The trash before Melidrussa can already present a fair challenge. It consists mostly on packs of casters with one dangerous combo of abilities (Ice Shield and Tectonic Slam), accompanied by tank-breaking Primal Juggernaut.

It also ends with a mini-boss, Defier Draghar, that is relatively hard to pull with much trash onto it.

There are many routes that will opt to skip the juggernauts, as they are really slowing down the progress, although it takes some resource to skip the first one (the second can be avoided by leaning against the right wall before the mini boss).

The main mobs in this part will be the Flashfrost Chillweaver and the Flashfrost Earthshaper, two casters. They are generally accompanied by Primal Terrasentry that are mostly fodder. Be careful of the eggs in this are as walking on them will awaken some Infused Whelp that could make things a bit overwhelming.

The main situation of concern is about Ice Shield from the Chillweavers. It prevents crowd control, and if it is set on a Earthshaper, it will keep your team from stopping their Tectonic Slam, which can easily be a wipe in high keys. Ice Shield can be interrupted, stopped, and even purged, so make it your priority, DPS will usually take care of the slam itself, but you need to think ahead, you have little else to do!

There are many routes that will try to dodge them entirely, they are both dangerous for your tank, and very slow to kill. But you may play the first one often enough, and skipping the second one does not always work, especially in PUG situations, so let's talk about them.

The main problem is Crushing Smash, which is one of the highest amount of damage on one ability in the game. It is physical, so every tank have way to mitigate it, but they could run out, depending on the situation. Be sure to check that they have something up when it is coming up, or be ready to give them a little something to help them survive (at the minimum, ensure they are topped up)

Defier Draghar is a little mini-boss that is mostly going to hit the tank pretty hard with Steel Barrage, keep an eye on them when it comes up. Other than that, it is all about dodging! He does make a mess of the area, so dont hesitate to have some way of reminding you that Blazing Rush is up if you pull bigger (a Frontals Weak Aura is always a good idea) to ensure you do not get cut in half!

This is a single phase boss that will summon adds twice, at 75% and 45%. The positioning is not complicated but has to be precise. In general, I have found the following strategy to be efficient. The group is on the side of the room and moves clockwise as the Hailbombs drop. Chillstorm is then taken to the middle. This makes this boss much more organized

Melidrussa always opens her 23 seconds cycle with Hailbombs followed by Chillstorm 10 seconds later. She only interrupts this cycle when she reaches 75% or 45% to Awaken Whelps and then Frost Overload 5 seconds later. she then returns to Frost Overload instantly as she is done channelling.

When it comes to healing, Melidrussa has one very dangerous ability: Chillstorm. Ideally, it will be placed away from you, but it always has this little issue that it could be on you. It ticks damage every second for 6 seconds before it explodes with a bigger tick (3.5X) of damage. It also pulls you in.

A few things of note here. There is no follow up damage after the explosion. This means that you should do all you can to keep people topped during the storm so they survive the explosion, and then you will have time to heal them back up. Do not commit CDs to heal people after the final explosion, you will run out before the end of the fight, they may be low, but they are in no danger.

Frost Overload can also be dangerous, especially as you will need to weave in a dispel on the tank for Cold Claws. It should still be easier to cover than hailstorm.

Also known as the ring, this section is pretty intense and consists in killing 4 Blazebound Destroyer. Problem: they are not alone.

Ultimately, everything revolves around Inferno from the Blazebound Destroyer. This is a massive burst of unavoidable damage that you will have no choice but to heal. It is on a 20-sec cooldown so be ready to rotate your cooldowns around it.

Around them are two casters, let's start with the Primalist Flamedancer. Flame Dance needs to be CCed as soon as possible, do not let it complete. When they are about to die, they will enter Blaze of Glory, which creates a ton of swirlies. It can be purged, and should be as it really adds in chaos to pulls that do not need more.

Primalist Cinderweaver in comparison simply spam Cinderbolt which you should try to interrupt with all your spares, it does high single target damage. Their self-buff Burning Ambition is not a mandatory purge as it makes them take more damage, but use your judgment and purge it if the Cinderweaver starts machine gunning the team.

The last bit is the Living Bomb from the Destroyer. Track it as it will add significant single-target damage, and do not hesitate to use an external. The key in this area is to avoid panic and use your utility carefully to stay ahead of the damage. Be ramped up for Inferno, use strong ST tools for Living Bomb, and focus on controlling the mobs for the rest.

Thunderhead is the first enemy you will likely encounter in the area, and it is advised to pull it on its own, unless you really know what you are doing. Be careful of the Storm Breath as the visual is not the clearest, and keep an eye on your tank, courtesy of Thunder Jaw which can be tough for non magic specialist tanks (Bear, Prot Warrior, Brewmaster).

Otherwise the main mechanic is Rolling Thunder, dispel the most vulnerable target and use your best ST tools on the other one, simply rotation them. It does explode for extra damage at the end, so make sure the target is topped before the debuff expires, you will have some time to bring them back up after.

