This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of theencounter with The Fallen Protectors 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.

The fight against The Fallen Protectors is the second encounter in the Siege ofOrgrimmar raid. This is a council-type fight that will test your raid members'ability to react to mechanics and work together as a team. Specifically, movingand repositioning accordingly is very important in defeating this boss.

1. General Information↑top

2. Loot↑top

2.1. Armor

Item Name	Armor	Slot	Main Stats
Shoulderpads of Dou Dou Chong (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloth	Shoulders	Intellect/Hit
Robes of the Tendered Heart (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloth	Chest	Intellect/Hit
Sha-Seared Sandals (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloth	Feet	Intellect/Hit
Lifebane Bracers (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloth	Wrists	Intellect/Spirit
Shoulders of the Roiling Inferno (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Leather	Shoulders	Intellect
Stonetoe's Tormented Treads (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Leather	Feet	Agility
Shoulderguards of Dark Meditations (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Mail	Shoulders	Intellect
Sabatons of Defilement (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Mail	Feet	Intellect
Grips of Unending Anguish (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Mail	Hands	Agility
Gaze of Echoing Despair (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Head	Intellect
Grips of the Fallen Council (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Hands	Intellect
Darkfallen Shoulderplates (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Shoulders	Strength/Mastery
Poisonbinder Girth (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Waist	Strength
Shockstriker Gauntlets (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Hands	Strength/Dodge

2.2. Weapons

Item Name	Type	Main Stats
Purehearted Cricket Cage (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Off-Hand Frill	Intellect/Hit
Softfoot's Last Resort (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Fist Weapon	Agility
Death Lotus Crossbow (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Crossbow	Agility

2.3. Rings, Cloaks, and Trinkets

Item Name	Type	Main Stats
Petrified Pennyroyal Ring (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Ring	Intellect/Hit
Sorrowpath Signet (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Ring	Strength
Gloomwrap Greatcloak (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloak	Strength/Parry
Rook's Unlucky Talisman (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Trinket	Stamina/reduced damage taken

3. Overview of the Fight↑top

During the encounter with The Fallen Protectors you will face three bosses atthe same time. They do not share health, and each one has its own individualabilities.

The central element of the encounter is a mechanic called DesperateMeasures. Each boss casts this ability (although the effects differ for eachboss) when they reach 66% and 33% health. In essence, when a boss casts DesperateMeasures, it disappears from the fight, spawning one or more adds in its place.These adds have certain abilities, and your raid must kill them. When the adds arekilled, the boss will return (with the same health it had when it disappeared),and the fight will continue.

It is also important to note that all three bosses must be killed at the sametime (within the space of about 10 seconds). If your raid fails to do this, thenthe boss that was first brought to 0% health will heal itself, thus setting yourraid back considerably.

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. A Word on Structure↑top

Given the nature of the encounter, you will have to handle the abilities ofall three bosses for extended periods of time. Additionally, you will have tohandle the special abilities from Desperate Measures several times during thefight. As such, we will first present the abilities of all three bosses, beforeexplaining the adequate strategy to complete the encounter. While it may appearmore natural to present the abilities for a boss followed immediately by thestrategy to handle them, this would not be efficient since none of theabilities can be adequately discussed apart from those of the other twobosses.

6. Abilities↑top

6.1. Rook Stonetoe

When not in a Desperate Measures phase, Rook Stonetoe makes use of severalabilities.

• Vengeful Strikes is an ability that Rook uses to stun his currenttarget. Shortly afterwards, he deals high Physical damage in a cone in front ofhim.
• Corrupted Brew is a shadow-crash type of mechanic, whereby Rookthrows a keg of brew at a random ranged raid member, which deals damage ina 5-yard radius when it lands, also slowing any affected players.
• Clash is an ability Rook uses to charge a random raid member(and, just like the Monk Clash ability, causing the targeted player tomeet Rook half-way). As soon as Rook charges the player, he starts channeling Corruption Kick, dealing damage in a 10-yard area for 4 seconds. Playershit by Corruption Kick also receive a DoT that lasts for 6 seconds, dealingmoderate Shadow damage, and which can be dispelled.

