during which time they take some damage and cannot act. Players whoare within the large circle containing the tornadoes have their damage,healing, and absorption effects reduced by 80%. The Windstormlasts for 20 seconds, after which time Quet'zel lands back down, and most ofthe Rushing Winds tornadoes disappear. Some of the tornadoes will, however,persist until the end of the fight.
8.2. Strategy
The strategy for this phase is much simpler than that of the previousphase.
Raid members must make sure to avoid standing in the lightning linescreated by Strike Spear: Storm Cloud.
Whenever a raid member is affected by Arcing Lightning, another raidmember must quickly run to them and free them.
When Quet'zal casts Windstorm, raid members must get out of thelarge circle where the tornadoes are present, all while making sure not toget caught up in any of the Rushing Winds on their way out.
After Windstorm is over, players must still be mindful of lingeringtornadoes, and avoid them.
The only issue that requires additional mentions is the movement duringWindstorm. Even though it is possible to constantly avoid the tornadoes, andessentially wait out the end of the Windstorm, this is inefficient, becauseall damage, healing, and absorption while inside the Windstorm is reduced by80%. Instead, players should make their way out of the Windstorm, all whileavoiding the tornadoes. We recommend going to the "back" of the room (that isto say, in the opposite location to where Iron Qon is before you pull him),which is an area unaffected by Windstorm.
Even though the movement of the tornadoes appears random at first,you will notice that in fact, each tornado spins around in a small circle.Therefore, by keeping this in mind, it is easy to predict where the tornadoesaround you will be going, and this should allow you to avoid getting caught inany of them.
After Quet'zal is killed, Iron Qon will mount Dam'ren, his final Quilenchampion.
9.1. Abilities
Freeze Spear: Frozen Blood causes Iron Qon to throw his spear at thelocation of a random raid member, and then freeze the spear. Lines of ice moveout from the spear in several directions, and persist on the ground for a longtime. Standing on one of these lines deals a high amount of Frost damage, andapplies a stack of a debuff that slows movement, melee, ranged, and castingspeeds by 25%.
Dead Zone is a spell that Dam'ren sometimes channels for 10 seconds.While the spell is active, two shields appear on two sides of Dam'ren, and anyplayers who attack the boss from those sides will deal no damage to him.
Frozen Resilience is a passive buff that Dam'ren has for the entirephase. It causes 10% of all damage done to him to be reflected back to theattackers.
Freeze is a debuff that Dam'ren places on a random raid member. Thedebuff does not do anything, and it expires between 1 and 5 seconds afterbeing applied (it is chosen randomly). When it expires, the entire raid takesa moderate amount of Frost damage.
9.2. Strategy
This is one of the more intense phases as far as raid damage goes, butin terms of strategy, it is not complicated.
Your raid will simply DPS Dam'ren while making sure to stand out of thefrost lines on the ground (as well as out of any remaining lightning lines).There will still be some tornadoes from the previous phase moving around,which you will need to avoid as well.
When Dam'ren is casting Dead Zone, players will have to positionsthemselves in such a way as to attack him from a side on which he is notshielded.
Freeze is a concern for the healers, but it does not reallynecessitate the use of defensive cooldowns. The raid will also passivelytake damage from Frozen Resilience.
After Dam'ren is killed, Iron Qon will finally face the raid on hisown.
10.1. Abilities
Rising Anger is a stacking self-buff that increases Iron Qon'sdamage by 10% per stack. A new stack is applied every 10 seconds.
Fist Smash is an ability that Iron Qon casts at regular intervalsduring this phase. It deals a large amount of raid-wide Physical damage over7.5 seconds.
Ignite Cyclone is an ability that causes a random tornado fromPhase Two that is still around to become ignited, dealing raid-wide Fire damageevery 2 seconds until the end of the fight.
Freeze Cyclone is an ability that causes a random tornado from PhaseTwo that is still around to become frozen. Players who come in contact withthis tornado become stunned and lose 5% of their maximum health every 2seconds. We did not get a chance to see anyone getting affected by thisability, so we are not sure how long the stun lasts or how it can beremoved.
10.2. Strategy
This is a typical burn phase. Your raid must kill Iron Qon as quicklyas possible, for two reasons. Firstly, unless you were very fast in previousphases, you are probably nearing the 12-minute enrage timer. Secondly,the more stacks of Rising Anger that Iron Qon gets during this phase,the more likely it is that your healers will not be able to keep up (there isplenty of raid damage from Fist Smash and the fiery tornadoes.
Your raid should stack up in a location where there are no tornadoes, andsimply burn the boss with all cooldowns. Healing and defensive cooldownsshould be used during this phase.
