The Nokhud Offensive is a 5-player dungeon in Dragonflight. It is located in the Plains of Ohn’ahra, one of the areas of the Dragon Islands. This is a gigantic instance that ideally requires you to have the Dragon Ride skill. The dungeon hosts 4 bosses: Granyth, Raging Storm, Teera & Maruuk and finally Khan Balakar. Find our guide to the Nokhud Offensive below.
The area that hosts the instance is titanic. It is strongly recommended to have dragon flight to go there because the journeys are long between the bosses. It is nevertheless possible to use a ground mount, but it will therefore be necessary to arm yourself with patience and hope that your teammates are not tired of waiting for you. If you feel like it, don’t hesitate to wander around the instance with your dragon and enjoy the updrafts. Given the size of the area, Blizzard may have placed here and there small winks or sometimes interesting decorative elements.
1. Granite
Granyth is usually the first boss you’ll face, although you’re free to start with another. Not much trash, just zigzag the ballista-using mob packs on your centaur friends.
Once the monsters are eliminated, Granyth arrives to punish you. He will use several AoE in order to eliminate the players who present themselves to him. First, it will launch Eruption. It is a spell that inflicts Nature damage to all players every 3 seconds. The longer the fight lasts, the more rash damage increases, which is something to consider if the battle drags on.
The second attack is Shards of Stone. These are stone shards thrown by the dragon at players within 60m. Let me tell you, it concerns everyone. The third attack is once more an area of effect. It’s regarding Tectonic trampling which damages players and knocks them backwards.
The most important combat mechanic comes from the Dragonkiller Lance (dragon slayer spear). It’s a weapon you can throw at Granyth to stun her for 5 seconds and deal damage up to 5% of her health. If you can get by without it on Heroic difficulty, high Mythic+ Keys will require taking advantage of this effect more often. Be aware, however, that the boss is not going to let you. You will indeed see an add, the Nokhud Saboteurwho will rush at the spear in order to dismantle it, i.e. make it unusable.
2. Raging Storm
The second boss is Raging Storm. To overcome it, you must first eliminate the 4 lightning eruption totems that are around the battlefield. Totems are marked on the minimap, so you can’t miss them. Knock down the totems as quickly as possible because if you hang around, some mobs will overload the totems and you’ll take a lot of lightning damage.
Once the Raging Storm is activated, you can run into it. The boss has many abilities but the key to the fight is in the power orbs that will pop in the area. By touching these orbs, you take some damage but, above all, you receive a buff that increases damage and healing 5% products for 15 seconds. And this effect is stackable 10 times !
For the rest, Raging Storm can summon the Lightning, a spell that strikes all players without distinction. The boss also casts another AoE, Electric Storm, which deals damage every 0.5 seconds to the whole party. Healers should be particularly attentive to the life of their companion at this time.
If you play the tank, you’ll be happy to know that the boss has two attacks just for you:
- energy wave : Doubles the attack speed of the boss. In addition, you take additional Nature damage.
- Wind gush : If the tank has the bad idea to be out of melee range, it receives damage.
Finally, be aware that players in melee can also be the target of a spell that deals damage to them every second.
Explained like this, Raging Storm can make you feel like a particularly devious boss. But be aware that the fight doesn’t last very long, especially if players take advantage of the Power Orbs buff.
3. Teera et Maruuk
Before facing Teera and Marruk, you must cancel the incantations of several monsters. It’s an excuse for you to spend some time on the trash. Battle locations are marked on the minimap, and once the enemies are eliminated, Teera and Maruuk land.
Teera is a spell caster while Maruuk is the gang’s warrior. The two bosses share their life and will therefore die at the same time. Be aware, however, that Teera has some pretty annoying abilities and you’ll have to move around a lot to avoid AoEs.
Let’s start with Teera’s abilities:
- Reflex shot : This is the basic attack, a single arrow that damages the target.
- spiritual good : Teera jumps to target location. Usually the leap is followed by a Gale Arrow.
- Gale Arrow : Teera targets players and inflicts good Nature damage on them. Additionally, the explosion releases 4 tornadoes at the point of impact. These will wander around the players, inflicting damage in addition to pushing them back. So you have to avoid getting in their way. The casting of the spell is quite long, so you have time to plan the spell.
- Pushback : This is a defensive spell for Maruuk that pushes back players close to him. The spell is followed by a channel that continues to knock players back, but you can interrupt it.
Now let’s move on to Maruuk’s abilities:
- Split-Earth : This is Maruuk’s most dangerous ability. It hits the ground hard, causing lots of small brown areas to appear in the direction of some players. You have to get away from it very quickly because following 1.5 seconds, the AoEs explode and damage all players within 4m. It potentially hurts quite a bit.
- scary roar : A Group Fear that lasts 5 seconds and also inflicts Shadow damage.
- Brutalisation : A big dirty hit on the tank.
4. Khan Balakar
The final boss of the instance is Khan Balakar. It’s an interesting enemy because the encounter has two distinct phases with an intermediate phase in between.
In Phase 1, Balakar can throw an Iron Spear at a player. The latter is marked, so he knows what awaits him. The spear inflicts damage but will also damage players who are within 6m of the impact. As a bonus, they will be pushed back. Balakar can also charge (Iron Cavalcade) and damage all players in its path. It is therefore sufficient to anticipate the movement to avoid damage.
The tank will have to be wary of the boss’ slashing and savage strikes. The first applies a DoT and a debuff that increases the damage taken by the Wild Strike by 500%. The latter is a simple strike.
We also note the existence of the Uprising ability, a ranged attack that inflicts damage and knocks players back, but it is used very little, if at all, during certain fights.
At 50% health, Balakar casts Stormy Winds. It becomes untargetable and begins to unleash Storm Winds and lightning. Stormy Winds deal damage every 0.5 seconds and knock players back. The lightning inflicts a lot of damage 3m around the points of impact.
During this time, you will have to manage the adds that Balakar has just awakened. Nokhud Stormthrowers aren’t all that bad, just make sure to interrupt their Stormbolt.
Once the adds are dead, we go to Phase 2. Balakar can be attacked once more. The boss can still charge in one direction, but he drops the skills of the first phase and takes advantage of other abilities:
- Static spear : The same spear as in phase 1, except that the spear pulls players towards it and inflicts damage on them.
- crackling uprising : The boss jumps towards a player and damages him and nearby players. At the time of the explosion, players must disperse because they will inflict damage on each other. In addition, they will leave behind a cloud that deals damage.
- Lightning : Lightning that dots the area and that must be avoided while moving.
- Double Strike : The same thing as in phase 1 but in lightning version.
That’s a lot to say, but the fight isn’t hard to understand. The boss has almost too many abilities and he doesn’t have time to cast them all in every fight. This is for example the case of Crackling Uprising which can go down the drain in phase 2.