6.1.1. Desperate Measures

When reaching 66% and 33% health, Rook Stonetoe disappears and summons threeadds: Embodied Misery, Embodied Sorrow, and Embodied Gloom. Yourraid must kill these three adds for Rook to re-appear. While Rook is gone, hedoes not cast any of his normal abilities.

Embodied Misery casts Defiled Ground. This knocks the EmbodiedMisery's tank back, damaging them in the process, and leaves behind a damagingvoid zone.

Embodied Sorrow casts Inferno Strike. This ability selects a randomraid member and, a few seconds later, deals a massive amount of damage splitbetween all players within 8 yards of that player. The affected player, as wellas the relevant 8-yard radius around them are indicated by means of a redcircle.

Embodied Gloom casts Corruption Shock, an interruptible nuke that dealsdamage in an area around random players.

6.2. He Softfoot

When not in a Desperate Measures phase, He Softfoot makes use of severalabilities.

• Garrote is a bleed that He applies on random raid members. It hasan unlimited duration, and it cannot be dispelled, but it is automaticallyremoved from all raid members when He enters his Desperate Measuresphases.
• Gouge is an ability that He uses on his current target,incapacitating them for 6 seconds and changing target to a random raid memberfor this duration. If the tank is facing away from He when Gouge is cast, theywill not be incapacitated, and instead they will only be knocked back a shortdistance (which also prevents He from changing targets).
• He also has two buffs that he alternates using on himself. Each buff lastsabout 20 seconds.
  • Noxious Poison causes He's melee attacks to leave behind void zoneson the ground.
  • Instant Poison causes He's melee attacks to deal a large amount ofadditional Nature damage.

6.2.1. Desperate Measures

When reaching 66% and 33% health, He Softfoot disappears and summons anadd with a large amount of health, called Embodied Anguish. Yourraid must kill this add for He to re-appear. While He is gone, he does notcast any of his normal abilities.

The Embodied Anguish casts Mark of Anguish on a random raid member.This is a debuff that roots the player in place, and that also deals Shadowdamage over time to them. The Embodied Anguish fixates on that player,moving towards them to melee them. When the Embodied Anguish melees a player,it applies a stack of a debuff called Shadow Weakness on them, increasingthe damage they take from Mark of Anguish.

Players affected by Mark of Anguish can pass this debuff on to another raidmember of their choice (forcing the Embodied Anguish to fixate on that player),by using an extra action button with which they are provided. Passing on thedebuff causes the entire raid to receive a stack of Shadow Weakness, andcauses the targeted player to receive a stack of Debilitation,reducing their armor by 50% for 2 minutes.

6.3. Sun Tenderheart

When not in a Desperate Measures phase, Sun Tenderheart makes use of severalabilities.

• Sha Sear is a channeled spell that Sun uses on random raid members, whichdeals damage to that player and any other players within 5 yards of them. Thespell can be interrupted, but doing so only causes Sun to immediately re-cast it ona new target.
• Shadow Word: Bane is a DoT that Sun applies on random raid members. Eachtime the DoT ticks, it copies itself onto a new target, with each instance of theDoT affecting a maximum of 4 players at the same time. Shadow Word: Bane can bedispelled.
• Calamity is a raid-wide damaging spell that Sun uses. It deals 30% ofplayers' maximum health as Shadow damage, and removes all applications ofShadow Word: Bane when doing so.

6.3.1. Desperate Measures

When reaching 66% and 33% health, Sun Tenderheart disappears and summons twoadds: Embodied Despair and Embodied Desperation. These have noabilities of their own, and they do not need to be tanked, but your raid mustkill these two adds for Sun to re-appear. While Sun is gone, she does not castany of her normal abilities.

During Sun's Desperate Measures, the entire raid takes damage every 0.5seconds from an ability called Dark Meditation. This damage is reduced by35% by standing inside a protective barrier, called a Meditative Field,which is located in the center of the arena.

