Tips and Tricks on: How to defeat Kanrethad

By Lazurianis Last Updated: 2014/07/15 Patch: 5.4.8

Table of Contents
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my Warlock488 Item level
Please note: although this guide was written in Mists of Pandaria, it is still valid for Warlords of Draenor.IntroductionHARDNOTDon't believe me?My TalentsSoul LeechMortal CoilSacrificial PactUnbound WillGrimoire of SacrificeKil'jaeden's CunningGlyphsHavocEmber TapSiphon LifeEnslave DemonMacrosMy Talents and Glyphs ExplainedDark BargainNotable EnemiesPit LordChargeCleaveDemonic SiphonFel Flame BreathWild ImpFireboltFelhunterdevour your enslavementdevour your beneficial spellsDoom LordDoom BoltImportant AbilitiesCurse of Ultimate DoomCataclysmChargeChaos BoltSeed of Terrible DestructionBackfireAnnoying ImpSinge MagicFel Flame BreathAura of Omnipotence Fel Flame BreathExcruciating AgonySinge MagicFel Flame BreathRain of FireSoul FireThe StrategyBefore the fight even begins, this is what your positioning should generally look likeImpis alive for the beginning of the encounterFearCharge and Fel Flame BreathWILL NOT

If you find you're taking too long to kill Kanrethad, try bringing along a Purification Potion! :D -Marierierieee

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Comments

Comment by Marierierieee

If you find you're taking too long to kill Kanrethad, try bringing along a Purification Potion! :D

Comment by 1124280

Sort of off topic but do you have a large version of the image you used for the banner of this guide. I REALLY want that as my desktop background.

Comment by Alroxas

In addition to the purification potion, there is also the Drums of Rage which can help provide a bloodlust to increase your DPS.

Comment by SteiniDJ

Solid stuff, I just finished my green fire quest line using your guide - thanks!

I did run into slight issues with your charge macro, however. The "/targetlasttarget" ending usually set my Pit Lord as my target, delaying my chaos bolt for a few fractions of a second. Nothing major at all, just wondering if it's necessary.

Comment by Mognus

If you find yourself unable to do it even after reading this guide just wait and get geared. On my 558 ilvl lock you can kill him before he even spawns the 1st set of felhunters. Have patience and dont worry you will get that green fire you so desperattly want. :)

Comment by 20486

Thank you SO much for this really helpful guide! I had been trying this off and on since the quest first came out, but couldn't do it. Finally got it done yesterday with a combo of this guide and shtookeyGAMES' 5.4 Revised youtube walkthrough. Thanks again!

Comment by KiritaWindwalker

Note: Gear will help, but STILL HARD! I pulled 200k dps and was able to push him fast enough to avoid a second layer of fel hunters... I Agree with the positioning except positions!

My changes: Put gate in middle to fel hunter spot. Close enough to circle. I would let one full rain of fire go off and use brimstone to 2-3 shot hunters. Outside of that I stayed in middle keeping in front of the pit lord for the dispel! Just kinda stand on edge of the fires to keep it as compact as ya can!

These changes worked great for me.

Also, from start till actually enslaving pit lord (after fear) Burst. Drop ALL your CDs! Once the fight really starts you'll have to focus on other stuff so you cant afford to watch CDs.

BIG TIP NOT INCLUDED IN GUIDE: Macro Fel Breath!

/cast incinerate
/cast fel breath

Seriously, this will be a HUGE help for dps, time, and strain! One less button to push! :)

I hope my experience will help you!

Good luck! :D

PS

This fight will make you die. Expect to die once or twice, seriously. Don't try to do it when you only have a hour to spare! Do it when your calm and take breaks after every death (This gives your CDs time to reset if needed and lets you stretch to calm your nerves!).

Comment by nerflocked

Why doesn't anyone pop a doomguard or infernal? If wont mess with your enslave, and especially the AoE from the infernal is great (on imps).

Also, you can cast a charge on the felhunters to stun them, so they take 100% addition damage.

Comment by Xemit100

quick question, are we still able to finish the quest in Warlords?

Comment by designadrug

How do you LOS the Chaos Bolt? It's just coming around the corner into the alcove and insta-popping me for a million damage.

