Algalon the Observer is a world-ending threat in World of Warcraft that is the final optional boss in Ulduar. Algalon comes with unique restrictions, devastating mechanics that will challenge any group, and some incredible loot to make the chase worthwhile.
With that, here’s how to summon Algalon in WoW Classic WotLK, how to navigate his powerful mechanics, and all the important loot he drops.
How to Summon Algalon
To reach Algalon the Observer in both 10-man and 25-man difficulties alike, your raid must clear four major Ulduar fights on Hard Mode, including Freya, Hodir, Mimiron, and Thorim. This means taking on the special extra challenges for all of these bosses in the raid, which means you’ll need a committed and talented group of players to pull it off.
Once players clear all of the other Ulduar encounters on Hard Mode, they’ll need to collect the four sigils, Hodir’s Sigil, Thorim’s Sigil, Freya’s Sigil, and Mimiron’s Sigil, to turn in for each of the individual four quests. These four can be turned in to receive the Algalon or Heroic: Algalon quests, which after interacting with the Archivum Console, rewards the Celestial Planetarium Key (10-man), or Heroic Celestial Planetarium Key (25-man).
The differences between Algalon and other WotLK bosses don’t stop there, either. Once a player has summoned Algalon, the raid has just 1 hour to kill him before he despawns entirely. That counts non-combat time, including his opening RP when pulled, and any time getting back to the boss between wipes.
With that, raid groups will want to go into the Celestial Planetarium knowing the bosses’ mechanics intimately, and any strategy talks should happen before the door is opened to maximize time spent fighting the boss.
Algalon Mechanics & Strategy
Algalon comes with some nasty mechanics that outpace most of the other Ulduar raid encounters (though some hard modes have more difficult number checks). Overall, some important tricks can help carry a raid through defeating Algalon the Observer, so it’s important to go over all your options and discuss them thoroughly before you summon this boss.
The most devastating mechanics Algalon has is Big Bang, a cast that does over 100,000 damage to all players outside of Black Holes, Collapsing Stars, a group of mobs that lose health over time and explode on death dealing raid-wide damage (and dropping Black Hole portals), Cosmic Smash, an AOE effect that deals over 50,000 damage to players underneath (and raid-wide damage to others depending on how far players are from the zone), and Phase Punch, a tank-swap mechanic that can break even the most geared tanks.
Big Bang
The first trick raid groups need to coordinate when pulling Algalon is the tanking of Big Bang, which only a few classes and specs can handle. The most common strategy for tanking this ability is using Shadow Priests for Dispersion with the Glyph of Dispersion to ensure its cooldown will always be up for the casts. This strategy makes the mechanic almost an afterthought, giving other raid members a reprieve from more complicated soaking strategies.
For raids without a Shadow Priest available, this soaking responsibility will fall to either the main or off-tank, who will need a significant damage reduction cooldown to survive. Lighter defensives can be paired with Pain Suppression if timed right, but to skip the worry entirely, priests are better off going Shadow for this fight.
Collapsing Stars
Collapsing Star management will be an important part of the Algalon the Observer fight until phase 2 when they no longer spawn. These stars move around the room and take damage over time naturally, but the important part is to kill them at well-coordinated intervals to manage their raid-wide damage and to summon Black Holes on time for Big Bang casts. To manage the AOE damage from these stars, damage reduction cooldowns are encouraged for those not soaking Big Bang casts.
Raids can draw out the killing of Collapsing Stars to ensure that enough portals are available and that raid-wide damage is minimal, keep in mind that Black Holes can be closed if Living Constellations run over them, so make sure your movement avoids this.
Cosmic Smash
This mechanic is the least dangerous and most surface-level, so if it’s giving you trouble, your raid may struggle with the more complicated aspects of the fight in the long run. Cosmic Smash appears as a red circle on the ground which may be obscured by effects like Death and Decay, so be sure to look out for it actively. The spell will kill most any player it lands directly on, and will severely hurt nearby raiders as well. To avoid it, simply keep an eye out, call out its location, and the raid then must move to compensate for it.
This mechanic will often make it necessary to move Algalon around his large boss room, especially with melee-heavy raids, so take advantage of the space and ensure that tanks are aware of when to move.
Phase Punch
While Phase Punch is also a very familiar mechanic to raiding in WotLK, a tank-swap debuff that goes out fairly often, it can sneak up on raid groups due to the chaos of the rest of the fight. Phase Punch is a stacking debuff that, at 5 stacks, will necessitate this tank swap, as the recipient is phased out of existence for 10 seconds. This happens every 45 seconds, so tanks must be ready to swap out regularly, and healers must know when this swap happens to heal through Algalon’s massive upfront damage output.
Algalon Loot
While killing Algalon the Observer poses a mighty challenge, players that accomplish it are rewarded with some absolutely massive gear, especially so for those killing it in 25-man mode.
Algalon’s loot table includes:
- Band of Lights
- Boundless Gaze
- Breastplate of the Timeless
- Bulwark of Algalon
- Comet’s Trail
- Constellus
- Cosmos
- Dark Matter
- Drape of the Messenger
- Dreambinder
- Fang of Oblivion
- Gloves of the Endless Dark
- Legplates of the Endless Void
- Meteorite Crystal
- Nebula Band
- Observer’s Mantle
- Pendant of the Somber Witness
- Pharos Gloves
- Planewalker Treads
- Pulsar Gloves
- Sabatons of Lifeless Night
- Shoulderplates of the Celestial Watch
- Skyforge Crossbow
- Solar Bindings
- Star-beaded Clutch
- Starfall Girdle
- Starlight Treads
- Starshard Edge
- Starwatcher’s Binding
- Strength of the Heavens
- Zodiac Leggings
Due to the barrier of entry being so high, especially for 25-man, many players will never see Algalon loot. Many of these items are BIS for the phase and will carry on through ICC as well, making Algalon kills and loot incredibly valuable. The loot value is thankfully well spread between caster DPS, physical DPS, tanks, and healers, so all classes will want a crack at the world-ender eventually.