We recommend using Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp duringPhase Four, since this is the phase that your raid needs to get throughfastest. Also, this phase allows your raid members to remain relativelystill, thus allowing them to benefit more from Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp.
Despite its many phases, the encounter should not be too difficult tolearn. Firstly, we recommend that you explain to your raid that the first3 phases all follow a similar format of the boss having one "lines" abilityand one or two actual abilities. The lines are the same in every phase, and ineach case they simply need to be avoided.
Of the other phase-specific abilities, only Unleashed Flame andWindstorm are at all problematic. For Unleashed Flame, the raid leadermust have an active role in assigning groups of players, and someone shouldalways call out when it is time for a group to stack or spread. For Windstorm,we advise using the technique we mentioned in the respective strategysection (following one of the tornadoes around).
The Heroic mode of the Iron Qon encounter is quite difficult, and the fighthas several differences from Normal mode, resulting in a quite differentexperience. That said, the strategy, as we will see, does not change verymuch.
13.1. Differences From Normal Mode
There are two important differences from Normal mode.
Firstly, during Phases One, Two, and Three, while fighting Iron Qon and theQuilen on which he is mounted during the respective phase, one of the othertwo Quilen will be flying above the raid, casting a specific spell each.
During Phase One, Quet'zal will be flying above the raid,casting Whirling Winds at the raid. When he casts Whirling Winds,Quet'zal summons a tornado that crosses the room, dealing damage to anyplayers that come in contact with it. Quet'zal casts this ability about every25 seconds. In addition to this, Quet'zal will also castArcing Lightning on random raid members.
During Phase Two, Dam'ren will be flying above the raid,casting Frost Spike at random raid members. Several raid members'locations are targeted by frost spikes, which, after an initial warninganimation, deal damage to players in a 4-yard radius, knocking them up in theair. Dam'ren casts this ability about every 12 seconds.
During Phase Three, Ro'shak will be flying above the raid,casting Unleashed Flame at the largest group of stacked players he canfind, and if there are no groups of at least 3 players in 10-man, or 5 playersin 25-man, then he will cast Unleashed Flame at random raid members. Ro'shakwill cast this ability about every 15 seconds.
The Quilen that is flying in the air above the raid cannot be targetedor attacked.
Secondly, each of the three Quilen will leave (and their respective phaseswill end) when they reach 25% health (instead of when dying, as in Normalmode). During Phase Four, all 3 Quilen will return, and you will have to fightthem all alongside Iron Qon himself. During Phase Four, each of the threeQuilen will use one ability only, as follows:
It is important to note that Iron Qon will not begin casting Fist Smashuntil 2 of the 3 Quilens are dead.
Finally, Iron Qon and all the Quilen deal increased damage and haveincreased health.
13.2. Strategy
The strategy for the encounter remains similar to the Normal mode strategy,in the sense that the abilities of each phase are handled in the same way.However, in addition to those abilities, players will have to watch out forthe abilities cast by the flying Quilen, and Phase Four becomes quitecomplex.
13.2.1. Phase One
During Phase One, there are two additional abilities (an exception, sinceboth Phases Two and Three only present one additional ability).
The first issue is avoiding the tornadoes caused by Quet'zal's WhirlingWinds. While these do travel at a high speed, avoiding them should not betoo difficult.
The second issue is Arcing Lightning, something that players willsimply have to be quick to remove from their team mates.
13.2.2. Phase Two
During Phase Two, players who are targeted by Frost Spikes should simplymove from the their location immediately, in order to avoid being damaged andknocked up. The damage of this ability is not too high, however, so even gettinghit by it is acceptable. Spreading out ensures that more than one player willnever be hit by a Frost Spike.
13.2.3. Phase Three
During Phase Three, you will have to employ the same kind of stacking andspreading system as you do during Phase One, in order to deal withUnleashed Flame.
13.2.4. Phase Four
Phase Four is when things get more complicated and difficult. To begin with,when Dam'ren reaches 25% health, you should useHeroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp and burn him down. He is thetop priority during this phase, since his Dead Zone is extremelydisruptive to DPS.
Once Dam'ren is dead, Ro'shak should be killed, and then Quet'zal,before finally turning to Iron Qon and finishing him off.
Note that all three Quilen will need to be tanked during this phase.
Ranged raid members should stay spread out until all three Quilen aredead, after which time stacking up is recommended (since the raid damagecaused by Iron Qon will reach extreme levels).
24 Mar. 2013: Re-added mention of hard enrage timer, at 12 minutes,following forum comments in this regard. Also updated the DPS requirementssection to account for it.
17 Mar. 2013: Added 25-man health values; removed mention of hardenrage timer, as it appears to no longer exist; revised the Windstormexplanation.
13 Mar. 2013: Added link to forum threads that containclass-specific advice for the encounter.
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