Shade of Akama Strategy Guide (Black Temple)

shade of akama strategy guide (black temple) tbc classic
  • Author: Pride
  • Date: March 8, 2022
  • Updated: March 8, 2022
  • Expansion: TBC Classic
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The Shade of Akama is a boss / event inside the Black Temple, that players will typically encounter 3rd in that raid, after defeating Supremus and gaining access to the Sanctuary of Shadows. Players will need to defeat Akama’s shade inside the Refectory in order to reunite Akama’s body with his spirit, so he may assist you in the battle against Illidan.

The Shade of Akama itself has a measly 1 million HP and 7700 armor. However, you will also need to kill 6 Ashtongue Channelers & multiple Ashtongue Sorcerers, each with about 126k HP, meaning your raid will effectively need to do about ~1.8 million damage in order to succeed in this encounter — which is still laughable compared to other bosses.

Shade of Akama is viewed as the easiest boss in this entire tier, being significantly easier to defeat than others you have faced so far. However, things can quickly spiral out of hand if your raid is not prepared for what’s coming.

This guide will offer a step-by-step explanation on how to put Akama’s shade to rest.

Role Summaries

Phase 1

Phase 2

  • Nuke Shade of Akama if it looks like you’re going to wipe, you may still be able to win thanks to Akama

Phase 1

Phase 2

  • Use your personal DPS cooldowns during Heroism / Bloodlust in this phase for maximum DPS

Phase 1

Phase 2

  • Use your personal DPS cooldowns during Heroism / Bloodlust in this phase for maximum DPS
  • Hunters & Mages: Still keep an eye out for adds, slow them if your tank is struggling to survive

Phase 1

  • If you’re assigned to tank healing, don’t be complacent if they’re taking low damage, keep healing
  • The more adds your tank has on them, the larger a potential damage spike could
  • Paladins, Druids and Shamans: Dispel Debilitating Poison off your tank

Phase 2

  • You have not won yet — keep healing your tank, they likely have a lot of adds on them

Phase 1

  • Move to your assigned spot and be ready to pick up the 3 mobs that spawn there every ~25 seconds
  • Keep the mobs away from the DPS & the Ashtongue Channeler
  • Use defensive cooldowns if necessary to survive having too many mobs on you all at once
  • Interrupt the Ashtongue Elementalist‘s casts
  • Do not chase the Ashtongue Sorcerers — they cannot be tanked

Phase 2

  • You have not won yet — keep paying attention, you likely have a lot of adds on you at this point
  • Do not hesitate to use a major defensive cooldown in order to survie and ensure a kill

Abilities

You will face a multide of different adds in Phase 1, each with their own abilities.

These mobs keep Shade of Akama shackled, preventing it from moving.

As soon as you defeat all 6 Channelers, Shade of Akama will start moving towards Akama, starting Phase 2.

Roughly every 25 seconds, an Ashtongue Sorcerer will spawn along with the regular mobs, and rush to the Shade of Akama, taking the place of dead Ashtongue Channelers in keeping Shade of Akama shackled.

You will also need to defeat all of these Sorcerers in order to end Phase 1 and begin Phase 2.

A warrior-type monster that deals high melee damage and interrupts casting.

Deals 100% weapon damage and reduces the target’s Physical damage done by 75% for 5 seconds.

Deals about 2k damage on tanks, but fairly significant damage on everyone else.

Deals 1663 to 1837 Physical damage to the target, and interrupts their spellcasting for 5 seconds.

Deals 5088 to 5912 Physical damage to the target.

Deals about 3k damage to tanks, but everyone else will be in trouble if they get hit by this ability.

A rogue-type monster that deals a moderate amount of damage and applies a nasty debuff.

Deals 1497 to 1703 Physical damage to the target.

Unlike what the tooltip may indicate, this is not a “finishing move”, the Rogues will constantly spam this attack. However, it does a laughably little amount of damage.

Applies a poison to the target for 8 seconds. While poisoned, the target’s attack and casting speed is reduced by 50%, and they take 1665 to 1935 Nature damage every 2 seconds, or 7.2k total damage on average.

The damage isn’t exceptionally high but the attack speed and cast speed debuff is very annoying, so your Paladins, Druids and Shamans should make sure to dispel it off everyone as soon as possible.

A caster-type monster that deals damage from ranged and has a nasty Rain of Fire AoE ability.

Deals 1955 to 2645 Nature damage to the target. 1 second cast, 50 yards range.

