Chimaeron is one of three "second-tier" bosses in Blackwing Descent. The fight has a unique mechanic that will give your raid heart attacks, especially your healers. Chimaeron will regularly Massacre the entire raid for maximum damage, enough to kill any player instantly. Fortunately, we get the assistance of a little robot named the Bile-O-Tron 800 that gives us a buff: "Damage taken while above 10000 health cannot reduce your health below 1."

Basically, this means that if we're above 10k health, any hit that would kill us instead reduces us to 1 HP. This makes healing an interesting game of topping people up over 10k HP, but not further, as any additional healing would be wasted. Of course, there's other elements that make the fight more complicated. Caustic Slime will periodically hit random players (who will need immediate healing past the 10k threshold), as well as anyone nearby, so the raid must spread out.

An off-tank is also required to taunt Chimaeron to take its Double Attack. Because Chimaeron hits twice, the off-tank must be kept fully healed and not rely on the robot's buff, as the first hit would reduce the off-tank to 1 HP, and the second hit would kill them.

(It is apparently possible to single-tank this fight, though I imagine the stacking Break debuff that the main tank accumulates from Chimaeron's attacks would make it difficult.)

The robot occasionally gets knocked offline by Massacre, removing the life-saving buff, so during these offline periods the raid stacks up and healers have to keep everyone healed up while Chimaeron spews slime everywhere. There is no tank during these phases because Chimaeron's heads are busy feuding. After a short time, the robot comes back online and things go back to normal.

Finally, when Chimaeron reaches 21% health (I know, wtf), it becomes a burn fight. All healing is nullified, there are no more Massacres or Caustic Slimes, and it becomes a race to see who will last longer, Chimaeron or the raid. The robot's buff still works during this phase, so any player with over 10k HP will be able to survive at least one of Chimaeron's attacks. Sadly, since we Frost DKs have no threat dumps and are melee DPS, we will usually die in this phase. /sniff


Your special class/spec responsibilities:
• Death Strike to get over the 10k HP threshold, if necessary
• Live as long as possible during phase 3
• Refresh diseases before your inevitable, horrible death
• (Tank) Taunt back after the off-tank eats the Double Attack
• (DPS) Be ready to take over if your main tank goes down!

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Tanking as a Frost DK?

For Frost Death Knights, we have a unique opportunity on our hands - tanking in our DPS spec/gear! The main tank in this fight doesn't actually need high HP, defensive stats, or even a tanking spec, since they just bounce from [above 10k HP] to 1 HP constantly. As long as you can hold threat against the other DPS, we can easily tank Chimaeron.

Why do this? There's a few reasons. Using a Frost DK tank paired with an off-tank is essentially one-tanking this fight. A Frost DK tank should do substantially more DPS than a regular tank (assuming there's no huge gear differences or anything) while suffering only a small DPS decrease, due to attacking from the front. This also frees up the regular tank to go DPS, meaning an overall substantial DPS gain. More DPS -> Fight goes faster -> Healers don't OOM.



Secondly, we have a very handy ability that works perfectly with the 10k HP mechanic: Death Strike. With the Glyph of Dark Succor, a single Death Strike will heal us up over the 10k threshold on its own, greatly reducing the amount of healing we require. For example: my DK has ~120,000 HP with raid buffs, so a single Death Strike heals me for 18k!

(Actually, we should use this Glyph even if we aren't tanking - if a Massacre is about to hit and we're below 10k HP, Death Strike! Sometimes the healers are busy - or dead - and being able to rescue ourselves is a HUGE benefit in this fight.)

Remember that you need to be in Frost/Unholy presence to benefit from the Glyph. But you shouldn't be in Blood Presence anyway, since we don't need its additional health, damage reduction or armor. As for the additional threat, you'll be going all-out and taunting constantly, so unless you have some crazy DPS beasts in your raid you'll be fine threat-wise.

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When do I Death Strike?

Death Strike consumes the same runes as Obliterate, so it's easy to work into our rotation without bunging things up. But you don't want to Death Strike ALL the time, since it's less damage and it's not always helpful.

Great times to Death Strike include:
• During Feud phases. HELP YOUR HEALERS!
• Right before 21%, to ensure you are over 10k health when Chimaeron pushes through
• Just after a Massacre (hold the runes for a few seconds if needed)

Do NOT Death Strike:
• In phase 3, since the healing will be negated
• If you're above 10k health, unless it's a Feud phase
• Just before a Massacre (unless you're below 10k health)

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Handling Double Attacks

If we are Frost tanking, we'll receive all of Chimaeron's regular attacks. The off-tank will ONLY taunt to take the Double Attack, and then we'll taunt Chimaeron back, because you don't want the Double Attack tank to get Break stacks.