It is unlikely that you want to pull Flamegullet very often because of Molten Blood, which will quickly prove to be a rather absurd healing challenge. However, it is good to know that he will pulse more and more AOE damage once he is below 50%. Hopefully, your DPS will know to hold their cooldowns until this "phase" starts. On your side, rotate your best cooldowns until this is over.

Otherwise, his frontal Flame Breath and his tank buster Fire Maw are similar to Thunderhead's.

In all honesty, the main issue is that Flamegullet is mostly pulled by mistake while doing another pack, and this is likely to result in a disaster. Be very aware when you are in the area of his patrol to avoid doing just that!

This is single phase boss, with hard positional requirements.This is an encounter that has very precise positional requirements, and tough healing checks. Nothing is complicated, but things get very intense in higher keys.

Kokia Blazehoof herself will mostly go pretty hard at the tank with Searing Blows and Searing Wounds, while sending Molten Boulder. This fight will have you move along the ring, and you want to be very aware of the timing of upcoming boulders to bait them "behind" you, in the existing puddles of fire, or this fight will turn into a bloodbath pretty fast.

The tank will likely struggle on this fight, and you should keep an eye on them. Hopefully they will communicate however, as the Blazebound Firestorm she summons (every 35 seconds) will keep you very very busy. The first important step is to bait them "ahead" of you, to have good access to them (do not spawn them on fire).

They will start by using Inferno, which is the main healing challenge, make sure you know when it comes (right after it spawns). Then it will be mandatory to interrupt the Roaring Blaze casts. Eventually, it will try to recast Inferno, but you will have killed it by then hopefully.

The Storm Warrior and Primal Thundercloud will create some hard-to-avoid AOE damage with Thunderclap and Crackling Detonation. Do not hesitate to use some AOE stops to reduce the incoming damage. The real challenges will be the Flame Channeler and Tempest Channeler however, do not overpull them unless you know what you are doing.

The Tempest Channeler are spamming the tank with Thunder Bolt but mostly use Lightning Storm, a really impressive AOE burst that you need to be ready for. They can use it every 25-30 seconds.

The Flame Channeler biggest danger comes from Flashfire, which can 100% a target very very fast, if you do have an interrupt, keep it for this. They also have a purgeable buff Burning Veins, which is not too impactful unless you are very unsure of your interrupts for Flashfire.

High Channeler Ryvati is a boosted Tempest Channeler, who has 2 extra abilities. Shock Blast is a pure magical tank buster, interruptible (but the cast is short). Tanks will probably learn to interrupt it when getting to higher keys.

The other ability is Tempest Stormshield. It basically creates a shield for a base amount plus all the shields on the surrounding Primal Thundercloud. This would be annoying enough since it delays the pull, except it also explodes if you do kill it fast enough. Two things here, purge some shields from the thunderclouds, or best, kill them before Ryvati casts Tempest Stormshield.

In high fortified, this is pretty much a boss fight with very tight DPS/HPS checks

A 2-phase encounter, with two bosses, a dragon and a shaman.

This encounter was nerfed in season 4, as Flamespit only affects two players in Phase 2. If you have played in season 1, you know how much of a relief this is.

In P1, you will mostly face Erkhart Stormvein, while Kyrakka only lands from time to time to cast a Roaring Firebreath. The phase ends when one or the other reaches 50%, and since Kyrakka is much more annoying, you will want to still focus her as much as possible to keep both bosses at around the same percentage.

Erkhart will Stormslam the tank, which leaves a bad amplifier you will want to dispel before the next one. He will also use Interrupting Cloudburst, which you should be careful of as getting interrupted on this fight is an issue you do not want to have.

Meanwhile, Kyrakka will Flamespit at someone while in the air (every 20-25 seconds). This leaves Infernocore which will eventually leave a puddle on the ground. This puddle will move with the wind from Erkhart's Winds of Change. Use the provided weak aura or any you prefer to know where the wind will blow next, you will want to put the puddle in the same direction so it gets pushed off the platform.

Now the tricky part. Infernocore does an unbelievable amount of damage. It has been made less spiky in season 4, but you should still use strong ST tools to avoid being caught by surprise.

A quick note first. The aggro resets when you will phase. do not get 1-shot give, one second to your tank.

Once one of the boss reaches 50%, Erkhart will mount on Kyrakka, and both bosses are attackable. All damage should be focused on Kyrakka, as she will be unleashed. She now drops 2 Infernocore each time she uses Flamespit, which people should take to the right spot, while burning alive. She also uses it more often now, about every 15 seconds. It will be better than season 1, but still, be ready for it, and do not hesitate to coordinate defensives and externals.

Do not touch the lava floor under any circumstance to avoid spawning more Infernocore debuffs and puddles.

Once Kyrakka is dead, the fight is more or less over.