Boss Strategy - Phases 2 & 3

Phase 2 - Brain and Tentacles
Yogg-Saron himself has 11 million hit points in 10-man mode. The second phase of the Yogg-Saron fight involves two "realms", one inside the brain and one outside the brain where phase one took place.

Throughout phase two Yogg-Saron will periodically spawn a set of portals allowing players to enter and attack him inside. Yogg-Saron's form in the outside realm will be protected by a barrier throughout phase two so he can only be damaged by players that teleport into his brain and attack him there.

One group needs to be formed containing ideally one healer and four DPS classes. This group will be the designated "brain group" and when portals are spawned they will enter them and fight inside the brain. Inside, players will face a small set of adds before engaging the brain and they will require at least one healer per group.

Once in the brain, players will have a short amount of time to work there before they must leave. After one minute, any players still inside the brain will be reduced to zero Sanity and permanently mind controlled.

Meanwhile, tentacles of three different types (Crushers, Constrictors, and Corrupters) will spawn on the outside and hinder the damage of all players in the raid, including players inside the brain realm. Crusher tentacles do heavy melee damage and inhibit the raid's damage when no player is in melee range. Constrictor tentacles grab random players to damage them and hold them in place. Corruptor tentacles cast random harmful spells on members of the raid. All tentacles on the outside become stunned when players inside Yogg-Saron engage the brain, and remain stunned until Yogg-Saron casts Induce Madness.

The Sanity debuff becomes very important in this phase as many abilities used by Yogg-Saron will steadily reduce it. If a player reaches 0 Sanity at any time in the fight, he/she will be mind controlled for the remainder of the fight. Players will have to periodically stand in "Sanity Wells", transparent green beams of light located against walls around the room, to keep their Sanity at a safe level.

These are some of the general abilities used in phase two:

Malady of the Mind - This ability is cast only outside the brain realm and it targets a random player. It inflicts about 5000 shadow damage, causes the target to run in horror for 4 seconds, and then jumps to any player within 10 yards. It also reduces the target's Sanity by 3%. This ability jumps from player to player, so anyone on the outside should spread out to minimize its effect. Players should also watch out for others that are hit with this ability and keep distance from them. Note that this ability cannot be dispelled nor can it be removed by abilities such as Every Man for Himself.

Brain Link - This ability is cast only outside the brain realm and it links two random players with a very obvious red beam. As long as these two players are more than 20 yards apart, they both suffer 3000 shadow damage and lose 2% Sanity every 1 second. Players afflicted with Brain Link should notify the raid and move toward each other quickly.

Induce Madness - This ability is cast only inside the brain realm and it reduces the Sanity of all players currently in the brain realm to 0. After portals are spawned the cast takes only one minute to complete. For this reason, it is very important that the brain group enters the brain portals quickly, deals damage to the boss quickly, and leaves quickly. If a player is still in the brain after one minute, his/her Sanity will be instantly reduced to zero. This will cause him/her to be permanently mind controlled for the remainder of the fight. Note that the mind control effect resulting from reaching zero Sanity cannot be dispelled in any way. If a player reaches zero Sanity, he/she should be killed to minimize his/her hindrance to the rest of the raid. Also note that an insane player killed by the raid cannot be resurrected mid fight or he/she will still be mind controlled.

Sanity Well - Sanity Wells are visible as green pillars of light located around the room against the walls. While standing in a Sanity Well, a player regains 20 Sanity every 2 seconds. DPS classes should note that their damage done is reduced by 50% while standing in a Sanity Well. All players in the raid should constantly monitor their Sanity level and make their way to a Sanity Well when they are running low.

Tentacles on the outside of the brain will spawn periodically throughout phase two and further hinder the raid. They will use these abilities:

Diminish Power - This is an ability that Crusher tentacles channel on the raid reducing damage done by 20% and stacking up to four times. Tanks should note that this ability is only channeled when no one is melee range of the tentacle, so it is important that the tanks stay in melee range of a Crusher whenever possible. This debuff will greatly hinder the raid's progress in both realms if it is allowed to be channeled.

Focused Anger - This is an ability applied to Crusher tentacles whenever they receive damage from any source. It is a stacking damage buff that increases the Crusher's damage and attack speed by 3% per stack, stacking up to 99 times. If the Crusher doesn't receive damage from any source within one second, the stack will fall off. Tanks should monitor the stack and run out of melee range if it happens to reach about 40 stacks. With a high number of stacks, the Crusher can instantly kill a tank. When the stacks drop off and reset, the tank can and should return to melee range again to prevent Diminish Power from being channeled.

Apathy - This is an ability periodically cast by Corruptor tentacles on a random member of the raid. It reduces the player's attack, casting, and movement speed by 60% for 20 seconds. Apathy will hinder the player's damage or healing and can hinder a member of the brain group from reaching his/her portal in time. This ability is considered a magic effect and it should be dispelled as soon as possible, by anyone capable.

Black Plague - This is another ability periodically cast by Corruptor tentacles on a random member of the raid. It applies a disease to the target lasting 24 seconds, stunning him/her for 2 seconds at 3 second intervals. Black Plague will hinder the player's damage or healing and can hinder a member of the brain group from reaching his/her portal in time. This ability is considered a disease effect and it should be dispelled as soon as possible, by anyone capable.

Curse of Doom - This is another ability periodically cast by Corruptor tentacles on a random member of the raid. It applies a curse lasting to the target and if it is not dispelled within 12 seconds, the target will suffer about 15,000 to 20,000 shadow damage. This ability is considered a curse effect and it should be dispelled as soon as possible, by anyone capable.

