Tempest Keep; The Eye: Al'ar Phase 1

Introduction
Obviously, Al'ar is a Phoenix. He's big. He's bad. And he's flaming. Like any good Phoenix, he has two phases. During the first phase, Al'ar is up in the air - tank-able via the four platforms around the side of the room. The first phase ends when Al'ar's hitpoints are reduced to zero. After a few seconds, he is "reborn" and heals himself for full - beginning phase two. Phase two is conducted primarily on the ground. Bringing his hitpoints to zero again will kill him for good.

First of all, I want to dispel one big myth about Al'ar. Contrary to popular opinion, he requires zero fire resistance.

Second of all, he is completely immune to fire damage. On your first kill at least, your fire mages will need to respec to Frost.

Raid Setup
5 Tanks. You need 4 minimum. 5 tanks are recommended. They can be any class: druid, warrior, and paladins are all fine. However, I recommend that paladin tanks don't tank Al'ar for Phase One. Feral Charge and Intercept are needed after a Fire Quill (4 tanks is all you need for Phase 1, by the way. 5 tanks is pretty much necessary for Phase 2, however, though I'm sure some guilds will disagree).

8 Healers. 7-8 healers is good (Phase one is really easy to heal - five healers could probably do it. It's Phase Two that you really need to pump out a ton of healing in).

12 DPS. Four melee DPS, eight ranged DPS, ideally.

Gear Requirements
You'll need decent gear on this one, but it isn't really a gear check. This is a fight about coordination and communication - not gear. No special resists sets are needed. Phase One is pretty straightforward and easy. But, you need high DPS for Phase Two. Everyone should be well over 8k health buffed.

Tanks: Shoot for around 17k HP fully buffed. No FR is needed.

Melee DPS: 10k buffed HP is almost a must here. 750 sustained DPS, minimum. You'll be downing the adds, and you'll need to survive their death blast and kill them before new adds spawn.

Ranged DPS: 8k buffed HP needed. 800-900 sustained DPS.

Healers: Though it varies depending on the class - 1450 +healing, 110 mp5 while casting, or thereabouts. 8k buffed HP or so is needed.

Buffs and Consumables
Buffs: Standard. Pallies should have Fire Resistance Aura, though Shamans don't really need to worry too much about keeping their fire resistance totem up. No fire resistance is needed for this.

Potions: Use your flasks. Use your special buff-food. Use your mana pots. You'll need them all.

Stamina Foodis nice, for those of you casters under 8k. Healers need to be popping mana potions. Three ranks of healthstones is really helpful. Other than that, no other potions are necessary. (Some say that you need Fire Protection Potions. However, Fire Protection Potions are on the same cooldown as mana potions. Many players will do better to have that potion cooldown used for other items.)

Boss Abilities
Health 2,500,000 (needs to be killed twice, so effectively 5 million total)
Melee Average hits on a decently geared tank are between 4,200 and 5,800

Phase One

Overview
Al'ar begins in the air. During phase one, he will move from position to position clockwise on the upper ring around the room (usually every 30 seconds or so, though sometimes he doesn't move) - there are four positions total, as indicated on the map. Occasionally, he will go into the middle of the room and cast Fire Quill.


Flame Buffet
triggered by player actions. If no one is in melee range of Al'ar, he will cast Flame Buffet every 1.5 seconds, dealing 2,000 fire damage per cast and causing a debuff that increases fire damage taken by 10%. A raid can survive 3 Flame Buffets at the most before they will start to kill people. You NEED to be able to survive three in a row, if it happens.


Fire Quill
Boss ability, on no clear cooldown. Usually cast 2-4 times over the course of Phase One. Occasionally, Al'ar will fly to the middle of the room and start spinning around, throwing quills all over the upper platform. If you're caught on the upper platform during the Fire Quill, you will die. If Al'ar ever flies up to the center of the room, jump down immediately. After he's done casting Fire Quill, he will go to either position 1 or 4 - tanks need to be ready to pick him up. (As a note, you can not be standing on the ramps, either - Fire Quill hits them too. Tanks need to stand at the bottom of the ramp, on the floor, without actually stepping on the ramp itself.)


Summon Adds
Boss ability, 35-45 seconds, usually after a transition, Al'ar will summon one additional phoenix. They have around 70k hitpoints and don't hit too hard. When they die, however, they explode for around 7,000 damage and knockback - frequently causing fall damage. Keep the adds away from the raid!

Keep in mind that ranged DPS cannot pull aggro off of the main tank - so you can go nuts with DPS, if you like, and not pull aggro. However, if you're a mana user, you should save as much mana as possible for Phase 2.