- This article is about the in-game raid boss. For character biography and Warcraft III appearances, see Archimonde.
 Archimonde | |||
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| Race | Man'ari Eredar | ||
| Level | ?? (Boss) | ||
| Affiliation(s) | Burning Legion | ||
| Location | Hyjal Summit, Caverns of Time | ||
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Archimonde is the final boss of Mount Hyjal. The major difficulty of this encounter is that even a single player death can easily result in a wipe.
Abilities
- Melee: 9000-10000 on a full T5 tank, never deals crushing blows
- Air Burst: 6 sec cooldown, used randomly. 1500 nature damage 15 yard AoE centered on a random target. All affected players are tossed very high in the air (over 100% fall damage)
- Fear: 6 sec AoE fear (entire raid), 40 sec cooldown, 1.5 sec cast time. Never used while players are still airborne from Air Burst
- Grip of the Legion: 2500 damage per 2 sec for 5 minutes, curse, dispellable
- Doomfire: A trail of fire moving on the ground away from Archimonde. Players entering it get a not dispellable debuff which deals initially ~2400 fire damage per tick which is reduced by 150 per tick. Can be removed with Cloak of shadow.
- Soul Charge: When any raid member dies, Archimonde gains a Soul Charge which he can use once at a random time (with an animation looking like the Troll Priest shadowguard ability). Depending on which character class created the Soul Charge, the following effects apply to the entire raid on its use:
- Priest, Paladin, Warlock: ~4500 fire damage plus 4 sec silence
- Warrior, Rogue, Mage: ~4500 physical damage plus 4 sec damage taken increased by 50% debuff
- Druids, Shamans, Hunters: ~4500 nature damage over 8 seconds plus 2250 mana burn
- Finger of Death: 20,000 shadow damage, single target, only used if no targets in melee range
- Hand of Death: 100k shadow damage to the entire raid (= wipe), used 10 minutes after the pull or when Archimonde gets within 20 yards of the Well of Eternity
Preparation
A Horde raid faces off against Archimonde.
Raid Composition:
- 1 Tank
- 5 Decursers (mages or druids)
- 6-8 Healers
- 3-5 Melee DPS
- 7-10 Ranged DPS
Each raid member must aquire a 
[Tears of the Goddess] from Tyrande Whisperwind in the camp. No other special gear is required, the fire damage in this fight cannot be reduced with resistance. Fire Protection potions though do help.
Positioning
There are various approaches to positioning. As everybody needs to move around to avoid the Doomfires, a fixed order is hard to maintain. All players should keep the following in mind:
- Spread out to minimize the collateral damage from the Air Burst AoE
- Keep at least 10 yards away from all Doomfires
- Stay within range of at least one decurser at all times
- Stay inside healer range
- Avoid standing in front of Archimonde (exc. MT of course)
It's a good idea to give raid icons to decursers and to assign groups to them which stay inside their range.
Survival
The key to this fight is individual player survival. This is no DPS race, quite to the contrary. When learning the encounter, it's recommended to focus exclusively on raid survival at first. Soul Charges must be avoided at all costs, because usage of a Soul Charge usually leads to another player death (and thus to the next Soul Charge).
Grip of the Legion
This curse must be dispelled as quickly as possible. Decursers must be spread out well over the raid.
Air Burst
Besides healing through the damage, it's all about using the [Tears of the Goddess] at the right time. They slow fall speed for only a few seconds, so their use must be delayed until the player is very close to the ground. It's best to practise their use before the pull on a cliff. Other means to slow falling (like 
[Levitate] and Slow Fall) can be used too. Mages can also use 
[Blink] or 
[Ice Block] when they're near the ground.
Doomfire
The targeting of Doomfire is somewhat random. Frequently, it moves toward a fixed raid member, but it may also randomly change direction. Everybody in the vicinity of a Doomfire must run away from it. People must not run in circles, but rather in a straight line away from Archimonde.
If the main tank finds it difficult to avoid Doomfire, he can stay and take the debuff. With focussed healing it's possible to keep him up even through the additional fire damage. Problems arise if many healers must run themselves, or have an Air Burst.
Fear
A major cause of wipes in this encounter are raid members feared into Doomfire. The main tank must stance dance to avoid the fear. Shamans should keep their Tremor Totems up. It's highly useful if everyone in the raid has a PvP trinket which they can use when running towards a Doomfire while feared. Priests should keep Fear Wards up on key raid members (mostly healers and decursers). It's possible to use a fear ward and 
[Mass Dispel] combo, but very mana intensive.
Phase 2
At 10% health, the following things happen:
- Archimonde starts to channel Nordrassil, the World Tree (just an animation, no other effect). He begins chain-casting Finger of Death at this time (to no effect).
- Tyrande gives the raid an invulnerability debuff, Protection of Elune. Lasts 60 seconds.
- After 60 seconds, regardless of remaining health, Archimonde dies.
The invulnerability is indeed a debuff, because it prevents the use of all damage-enhancing abilities like Bloodlust or Heroism. Therefore such abilities should be used earlier than usual (such as at 35% instead of 25%), since the last 10% is completely irrelevant to success or failure of the attempt.
Loot & Reputation
Reputation
Since 2.4 Archimonde awards 1500 repuation with The Scale of the Sands.
Loot
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Quotes
After Azgalor dies Yells: All of your efforts have been in vain, for the draining of the World Tree has already begun. Soon the heart of your world will beat no more.
Aggro:
- Yells: Your resistance is insignificant!
Doomfire:
- Yells: This world will burn!
- Yells: Manach sheek-thrish!
Air burst:
- Yells: Away vermin!
- Yells: A-kreesh!
Killing a player:
- Yells: Your soul will languish for eternity.
- Yells: All creation will be devoured!
- Yells: I am the coming of the end!
Enrage/reaching well:
- Yells: At last it is here. Mourn and lament the passing of all you have ever known and all that would have been! Akmin-kurai!
Soul charge:
- Yells: You are mine now.
- Yells: Bow to my will.
Reaching 10%:
- Yells: No, it cannot be! Nooo!
External links
File:Icon-video-22x22.pngFor Killmovies of this encounter, see the Bosskill Movies page.
gsDKP Loot Table (from PTR)