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NB: The Cataclysm strategies are based on a mixture of beta reports and may or may not bear any resemblance to the fight on Live.
If you spot major differences, post them in the comments and I can update the strats. I’ll be updating these myself as my guild begins raiding in Cataclysm.


Tanking: 2 main tanks for Nezir and Anshal.
Rohash is tanked by a ranged DPS because he does not melee and his Tornado ability makes meleeing annoying. [Not clear if he is actually threat-based or just hits a random target. The current tooltip suggests his primary move is random, which means no true ‘tank’ is possible]

Healing: Initially 2 healers will be assigned to each platform. The healers assigned to Anshal’s current tank will need cooldowns available for the special full-energy move as it is very tank-focused, while both Rohash and Nezir’s special moves are AoE-heavy.
Anshal’s adds will apply an AoE DoT.

Positioning: The fight takes place across three platforms, as shown in the image below (borrowed from Manaflask):

Conclave of Wind layout (from Manaflask), showing the boss locations: Rohash (East), Nezir (North), Anshal (West), Al'Akir (central) and the room entrance (South)

Movement between the platforms is possible when there are wind tunnels active. Just jump into the tunnels and you’ll be carried across.

Before the fight starts the three tank and healer teams will move to near their starting platforms, and all of the DPS will move near Nezir’s platform. You can get quite close without pulling them, so you can get in position early.

Buffs: Levitate is very useful to cast on Rohash’s tank/healer to prevent interruptions and extra damage due to the Hurricane ability.
The tank on Anshal will need cooldowns when Zephyr is cast.

Key Debuffs: Wind Chill – Stacks +10% increased Frost damage taken; DPS, tanks and healers will swap when this reaches 3-4 stacks depending on how healable this is.
Toxic Spores – Cast by Anshal’s adds, this is a stacking DoT on all nearby players dealing 500 Nature damage per second.

HP: Anshal and Rohash: 17 million (4.12 million on 10 man)
Nezir: 25 million (7.21 million on 10 man)

Enrage: Unknown.

Before you can fight Al’Akir, you will need to defeat the Conclave of Wind: Anshal, Nezir and Rohash. All of these bosses need to be dead within 60 seconds of the first one dying, and combined with a stacking debuff this means quite a bit of coordinated platform-jumping.

Phase 1 – Nezir

To start the fight the tanks and healers will be split into three teams: 2 healers and one tank per platform, with Rohash’s tank being a ranged DPS. At this point all of the DPS will be at Nezir’s platform DPSing him down.

The things to be aware of from Nezir are:

  • Wind Chill – Deals 4750 to 5250 Frost damage to all enemies within 100 yards and increases all Frost damage taken by 10% for 30 sec. Stacks.
    • This is the stack you need to watch.
  • Permafrost – Channels a blast of Frost at Nezir’s current target, dealing 9500 to 10500 Frost damage per second in a cone towards that target for 3 sec.
    • The tank on Nezir must make sure he is not pointing into the raid
  • Ice Patch – Deals 7125 to 7875 Frost damage per second to all enemies within 20 yards, slowing their movement speed by 10% . This effect stacks. Lasts 3 sec.
    • These will be cast randomly on the ground. Run out of them as quickly as possible.

Basically you just need to keep off the ice patches and stay away from the front of the boss, and this one isn’t too complicated.

Phase 2 – Dropping Wind Chill Stacks

When the Wind Chill reaches 3-4 (depending on how the healers are finding the fight), the raid will need to move off Nezir’s platform for a while to lose their stacks. This includes the tanks and healers initially assigned to Nezir.

The DPS will split into two groups: the melee will jump over to Anshal’s platform and DPS him, and the ranged will jump to Rohash’s platform. When Wind Chill has fallen off, after around 30 seconds, both groups will jump back to Nezir’s platform and resume DPSing him.

The healer/tank teams assigned to Nezir and Anshal will also swap at this point. They will need to jump at the same time, so this has to be well-coordinated using a single, clear call over Vent/Mumble or equivalent. If any platform is empty for more than a few seconds the bosses will stack a raid-wiping debuff, but you do have enough time to swap platforms.

The healers and ranged tank assigned to Rohash do not need to move.

Those DPS on Anshal’s platform need to kill off the Ravenous Creeper adds summoned by Anshal’s Nurture channel as quickly as possible, because they have Toxic Spores, which will stack a Nature DoT on nearby players while they are alive.
Special care needs to be taken to keep the adds out of the Soothing Winds which is a green void zone that heals adds inside it for 20 000 per second and pacifies players in it.

The DPS on Rohash’s platform will need to keep away from the Tornados which will wander around, because they will deal huge damage and knock back anyone they get within 8 yards of.
Rohash also does a slowly-rotating beam called Wind Blast which will knock anyone it hits off the platform, so don’t be in the way of that.

At 100 Energy

The three bosses have energy bars which slowly fill. When they reach 100 Energy (simultaneously) they will all unleash their big special move for 15 seconds, then return to normal.

Nezir will cast Sleet Storm, dealing 28500 to 31500 Frost damage per second to all targets on his platform, divided among the targets.

Rohash will cast Hurricane, lifting everyone on his platform into the air and dealing 2 500 Nature damage per second to each of them. When the effect ends, you will also take falling damage.

Anshal will cast Zephyr, which heals Anshal and his adds for 25000 health per second, and grant himself and his adds 15% increased damage for 15 sec. This effect stacks [does this mean it multiplies with the number of adds remaining?]. During this time the tank will be hit extremely hard, so cooldowns will be needed.

In order to make this as manageable as possible, Anshal’s adds should be treated as a high priority, and then when the ability is due the raid should return to Nezir’s platform to spread the damage from the Sleet Storm across as many people as possible.

The Kill

Throughout the fight the DPS are alternating between a side boss and Nezir. DPS on Nezir will stop when he gets to 10%.
After the next jump, the two DPS groups should finish off Rohash and Anshal at roughly the same time, just as or just after their stacks of Wind Chill are fading, then jump back to the middle together and finish off Nezir.