Doomwalker Strategy Guide (Outland World Boss)

doomwalker strategy guide (outland world boss) tbc classic

Doomwalker is a raid boss in the open world located in Shadowmoon Valley. The Doomwalker was created in Legion Hold and sent by Kil’jaeden to break down the gates of Illidan’s Black Temple. Most players may never even see the Doomwalker — it spawns highly irregularly, and when it is noticed by someone, raid groups will quickly form to take him down.

As Doomwalker is a world boss, your raid group may have up to 40 players as you fight him. If there are multiple different raid groups present, or PvP is going on during the encounter, only the group who ”tagged” Doomwalker by getting the first damaging spell on him will be able to collect his loot. As of Phase 4, Doomwalker’s loot is now bind-on-equip, which makes it highly valuable for selling to other players or equipping alts.

The boss is located on a short patrol path at ground level in the center of the two terraces in front of the Black Temple. This guide will offer a detailed, step-by-step tutorial on how to turn the Doomwalker into scrap metal.

doomwalker location map shadowmoon valley world boss strategy guide location world boss
Map coordinates: (71.4 X , 44.1 Y)

Role Summaries

  • Form 2 melee groups, one on each side of Doomwalker, with more than 10 yards distance between one another, due to Lightning Wrath
  • Kill adds that spawn nearby, but be careful of your positioning if you move out to kill them
  • Hunters: Rotate your Misdirection to help out your tanks; use 1 after each cast of Overrun
  • Ranged DPS will be primarily responsible for dealing with any adds that spawn nearby
  • Doomwalker hits hard, and will occasionally change target due to Overrun; pay attention and keep your tanks alive!
  • Earthquake will stun the raid and deal about 8k damage to everyone. Make sure the raid is topped off before it goes out
  • Holy Priests can bypass the “permadeath” aspect of this fight by using Spirit of Redemption to heal for 15 seconds between deaths
  • Doomwalker hits hard — it is recommended that you use mitigation gear here
  • Doomwalker is tauntable, so if one of the tank goes down, another can tan take his place — taunt quickly before DPS players die
  • Doomwalker will frequently cast Overrun, resetting the threat table and going after a random player
  • You must quickly taunt him and re-position him after Overrun, else people will die
  • Protection Paladins: You have a significantly easier time dealing with Overrun, thanks to your ranged taunt

Abilities

A “Chain Lightning” type ability;. The bolts of energy cause 1700-2000 Nature damage to a random player, and chains to nearby players within 10 yards, doubling in damage with every chain — up to 10 times. More than a couple of bounces will mean people die.

The raid should make sure to spread out such that you are never within 10 yards of each other.

Doomwalker will reset all of his aggro and then charge after a random member of the raid, dealing physical damage to them.

Tanks need to be prepared to taunt the boss after this ability is used, else that player is likely toast.

The boss pummels the ground for a channeled period of 8 seconds, stunning your entire raid and dealing 2000 Physical damage every 2 seconds, for a total of 8000 damage.

Doomwalker will repeatedly cast this ability on his current target, reducing their armor by 10%, stacking up to 10 times. Lasts 1 minute.

Tanks need to be prepared to taunt off of one another to keep each other from getting too many stacks of this debuff, as Doomwalker hits hard.

At 20% health, Doomwalker will go enrage, increasing his Physical damage done by 100% until either he or your raid dies.

This debuff applied to any member of the encounter who dies while engaged in combat with Doomwalker, and lasts 15 minutes.

Instantly kills every player afflicted with Mark of Death. This effect is reminiscent of the debuff given by the Dragons of Nightmare back on Azeroth, intended to prevent players from endlessly zerging Doomwalker by being resurrected over and over, like an army of undead.

Raid Composition & Preparation

As Doomwalker is a world boss, you are not restricted to having 10 or 25 players like in a regular TBC raid — you can take a full raid (up to 40 players) to take on Doomwalker.

Earthquake stuns your entire raid and deals 8,000 Physical damage to everyone. It will be a great idea for everyone to have healing potions and consumables, such as Master Healthstones, giving them a higher chance of surviving Earthquake if your healers are struggling or happen to die. Furthermore, players who have less than 8,000 HP while buffed should make sure to equip some stamina gear, or use stamina boosting consumables.

This fight is very healing intensive; it is recommended that you bring at least 5-6 healers, with 7-8 being recommended for weaker groups. Having even more than that is not a bad idea either, as players who die to Doomwalker cannot engage in combat with him for 15 minutes due to his Aura of Death, and thus losing a healer is very costly here, so having more back-up healers is always good.

Most of the damage in this fight will be AoE Lightning Wrath and Earthquake. Thus you will want to have multiple classes that have strong raid healing tools to help deal with them; Restoration Shamans and Holy Priests being the best options. They both have the advantage of granting an armor buff with their heals (Ancestral Healing / Inspiration) which will help your tanks survive Doomwalker’s heavy damage; Holy Paladins can apply the same buff with their Improved Lay on Hands, but it should probably be saved until Doomwalker’s Enrage due to its prohibitively long cooldown.

Assign a minimum of 3 healers to healing the current main tank full-time. This should be your Holy Paladins and Restoration Druids, as your other healers will all have their hands full with healing off Doomwalker’s raid damage.

