Flamebender Ka'graz

Flamebender Ka'graz is the forgemaster of the Foundry, in command of imbuing their Blackrock weapons with the essence of the flame. With the help of her assistant Aknor, she provides armaments for the army of Blackhand.

Flamebender is one of the most difficult bosses in the entire Foundry and is a difficult battle for each type of player. But *especially* for the ranged players (healers, hunters, mages, etc).

If you don't want the achievement, Aknor should be murdered immediately. Note that Aknor can be obtained as a Garrison Follower! Keep Aknor alive for the whole fight and kill Flamebender to receive the achievement and the follower.

The trouble with Flamebender is that the party *damages itself*. Flamebender has an ability called Lava Slash which is a line of fire that moves to a random ranged player. Wherever that ranged player is standing is where the line of fire will appear. This line of fire is ***deadly*** and is the key difficulty with this battle. **The party lives and dies by how the ranged players position in this fight.**

Flamebender has several abilities, mostly revolving around her "energy" (mana):

* At 25 energy she will put a bomb on a ranged player
* At 50 energy she will summon two wolves
* At 100 energy she will cast Firestorm which is a fire tornado of death
* Spinning sword level hazards, can appear anywhere including near the boss

### **How to Manage Lava Slash**

Lava Slash is the line of fire that attacks the ranged players multiple times during the battle. The fire will chain / jump from one ranged player to another and cause massive damage to anyone standing in its flames. The ranged players must maintain a consistent spread and distance from one another. Since the line of fire moves to wherever the ranged players are standing, these ***ranged must position carefully***.

It is easy for a ranged player w/ Lava Slash to kill the tanks and melee dps. To prevent this you must stay "up" in the room (on the entrance side of the room), not dropping too "low" (near the boss) in the room. The best ranged players will be spread out evenly in a semi-circle around the room, and never be parallel to the tanks. Imagine a line from the tanks going to the sides of the room, **never go lower than that line (see image below)**.

### **How to Manage the Bombs**

The bombs attach themselves to a random ranged player throughout the fight. An affected player will see a large red ring/circle around their character. A bomb will deal +600k damage, spread evenly to those in the blast radius. It is the job of the afflicted ranged player to position the bomb's red radius overlapping with the tanks and melee, let the bomb explode, then retreat back up into position toward the entrance. Bombs explode after 6s of being marked on a ranged player, so they must react quickly and position well.

Trouble is that often there are lines of fire between you and the stack of tanks/melee. Six seconds is a long time for a bomb to explode, so you do have time to position optimally. Stay calm, position yourself well, keep the party alive. Dodge + jump around the fire which will be spread out like sun rays and find a little open spot or toe near to parallel of the tank/melee stack and let the bomb explode there, flee to up safety.

Many classes have methods of negating this bomb damage. Employ these tactics as you see fit, they will save the healers mana and the party some stress.

A silly video on how to play Flamebender by a core raider of the server named Dazthicco! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1nVmMx9V6w

Positioning yourself below the tanks/melee greatly increases the chances of party death!! Lava Slash (line of fire) picks a *random ranged player* to target. Often the player who just had the bomb will be targeted. Flamebender will then throw a line of fire below or into the tanks/melee causing them all to die almost immediately. It is for this reason the ranged players must overlap the bomb radius **above** the boss (toward the door). Failing to do so will kill your party, beware.

To say this simply... You get a bomb on your head marked by a large red circle. Take the red circle and overlap it with the tanks/melee and let the bomb explode. The explosion damage is spread among the overlapped players. IMMEDIATELY when the bomb explodes run back up toward the door and get into position. The boss often throws a line of fire within a second or three of the bomb's explosion so you must get back up in the room quickly or you will cause a wipe.

### **How to Manage the Wolves**

Two wolves spawn when Flamebender is at 50% energy. These two wolves must be prioritized and are the #1 kill targets. Failing to do so will cause Flamebenders tornado to deal party-killing levels of damage. The wolves can be taunted and should be kept near the boss. Due to having a recovery ability, ***wolves must be killed simultaneously and at equal rates***. If you kill one wolf before the other, often the dead wolf will self revive. Therefore the dps must kill both wolves at the same time.

While the wolves are active they will have a fire connection between them, marked visually by a line. This fire will cause damage to anyone in it, so the tanks must endeavor to keep the wolves close together and the dps must endeavor to stay out of the fire. No player should stand in the fire-line between the wolves.

One of the wolves will "fixate" on a ranged player and rush away from the boss and its counterpart. This is a good time for DKs to use Grip to forcibly pull the wolf back to the center! Short of a forcible positioning of the wolf, some of the dps will have to chase/blast the wolf and kill it. The fixated player must simply run away.

### **How to Manage Firestorm (Fire Tornado)**

At 100% energy she will unleash a deadly Firestorm that will deal damage to every party member simultaneously. This is a dangerous part of the encounter and healers (all players) should be ready. ***Position yourself close to the boss and use defensive cooldowns to survive.*** Players with off-healing capabilities would be wise to aid the healers during this phase, party members can perish during the Firestorm.

Once she has finished casting the tornado, ranged players must return up into position and the entire battle repeats until the boss is dead.

### **Tips and Tricks**

It is wise on this boss to equip the Kazzak Leech Trinket (Mark of Supreme Doom). This trinket is useful; granting the player 20% speed, 20% damage reduction, and 8% leech. Given how much damage this boss attacks the party with... preventing 20% of that damage and passively self healing yourself for 8% is an incredible asset.

This is a boss where having a discipline priest or classes with absorb shields is useful. Any healer with an aoe damage prevention is invaluable (monk and shaman come to mind), you drop these while she is firestorming :)

Just before the Firestorm a random player will be affected by an **AOE Debuff which will fire nova anyone within range every second**. The affected player must move away from their comrades or will be dealing damage to their allies. If you have the debuff and Firestorm begins, you must prioritize getting close to the boss with everyone else - the party will simply eat this extra damage. But in general it's your job to notice this debuff and protect your comrades.

Keep in mind that *in a way* this is one of the easiest fights in the entire Foundry. I have completed this boss with a party of four (two tanks, two dps). If you position optimally, have self healing capability, and watch your surroundings this boss is not difficult.

### **The Bosses of BRF**

1. Beastlord Darmac (entrance --> right turn --> in the hallway)
2. Operator Thogar (entrance --> right turn --> through hallway)
3. Iron Maidens (jump down into the water from Thogar)
4. Hans'gar and Franzok (entrance --> left turn --> down elevator)
5. **Flamebender Ka'graz** (follow path past Hans/Franz)
6. Kromog (in a chamber near Flamebender)
7. Oregorger (entrance --> right down past the rocks --> left at the fork)
8. Gruul (entrance --> right down past the rocks --> right at the fork)
9. The Blast Furnace (entrance --> right turn and keep going down past the rocks)
10. Blackhand (entrance --> straight forward --> up elevator)