Additionally, during Sun's Desperate Measures, small adds calledDespair Spawns and Desperation Spawns will spawn from random raidmembers. These adds have no abilities, and any damage taken by these adds willbe mirrored onto the two large adds (Embodied Despair and Embodied Desperation,which technically create the small adds).

7. Strategy↑top

To begin with, your raid must learn a general strategy that will allow you tohandle the non-Desperate Measures phases of all three bosses at the same time.After that, you will also have to understand how to master each DesperateMeasure phase (while contending with the normal abilities of the other twobosses at the same time). You must always avoid having more than one boss in aDesperate Measures phase at one time, since this will complicate mattersgreatly.

Given the complexity and length of the strategy, we have divided it intosub-sections.

7.1. General Strategy

He Softfoot and Rook Stonetoe must be tanked, whereasSun Tenderheart spends most of her time channeling Sha Sear onplayers. We will provide you with a brief outline of what you must do, beforeproviding a few more explanations.

• Tanks
  • Tank Rook facing away from other raid members (in order to avoid anyoneother than the tank being damaged by Vengeful Strikes).
  • Tank He away from the raid and move him whenever he places a poison voidzone. Use a minor defensive cooldown to survive Instant Poison.
  • He's tank must turn their back to He whenever he casts Gouge, inorder to avoid being incapacitated.
• Healers
  • Dispel Shadow Word: Bane before it has a chance to tick, wheneverpossible.
  • Be prepared to heal the high and unavoidable damage of Garrote and Calamity.
• Everyone
  • Avoid being hit by Corrupted Brew.
  • If targeted by Sun's Sha Sear move away from other raid members sothat the damage is minimised. Do not bother interrupting Sun.
  • Whenever Rook begins casting Corruption Kick, move out of his closeproximity to avoid the damage.
  • Be mindful of He's poison void zones.

Your raid should be mildly spread out. This is ideal for several reasons, butmostly because it helps minimise the damage taken from Sha Sear, andbecause fewer players will need to move away from Rook to avoid the damageof Corruption Kick.

He Softfoot should be tanked outside of the raid so that no one except forhis tank has to worry about the poison void zones that this boss leavesbehind. Rook should be tanked facing away, because he will regularly dealhigh frontal cone damage. Sun Tenderheart should be tanked close to Rook, toallow for cleave damage. You can interrupt her casts to help move her intoposition.

Players must be ever-vigilant to avoid taking damage caused by being in thewrong place. Specifically, everyone must make sure to be far enough away fromthe target of Sha Sear, they must carefully and quickly avoid theprojectiles of Corrupted Brew, and they must always make sure to get awayfrom Rook when he casts Corruption Kick.

7.2. Desperate Measures

7.2.1. DPS Priority

The first thing to discuss is the order in which you should prioritiseDPSing the bosses. This is important because it determines the order inwhich you will face their respective Desperate Measures phases, which inturn is very significant due to the way in which Garrote and Shadow Word: Bane work.

These two DoTs are both removed automatically from all raid members as soonas the casting boss enters their Desperate Measures phase. In the case ofGarrote, there is no way to remove the bleeds without pushing He into DesperateMeasures, while in the case of Shadow Word: Bane it is very difficult toreliably dispel every instance of it (because dispels have a cooldown). Thismeans that, in order to keep the raid damage manageable, you will have toregularly have He and Sun go into their Desperate Measures phases, and youcannot afford to simply leave one alone until the end of the fight.

The order in which you choose to bring the bosses to Desperate Measures,beyond what we have just mentioned, is up to you. Here is an example thatcould work.

1. Take Rook to 66%.
2. Take He to 66% (this will clear all Garrote bleeds from the raid).
3. Take Sun to 66% (this will clear all Shadow Word: Bane from the raid).
4. Take Rook to 33%.
5. Take He to 33%.
6. Take Sun to 33%.
7. Kill all three bosses.

In practice, you will of course not keep two bosses at 100% health whileyou bring the other to 66%, since you will be doing some cleaving damage andsome players will be multi-DoTting.

7.2.2. Rook's Desperate Measures

Handling Rook's Desperate Measures phase is the most complex of the three.During this phase, you will have to deal with three abilities.