While the damage isn’t very scary, its extremely long range coupled with the fact that the Elementalist will spam this ability if his target is not in melee range makes this ability very, very annoying. It is recommended that you move the other mobs towards the Elementalist to counter this.

The Elementalist summons a Rain of Fire area on top of a random player within 40 yards. Lasts 8 seconds. Players that stay in the Rain of Fire will take 3238 to 3762 Fire damage every 2 seconds.

This spell’s damage is absolutely bonkers, so everyone, tanks incuded, should be ready to move out of it.

A healer-type monster with a multitude of different healing abilities.

The Spiritbinder heals up to 5 nearby monsters within 40 yards for 6938 to 8062.

While the healing amount is high, you are most likely not going to be killing any of the Ashtongue besides the Channelers anyway, so as long as these are kept away from the Channelers, you’ll be fine.

Heals an Ashtongue ally within 100 yards for 8325 to 10,750.

Unlike the Chain Heal ability, this ability has an incredibly long range, so you can’t really counter it.

Applies a heal-over-time effect on an Ashtongue ally within 100 yards for 10 seconds, healing them for 2500 every 2 seconds, or 10,000 over the spell’s entire duration.

This effect can be removed by a Shaman’s Purge and a Priest’s Dispel Magic, which helps a little.

Raid Composition & Preparation

A Warlock’s Master Healthstone is all you will really need for this fight.

This fight is a welcome break from some of the previous healing intensive fights in this tier. You could do it with as few as 2 healers, if they’re very good, but 5 is recommended for this fight.

Each tank should have 2-3 healers assigned to them, classes don’t really matter. The damage they take will be very low most of the time, though there will occasionally be bigger spikes, particularly as more and more adds pile on.

Holy Paladins will make great tank healers with their constant healing throughput. Restoration Druids will also be exceptional for the same reason, particularly since they can apply their heal-over-time effects on all tanks.

The rest of your healers should be assigned to raid healing, but ideally there will be nothing for them to heal, as the only reason anyone besides the tanks takes damage during this fight is if they over-aggro, or if they stand in the Rain of Fire — both pretty silly mistakes. Restoration Shamans and Holy Priests are the strongest at this task, with their powerful AoE healing spells in Chain Heal and Circle of Healing respectively.

Note that while the healing is pretty relaxed here, there can still be periods where your tank takes multiple big hits at once. So don’t lose focus — keep healing them, don’t slack off because they look healthy.

There are no specific DPS class / spec requirements for this fight. Classes with strong AoE and cleave damage effects will shine here, and ranged have a very small advantage due to not having to move.

Hunters can help reduce the load on your tanks and healers by placing their Frost Traps in front of the mobs’ spawn point, which helps reduce the amount of unnecessary tank deaths and thus lower the chance of wipes.

Note: Shade of Akama is not a demon or undead, so do not use anti-demon items like Mark of the Champion.

This fight is doable with 1 or even no tanks at all with good kiting, but having 2 or 3 will make it significantly easier.

All tank classes are more or less okay here. However, Protection Paladins have a slight advantage due to their strong AoE threat in Consecration, keeping all of the mobs on them easily, as well as their ranged, multi-target taunt in Righteous Defense. Protection Warriors are also good, as they can interrupt spell casting with Shield Bash, giving them an easier time grouping up the Ashtongue Elementalist with the other mobs.

While tank damage taken will not be exceptionally high during this fight, tanking many mobs at once can potentially make them scary. Using defensive consumables, like Elixir of Major Fortitude and Fisherman’s Feast, is therefore a good idea, particularly if you’re assigned to tanking one side all on your own.

The Pull

The Shade of Akama event is triggered by speaking to Akama at the entrance of the Refectory.

However, before you begin the event, it is strongly recommended that you clear the entire Refectory. Stronger groups and speedrunners,can take a few trash packs along with the boss, but that’s generally not recommended.

akama 1

After you’ve cleared the room, you have all the time and space you need to resurrect dead players, buff up, drink up, etc. The mobs will not aggro until you have spoken to Akama to start the encounter.

When you’re ready, speak to Akama and position as shown in the following picture. The general idea is that melee and ranged DPS should be close to the Ashtongue Channelers. Your healers should spread out in the back, preferably in a position where they can heal their designated target, or both tanks if possible.

Note that in this picture, Mages and Hunters are in specific positions, to the sides. That is only really necessary for raid groups with weaker raid DPS, tanking or healing — if you find that your tanks are frequently dying to the mob damage, it is not at all a bad idea to have your Mages and Hunters positioned there, ready to help the tanks out by slowing the mobs with their Frost Trap, Frost Nova, Blizzard, etc, giving the tanks a moment to get healed.