You don't need any fancy unit frames or target-of-target setups or anything like that. Just make sure you can actually SEE Chimaeron's heads, and when you see him Double Attack (it looks like two GIANT yellow crescent arcs in the air), taunt him back.

Sometimes it seems that Chimaeron starts to Double Attack, but instead switches to a Massacre. If this happens, and your off-tank taunted in preparation for a Double Attack, taunt Chimaeron back once the Massacre goes off. (Or before, it doesn't really matter. I just like to wait until after to be 100% sure it was a Massacre and not a Double Attack.)

Remember - the ONLY time the off-tank should be tanking Chimaeron is when a Double Attack is coming. At all other times, it should be focused on you.

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Stepping in to emergency tank

If you're DPSing this fight, it's really important to pay attention to the condition of your tanks. If one tank goes down and your raid has no battle rezzes left/available, GET IN THERE AND TANK! Immediately communicate to the raid what you're doing, and make sure everyone knows that the surviving tank (regardless of what they were doing before) will be eating the Double Attacks.

Here's an example. In this video, our main tank dies a few seconds into the fight. He gets rezzed, but then our off-tank dies! So I stepped in and we went on to score our very first Chimaeron kill (though I fail at some of the advice I recommend in this post, haha). Next time, I tanked from the start and we got Full of Sound and Fury.


I setup Power Auras to tell me when I'm under 10k health (the HUGE white pulsing arcs).
Pretty useful if you can self-heal, so you can heal yourself before a Massacre if need be.

Sometimes the off-tank will die right before a Double Attack is coming up, which basically means your team is screwed. If you taunt and take the two hits, you will almost surely die, but if the main tank has a lot of Break stacks and is hovering just above 10k health, the Double Attack will kill them too. If this is the situation, I suggest praying that your healers realize the danger and are able to heal the surviving tank up high enough to live through the Double Attack, at which point you can taunt Chimaeron and start tanking his regular hits.

If you have to switch from DPS to tanking mid-fight, remember that your priority is surviving Chimaeron's hits. If this means sacrificing a bit of DPS because you're using Death Strike instead of Obliterate, so be it.

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Phase 3: Today is a good day to die

First things first - prior to pushing Chimaeron into Phase 3, your raid should (ideally) wait for a Massacre, heal everyone up and then push into the burn phase before the next Massacre. Since there is no healing in Phase 3, players want to be healed up to survive as many Chimaeron hits as possible. Being above the 10k mark BEFORE healing is negated is absolutely crucial.

(If you have Druid or Paladin healers, after everyone is healed up they should try to taunt Chimaeron right before he pushes through. This will make Chimaeron waste valuable time slaughtering them, while those who would have been tops on threat - tanks and DPS - receive valuable extra DPS time. It's very worthwhile, especially considering the healers would basically be just standing around casting Wrath or something anyway.)

The burn phase is not kind to us. If we're tanking, we'll be one of the first ones to die, since Chimaeron works its way down the threat list. Even as DPS, we'll be near the top since we lack any sort of aggro dump ability and are in melee range. Simply put, do as much damage as you can before Chimaeron squashes you, and then enjoy the view from the floor as the fight concludes. Be sure to refresh your diseases before you die, since those will continue to damage Chimaeron even after you're dead.

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Army of the Dead

You will probably want to use Army on the pull, but another good time is right before Feud ends (regardless of whether you're tanking or DPSing), as long as the time spent channeling wouldn't be more valuable Death Striking. We actually get a huge Hit debuff/penalty during Feud phases, so your attacks will be missing half the time anyway. Channeling Army during this phase isn't losing much DPS.

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Anti-Magic Shell

Feuds are the perfect time for Anti-Magic Shell and other defensive abilities. It is a raw, brutal raid damage phase, so lessen the healing load and reduce the incoming damage. Once again, you should also Death Strike during this phase to heal yourself, regardless of whether you're tanking or DPSing.


Chimaeron is a bevy of riches for us! It drops the VERY nice Heart of Rage trinket, one of our Best in Slot options, as well as Massacre Treads and Plated Fists of Provocation.