• Defiled Ground is cast on the tank of Embodied Misery. It placesa void zone at this tank's location, meaning that the mob has to be kitedslowly.
• Corruption Shock, which is cast by Embodied Gloom, must beinterrupted whenever possible.
• Inferno Strike, cast byEmbodied Sorrow, is the biggest problem during this phase. It requiresthe entire raid to stack up on the person being targeted by it, so that thedamage is soaked. This last ability is the most problematic, because stackingup causes problems with Sha Sear.

The best way to handle this phase is to remain spread out, tanking theEmbodied Misery away from the raid, and to only stack very briefly each timeInferno Strike is being cast. Players who are currently targeted bySha Sear should not stack with the rest of the raid.

Your first priority is to kill Embodied Sorrow, in order to get rid ofInferno Strike. Once that is done, you should kill Embodied Gloom, to removethe need for constant interrupts. Embodied Misery can safely be killed lastbecause, aside from being annoying to its tank, the add is not reallyproblematic.

7.2.3. He's Desperate Measures

He's Desperate Measures can be handled very easily. You can have whoeverhas Mark of Anguish cast on them simply pass the debuff along to the tankthat was tanking He before Desperate Measures, and that tank can simplysurvive the attacks of Embodied Anguish until your raid kills the add.Nothing else really changes, and this phase is actually easier than when nobosses are in Desperate Measures, since all other abilities belonging to Heare not being used.

The tank with Mark of Anguish will also be debuffed by Debilitation,reducing their armor, so they should make sure to have a defensive cooldownavailable just in case.

7.2.4. Sun's Desperate Measures

The strategy for handling Sun's Desperate Measures is essentially simple,although it can be difficult. The idea is to have the entire raid stackedtogether inside the Meditative Field, where the damage from Dark Meditation is greatly reduced. While inside, ranged DPSplayers should kill the Embodied Despair and Embodied Desperationadds.

Melee DPS players will have to handle the Despair Spawns andDesperation Spawns, since doing so allows them to stay inside theMeditative Field. Any damage they do to these small adds will then be mirroredonto the larger adds, so melee DPS can still contribute to ending the phasefaster.

Complications can arise during this phase when Rook begins casting Corruption Kick inside the Meditative Field. If this happens, playerswill simply have to move. The raid will have to try to dodge Rook's Corrupted Brew casts within the field, or else move out briefly to avoidthem.

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

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp at thestart of the fight, mainly because there is no benefit to using it at anothertime, and using it at the start allows all raid members to use their DPScooldowns.

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

• Face Rook away from other raid members.
• Pick up Embodied Misery, Embodied Sorrow, and Embodied Gloomwhen they spawn. Kite Embodied Misery to avoid the void zones it places.
• Only for He's tank
  • Face away from He when he casts Gouge.
  • Beware of the extra damage from Instant Poison, and the void zonesfrom Noxious Poison.

9.2. Healers

• Beware of high damage on Rook's tank during Vengeful Strikes.
• Beware of the damage from Embodied Sorrow's Inferno Strike.
• Beware of the damage the target of Mark of Anguish takes.
• Dispel Shadow Word: Bane before it has a chance to tick.
• Beware of the high raid-wide damage of Calamity and Dark Meditation.

9.3. DPS

• DPS the appropriate target (assigned by your raid leader).
• When the Desperate Measures adds are up, DPS them with priority.

9.4. Everyone

• Avoid the shadow-crash mechanic Corrupted Brew.
• Move away from Rook when he casts Corruption Kick.
• Stack together when Inferno Strike is being cast.
• Interrupt Corruption Shock.
• Spread out to minimise damage from Sha Sear.

10. Learning the Fight↑top

This is a fight where there are many different aspects mixing together, andyour raid has to master them all more or less simultaneously. That said, youshould focus on the positioning of your raid members, both duringDesperate Measures phases and outside of them, since proper positioning(spread out, bosses being faced away/tanked away, and so on) can make theentire fight much easier to learn.