Comment by JoeAlder

Thanks to your guide, my 522 lock (no gems, no enchants, a 476 PvP trinket, never knew how to use this toon) is about to get the green fire! After only about 6 attempts I got him down to 30%! I didn't pay enough attention to the debuffs, and ended with an imp stunning me every time I tried to cast a Chaos bolt, and an Agony ticking for a lot of damage. It's just a matter of reflexes and memory (by that time, the second Doomlord was out, so there were only imp waves left).

Here are my two cents: you can prolong the fight A LOT. Combining Soulstones and potions, you can keep yourself "alive" more than enough to kill Kanrethad.
- Start with Soulstone, try not to die.
- When the curse is about to expire, use your potion to remove the debuff.
- He reapplies the curse, but fear not! Should it expire and kill you, you still have the soulstone (you shouldn't even need it, but anyway).
- After rezzing, your BL debuff (use drums at the beginning) and potion CD are free! Drums again, and a DPS pot (or keep it if you need to dispel the curse yet again).
- With good timing, your Soulstone CD should be ready again.
- Theoretically, you could keep on like this as long as your Pit Lord is alive, but I don't thik anyone needs to do all this. This is just to clarify that you have all the time you need to kill Kanrethad, so don't rush.
- Remember that, every time you die, your Sacrifice buff goes away, so you should revive, fear the Pit Lord, LoS everyone and quickly summon/sacrifice your imp.

Comment by Momembi98

I owe this guide my green fire! 5 stars! Although I found it easier to Soulshatter the Doom Lords so that they attack my Pit Lord because I found that if I forgot to banish them again I wiped and having the 2 Doom Lords banished was too much maintenance.

Comment by Huludicidal

I have a question about this encounter.

I recently boosted a warlock to 90 and have been attempting this fight (nearly 20 attempts so far). I've got the mechanics mostly down (I still make a mistake here and there), and gotten the boss as low as 38% hp on a few occasions. What usually ends up killing me on attempts when I make no mistakes is the Curse of Doom he applies with the 7 minute timer.

I've seen a lot of funky things happen in this encounter. A lot of guides say to interrupt the first CoD cast using the Pit Lord's charge. Well, I've done that, and sometimes he just immediately starts casting it again. Other times, he waits a minute or two to cast it, and on a few occasions, he casts it twice to make the debuff 14 minutes long instead of 7 minutes long.

My lock is in a mix of Timeless Isle gear and the boost gear, so I do not have the DPS to beat the fight in 7 minutes. What I do not understand is the mechanics behind the boss casting CoD immediately after I interrupt him, and him casting it twice to double the debuff timer.

And to answer the question you will most certainly ask, yes. I've soul stoned myself to rez updon dying from CoD. However, I've found that every time I soul stone rez, my enslave on the Pit Lord expires and I get ruined trying to re-enslave him with 1 or 2 doom lords also whacking me. (The banish on the 2nd doom lord also expired at the same time).

I'm curious if I am just having bad luck, if I am messing up by not re-applying enslave demon/banish often enough, if I am supposed to let myself die from the CoD to rez with a soul stone to continue fighting, or if there is a way to trigger two casts of CoD for a 14 minute debuff timer.

Any insight here would be super helpful.

Thank you!

Comment by Shamelion

Woohoo! Just got my green fire! Thanks for the guide! My only tip is for the felhunters: move pitlord away, RoF the gate, when 1st comes out, Banish it! 2nd gets hit by havock, 3rd gets a facefull of shadow bolt. After the 2 are dead, you can cast banish again to un-banish, and kill 3rd one. Woked great for me. Good luck!

Comment by JaceDraccus

I just got green fire, and I have to say this guide was a huge help! Best strategy I could find.

Thank you!

Comment by TdarKoNe

Excellent guide, I gave it 5/5 stars! I was able to complete this on both horde and alliance with the help of this guide. It still took me quite a few attempts to get the strategy down, so don't get discouraged! I followed every aspect, used the macros, and made sure I had a flask and food buff as well. Both Warlocks were around 520 ilvl and were able to take him down before the second felhunter phase.

Comment by username874

I just got my green fire today. This guide was a huge help.

I used a boosed warlock that has an ilvl of 509, with enough hit gems/enchants to get close to the 15% needed, and only having a flask buff. I had also used Soul Link for the extra 20% health boost.