Draining Poison - This is another ability periodically cast by Corruptor tentacles on a random member of the raid. It applies a poison to the target lasting 18 seconds, inflicting about 3,000 nature damage to him/her every 3 seconds and draining 1400 Mana from him/her every 3 seconds. This ability is considered a poison effect and it should be dispelled as soon as possible, by anyone capable.


The Pull
When phase two begins, tentacles of all three types will burst from the ground and begin attacking and hindering the raid. It is likely that your raid will have at least one or two Guardians of Yogg-Saron remaining from phase one. If so, they should be killed quickly and safely away from the raid.

When all adds from phase one have been killed, the raid should immediately start attacking the tentacles. Tanks should run, one each, to any Crusher tentacles and tank them. DPS classes should immediately begin killing Constrictors tentacles, Crusher tentacles, and Corruptor tentacles in that order. Healers should heal any leftover damage from phase one.


Positioning
Positioning does not need to follow a strict pattern in phase two as long as the raid is sufficiently spread out. Tanks will need to head to the nearest Crushers to begin tanking them and the rest of the raid should follow suit. Everyone should be spread out in the same general area. However, DPS classes and healers should stay out of melee range of the Crusher tentacles. No player of any type, even tanks, should be standing near a Crusher when it has a large stack of Focused Anger debuffs.

Members of the brain group should note that the portals are always spawned close to Yogg-Saron's body. Caster DPS classes should take up positions as close as possible to a Sanity Well.

Throughout phase two, the entire raid should attempt to spread out sufficiently to prevent Malady of the Mind from jumping from player to player.


Phase Strategy
Phase two of the Yogg-Saron fight once again hinges on good raid coordination. It is important that the brain group quickly takes their portals in and out of the brain, and it is important that the group works efficiently inside the brain.

The rest of the raid should spread out and dispose of tentacles outside quickly while minimizing raid damage through dispels. A tank should always be near a Crusher and ready to run out of melee range when focused anger begins to stack too high. Caster DPS classes should consider killing Crusher tentacles, which have 400k hit points, to be top priority. Crusher tentacles do heavy melee damage and since tanks will need to back out of melee range, melee DPS should not be nearby. Melee DPS classes should focus on killing Constrictor and Corruptor tentacles instead.

Constrictor tentacles will periodically grab a random raid member and continue holding them and damaging them until killed or until the player is killed. If a member of the brain group happens to be grabbed just as Yogg-Saron spawns portals into his brain, he/she may not escape until it is too late to enter the portal. For this reason, melee DPS classes should consider killing them to be top priority. Note that many offensive and healing spells can still be cast while gripped by a Constrictor, so the player being constricted can usually still help the raid by killing the tentacle, healing himself, or healing other raid members. Also note that players can free themselves with abilities such as Divine Shield or free other players with abilities such as Hand of Protection. The tentacle will also be automatically killed.

Corruptor tentacles will periodically afflict random raid members with the harmful effects listed earlier. Corruptor tentacles are low priority for all types of DPS classes and should be killed last of all the three types. However, classes capable of dispelling magic, poison, disease, or curse effects should do so at all times.

Portals and tentacles will continue spawning throughout phase two so the raid only needs to repeat the same basic strategy until Yogg-Saron reaches 30% health.

Meanwhile, it is very important that all members of the raid monitor their Sanity debuff throughout phase two and keep it at a safe level by using Sanity Wells.

When Yogg-Saron's brain reaches 30% health, the magical shield will be removed from his body and phase three will begin.


Phase 3 - Yogg-Saron
For the final phase of the fight, Yogg-Saron's magical shield is removed and the raid is free to damage him through normal methods.

Yogg-Saron will periodically summon Immortal Guardians to attack the raid. When first spawned these enemies are capable of dealing extreme spike damage even to tanks. As they are damaged and their health is reduced, they will also deal progressively less damage.

Yogg-Saron will also periodically cast Lunatic Gaze throughout this phase.

Lunatic Gaze - This ability lasts 4 seconds, inflicting about 3000 to 5000 shadow damage per second to any player facing Yogg-Saron. It also reduces the player's Sanity by 4% every second, while active. All players in the raid need to be turned away from Yogg-Saron while this ability is active.

Empowering Shadows - Yogg-Saron will periodically place this ability on a random Immortal Guardian throughout the phase. It will heal any mobs within 20 yards of the Guardian for 11,500 per second, lasting 20 seconds. Tanks need to keep all mobs separate in phase three to prevent this ability from causing too much healing.


Positioning
Once again, positioning is very simple in phase three. It is not essential to the raid's survival to spread out in this phase, so the raid should simply gather near the closest Sanity Well to facilitate Sanity refills.

Tanks should keep Immortal Guardians separate from each other and separate from Yogg-Saron to prevent excessive healing from Empowering Shadows.

When Yogg-Saron is in the process of casting Lunatic Gaze, all raid members should position themselves with their backs to him.


Phase Strategy
Tanks should immediately pick up Immortal Guardians when they spawn and if necessary, use cooldowns to help ensure their own survival. An Immortal Guardian at full health can hit for as much as 20,000 damage on a plate tank. DPS classes should prioritize killing Immortal Guardians to keep the raid from getting overwhelmed.

Whenever the raid is clear of Immortal Guardians and Yogg-Saron is not in the process of casting Lunatic Gaze, he should be attacked as often as possible. Tanks should keep Immortal Guardians separate from each other and away from Yogg-Saron to prevent excessive healing from Empowering Shadows.

Again, it is very important that all members of the raid monitor their Sanity debuff throughout phase three and keep it at a safe level by using Sanity Wells.

The raid will need to repeat this basic strategy until Yogg-Saron is killed.