Doomwalker’s Lightning Wrath will make stacking melee DPS a really bad idea in this fight. It’s fine to bring some, but they’ll have a significantly harder time surviving than ranged DPS players, who can comfortably deal damage while spreading out at range.

Your group should have at least 2 tanks for this fight, with 3 being recommended. The reason for this is Doomwalker’s Crush Armor, reducing the current tank’s armor. You deal with this ability by having multiple tanks taunt off each other when the current tank has too many stacks — 4-6 for most groups.

Doomwalker’s Overrun causes him to reset all aggro and start charging a random raid member. For that reason, it will be incredibly beneficial if at least 1 of your tanks is a Protection Paladin, as they can use their ranged taunt (Righteous Defense) ability to prevent that player or others from immediately dying to Doomwalker.

Finally, it can be beneficial for 1 of your tanks to be a Protection Warrior. Their powerful defensive cooldown in Shield Wall will be perfect for surviving Doomwalker’s Enrage.

The Pull

Pulling this boss simply requires that the raid be prepared in all senses- fully buffed and informed on the fight’s mechanics. At each end of Doomwalker’s patrol path he channels an Earthquake. Just as he finishes this RP in front of the gate, Tanks and Healers will will run in to pull the boss.

doomwalker 0

Each of the Tanks will need to be ready to taunt the boss, as Doomwalker may cast Overrun at any time. Ranged DPS and Healers need to spread out 10 yards from one another while Melee do their best to do the same.

If there is PvP going on with other raids or other surrounding mobs are respawning, it is most beneficial for Melee DPS to stay out and handle deal with them. Not only is it nice to have a few players protecting Healers and Ranged DPS in this way, but this also reduces damage that the Melee groups and Tanks will take from Lightning Wrath. Melee on the boss should split into two groups if it is hard to spread out, so that the Lightning Wrath ability will not jump to the Tanks, and only effect half of the Melee at a time.

Allow for tanks to run up to and engage Doomwalker as their Healers tail behind them. Give the Tanks time to establish some threat before opening up on DPS, for good form more than anything else.

There will be regular raid damage from Lightning Wrath and Earthquake for Healers to keep up. Utilize the strengths of Restoration Shamans and Holy Priests for powerful raid healing through these mechanics as they should be positioned amongst the Raid. Tanks are going to be tanking significant damage from Doomwalker as well, so assign your Holy Paladins and Restoration Druids to stand behind the Tanks and focus keeping them alive.

The Fight

This fight is fairly straightforward in that there is only one phase and an Enrage at 20%. While Tanks are consistently going to be rotating taunts on the boss, and healers will have plenty of Tank and Raid damage to keep up with. Just the way we like it, DPS simply need to pump out their maximum damage and stay spread out 10 yards.

Any players who die during the fight will be granted a Mark of Death debuff, which prevents you from entering back into the encounter for 15 minutes with immediate consequence from Aura of Death. This pesky debuff can lose you the encounter, as another group may pick up the boss while your raid’s marks wear off.

doomwalker 1 2

Throughout the fight, Doomwalker will apply stacks of the armor reduction debuff Crush Armor. Each stack reduces the boss’s target’s armor by 10%, stacking up to 10 times. Ideally the player tanking the boss has at least some armor, so Tanks will need to taunt off of one another and allow for the stacks to fall off. Most decently geared tanks should not take more than a 40-60% armor reduction before allowing their other tanks to Taunt off of them.

The Tanks will also need to be prepared to pick up Doomwalker again after he drops threat, each time the boss casts Overrun so the tanks will need to taunt and reposition the boss. Best practice is to allow for your Protection Paladin to utilize their ranged Avenger’s Shield and Righteous Defense abilities to establish threat quickly on Doomwalker and get him back into position. As the Paladin Tank receives stacks of Crush Armor, rotate the other Tanks in allowing the stacks to fall off, ideally before the next use of Overrun. This mechanic will continue throughout the fight, and your tanks will quickly find a rhythm with one another or face their demise.

All players will need to be spreading out as much as possible to avoid spreading damage from Lightning Wrath. The damage from this ability doubles if it jumps to anyone within 10 yards, maxing out after 10 targets. While ranged DPS and Healers shouldn’t have much of an issue with this, Melee will need to be careful in their groups behind the boss to not chain onto the Tanks or other DPS. Raid healers will be spending most of their time keeping up with the damage from this mechanic and Earthquake.

Regular raid damage will be taken by each player during the boss’s Earthquake mechanic. During Earthquake, the entire raid will be stunned and take channeled damage from the boss. Luckily the damage taken is a consistent 8k, so each player should be able to survive assuming they are topped off and have stacked enough stamina to have more than 8k health.

Doomwalker will Enrage at 20%, increasing the boss’s physical damage output by 100%. It would be wise to wait for an Earthquake before pushing the boss all the way to 20%, and then Tank should use any defensive cooldowns while DPS should pop their Heroism/Bloodlust and other damage dealing cooldowns to Execute the boss as quickly as possible!

Congratulations! You have defeated Kil’Jaeden’s feared Fel Reaver, the Doomwalker!

 

About the Author

Tavon

I am a Classic WoW enthusiast, maining a Dwarf Rogue from Vanilla through Cataclysm. It makes me so happy to be able to play through Classic content again, this time bringing my Prot Paladin and PvP/PvE Warlock dreams to life. The lore in Warcraft has always been appealing to me, and I am excited to be a member of the Classic community!
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