For the Fel Hunters I tired to make sure I had 2 or 3 embers to burst them all down quickly, then:
Moved the Pit Lord away, RoF the portal, Havoc the first Fel Hunter, Conflag>Chaos Bolt>Shadow Burn the second (killing both first and second Fel Hunters), then Conflag>Chaos Bolt>Shadow Burn the third to dead.

For the Doom Lord phase, I only had to let my Pit Lord attack the Doom Lord long enough to get agro and then set the Pit Lord back to attacking Kanrethad and just ignored the Doom Lord for the rest of the encounter.

Other than that take breaks between deaths and try to figure exactly why you died what what you should have done instead then try again.

Comment by 1374955

If I was to give some advice it would be to look at many different guides and try to combo them, for example during the imp phase I stood behind the PL and laid down a min. of 2 RoF. In addition, when the boss was at 3% health I died with no Soulstone but I didn't release I used the PL to take him down.

Anyway my two-cents and good luck!

Comment by Dawnrider

The placement for the Pit Lord during felhunter phase is bs. No matter where I put him he is always de-enslaved when the third Felhunter comes out and im killed. And gear does matter here. If you cant burn those felhunters down with 1 or 2 attacks its game over. Wasted my gold buying this tome for nothing.

Comment by Hyrita

Managed to ding 90 AND get this done all in one day thanks to this guide! All the while yelling, "Mom, I did it!"
Thanks for the information :D

Comment by Nistrus

Words of advice: Do NOT get greedy or excited, stay calm and relaxed, practice makes perfect, and if you are getting too fed up with failed attempts take a break.

This is easily the most important thing to remember while attempting this. Got my green fire as of an hour ago as a 530 destro lock with this guide.

Hardest part for me was the 2nd pack of felhunters, but I solved that by moving my pit lord into my chaos bolt hiding place right after the cataclysm following the 2nd pack of imps so he had plenty of time to get out of line of sight.

Good luck to all those other locks still trying to get their green fire before the 6.0.2 patch drops :D

Comment by 1023919

So I have been hearing they are removing this come release of Warlords, but based on reading the guide you expect it to be kept in. I assume it was just empty rumors I was hearing? Thanks again for the guide. Take care

Comment by menace97

I wouldn't have believed it, well unless I tried it right now. I just had to. Reading some of these comments, I thought "there is no way Blizzard would say it was going away when it was reported before 6.0 if i remember correctly, and let it still be attainable for weeks? That would be cruel."

I honestly stopped trying the very night before the major patch dropped. I remember the night well, since there was a huge warlock convention going on outside of the Black Temple! Everyone there thought the same thing obviously. If I hadn't come here and read some of these comments, I wouldn't have bothered with it until much later on, since there was no rush...

I can confirm, fellow warlocks, as of November 10, 2014 (Patch 6.0.3) the title is absolutely still attainable. As soon as you leave the scenario, you will be rewarded with this fantastic title! So please try to do this before WoD officially drops on Thursday - tell all your warlock friends.

Thank you to everyone who posted tips, tutorials, macros, videos, etc. I am very grateful for all of your help. *salutes*

On a final note, although I am ecstatic and shouldn't have anything to complain about - I do. With this particular element of the game being removed later than was reported, I am sure there are many warlocks out there that will not have gotten the title due to misinformation from Blizzard. I would be furious if I was reading this months down the road, and had given up trying. C'mon... not cool Blizz!

Comment by Nehel

If you will die AND you are controlling pit lord AND YOU KILLED FELHUNTERS, you can still kill the boss. I had like 20%~ left to kill him, tho i've controlled pit lord and killed felhunters and i was able to kill the boss with pit lord spells. After doomlords he starts to rotate his abilities, summoning wild imps etc etc so you have plenty of time.

Comment by TotallyNotAnEmu

As of patch 8.1.5, this fight is totally impossible unless 120 and adequately geared, for a start.

The pit lord does not spawn, leaving Kanrethad to facetank your attacks for a bit. With adequate damage, the imps also do not spawn. However, since there is no Pit Lord, Excruciating Agony can only be removed with Singe Magic and is recast too fast to be effective.

Will possibly update when my warlock, IS 120 and adequately geared...

Tips and Tricks on: How to defeat Kanrethad

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