11. Heroic Mode↑top

The Heroic mode of the encounter against The Fallen Protectors is almostidentical to the Normal mode, as far as mechanics are concerned.

11.1. Differences From Normal Mode

In addition to all mobs having increased health and dealing increaseddamage, there are a few changes in mechanics. All of these changes havethe same purpose, namely to prevent your raid from not pushing any specificboss into their Desperate Measures phase often enough. In a way, these aresoft enrage mechanics, but much like He's soft enrage in Normal mode( Garrote being undispellable and having unlimited duration, butdisappearing when he enters Desperate Measures), they are reset when therespective boss enters Desperate Measures.

• The travel time of the projectiles fired by Rook's Corrupted Brewdecreases by 0.5 seconds every two casts. This effect is reset when Rookenters Desperate Measures.
• The adds that appear during Rook's Desperate Measures now have a sharedhealth pool.
• The Debilitation debuff applied during He's Desperate Measures nowreduces armor by 80% for 4 minutes, up from 50% for 2 minutes in Normalmode.
• Sun's Calamity deals 10% more of players' maximum health with eachcast. This effect is reset when Sun enters Desperate Measures.

11.2. Strategy

The strategy for the fight remains unchanged from Normal mode, by and large.The Heroic mode changes simply mean that you really cannot afford to avoidpushing a boss into Desperate Measures for too long, but if you follow thesuggestions we give for defeating the Normal mode, then this should neverhappen in the first place.

The increase in travel speed for the Corrupted Brew projectiles maymake some of them unavoidable even if you are not delaying pushing Rook intoDesperate Measures, but this must simply be healed through. The fact that Rook'sDesperate Measures adds share health has no real implications on thestrategy.

Likewise, the increased damage done by subsequent casts of Calamitymust simply be healed through, although we also recommend using raid cooldownswhen available.

10-man raids who are starting out their progression on this encounter willfind it very beneficial to use 3 tanks, since the damage going around in thefight can be quite high.

While doing the fight following the Normal mode strategy is simple and safe,there is one trick that you can try using if the aforementioned strategy doesnot work for your raid. Namely, you may find the encounter easier to defeat ifyou push Sun and He into Desperate Measures at the same time. This is becauseotherwise, going through Sun's Desperate Measures (and the raid damage thatthis brings) while the raid is affected by He's Garrote is verydifficult. On the other hand, the Desperate Measures phases are not verydifficult, so stacking these two phases to avoid Garrote damage ispreferable.

While it might be possible (particularly in 25-man) to have a tank take the Mark of Anguish and survive, despite the Debilitation debuff havingbeen made more powerful in Heroic mode, we do not advise this strategy.Instead, we advise you to set up a rotation of players who will pass thedebuff between themselves until the Embodied Anguish is killed. So, wheneverMark of Anguish is cast, the affected player should wait a few seconds, andthen pass the debuff on to the first player in the rotation (who should havemoved at maximum range from this affected player). From then on, eachsubsequent player in the rotation should move at maximum range from thepreceding one, and then the debuff should be passed on. By the time the debuffhas been passed around between 3-4 players, the Embodied Anguish should bedead.

12. Concluding Remarks↑top

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

13. Changelog↑top

• 24 Nov. 2013: Improved various parts of the Heroic modestrategy.
• 29 Sep. 2013: Added Heroic mode strategy. Also fixed an issue wherebywe were claiming that damage done Despair Spawns andDesperation Spawns is mirrored to raid members, when instead it ismirrored to the Embodied Despair and Embodied Desperation adds.
• 15 Sep. 2013: Made more updates.
  • Added a link to the video guide.
  • Added mention of the Debilitation debuff that players receive whenthe Mark of Anguish is passed on to them.
  • Clarified that during Sun's Desperate Measures, there are two types ofadds that spawns, Despair Spawns and Desperation Spawns (althoughthey are identical in everything but name).
  • Confirmed that it is possible for a tank to hold on to the Mark of Anguish.
• 13 Sep. 2013: Made updates after doing the fight on live servers:updated 10-man health values, and added 25-man health values.
• 29 Aug. 2013: Added Summarising Things Up section.