If you’re running 3 tanks, have your 2 weaker tanks on one side, while the strongest tank takes the other side on their own — Protection Paladins will be particularly good at taking a side alone. However, if all of your tanks are reasonably well geared, you could instead have 1 tank on each side while another tank helps kill the Ashtongue Channelers.

akama 2 2

Phase 1

Your goal during Phase 1 will be to kill all the Ashtongue Channelers that are keeping Shade of Aran shackled in place. Start with the closest one, right next to the steps leading up, and kill them one by one, going clockwise. Classes with strong AoE, like Warlocks with their Seed of Corruption can instead AoE them.

While your DPS players are taking care of the Ashtongue Channelers, adds will constantly be spawning on both sides of the room, right under the arch-shaped gates leading seemingly nowhere. They will be spawning in groups of 3, randomly picking 1 each from a pool of 4 different mobs: Ashtongue Defender, Ashtongue Rogue, Ashtongue Elementalist and Ashtongue Spiritbinder, each with their own unique abilities. A single Ashtongue Defender is almost guaranteed.

You should have tanks positioned in front of these gates, ready to pick the mobs up and keep them in place, away from the raid. They need to be close enough to your raid that your healers can reach them with their healing spells, while generally away from the DPS and the Ashtongue Channelers, as Ashtongue Spiritbinders can heal them.

akama 3 2

These adds deal little damage and despawn when the fight is over, so groups with high DPS can elect to tank them away and ignore them. If you’re not fast with killing them however and many of them pile on, their damage can definitely add up, so your healers will need to be aware. If you find that your tanks are dying frequently, it does not hurt to have your Mages and Hunters help by slowing them with Frost Trap, Frost Nova, Blizzard etc as shown in the picture above.

The only add that’s particularly dangerous is the Ashtongue Elementalist. Its Rain of Fire ability is deceptively strong, dealing about 3k Fire damage every 2 seconds, which can be particularly lethal if your raid is clumped up and people are not paying attention due to the fight being easy — don’t do that.

Roughly every 25 seconds, a Ashtongue Sorcerer will spawn and rush to take the place of a dead Ashtongue Channeler. Your raid will need to kill those too in order to progress the fight into Phase 2, and your tank needs to be aware of this — they shouldn’t abandon their position and go follow the sorcerer, as it cannot be tanked.

Keep killing the Ashtongue Channelers & Ashtongue Sorcerers while keeping your tanks up and avoiding the Rain of Fire, until all the channelers & sorcerers are dead, which will trigger the beginning of Phase 2.

Phase 2

akama 4 2

Once all the Ashtongue Channelers & Ashtongue Sorcerers are dead, Akama and Shade of Akama will start moving towards each other, eventually meeting in the middle of the room, ready to have an epic duel, which you rudely interrupt. Your job will be to help Akama win by killing his Shade once and for all, reuniting his body and spirit.

Akama will help your raid by applying the Destructive Poison debuff on the Shade of Akama, increasing its damage taken by 5% for 5 minutes, stacking up to 5 times, for a total of 25% increased damage taken. Coupled with Shade of Akama’s pitiful 1 million HP, your raid should be able to defeat it in no time at all.

Your raid should use Heroism / Bloodlust along with personal DPS cooldowns as soon as Shade of Akama becomes attackable. This phase typically lasts less than a minute, so you can have 100% uptime on Heroism / Bloodlust.

Your tanks and healers should not panic or lose focus here. The adds aren’t despawning yet, so they’ll need to be tanked, and your healers will still need to heal — there’s likely a high number of adds at this point, so stay focused.

If you’ve gotten this far however, you’re virtually guaranteed to win. Akama can deal about 20% of the Shade of Akama’s HP worth of damage all on his own, so even if something goes horribly wrong and you’re beginning to wipe, there’s a good chance you’ll win anyway — just keep nuking the Shade of Akama, healers included.

Congratulations on defeating the Shade of Akama! With Akama now complete, you have gained a powerful ally in your fight against Illidan inside his Black Temple — and you’re certainly going to need allies here.

 

About the Author

Pride

Classic WoW is my jam, with a passion for PvP. Most know me as Baranor, the ret paladin guy, but I'm secretly a druid main, don't tell anyone. In my free time I play Switch games, particularly JRPGs. Some day I'll be making my own games and I humbly hope you play those too!
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