Battleguard Sartura

Battleguard Sartura is the leader of the qiraji battleguards and the second required boss of the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. She fights alongside three Royal Guards in a wide cavern of the hive, and all four of them spin through the raid in whirlwinds of blades. It's a fight about space and control: the raid has to stun, taunt and kite four bladed bugs at once while keeping its healers alive.

Background

The qiraji battleguards are the elite soldiers of Ahn'Qiraj, slender winged qiraji armed with long blades. Sartura commands them and guards the route from The Prophet Skeram's terrace deeper into the hive, toward Fankriss the Unyielding. The game tells little more about her. Her guards, the [[forever:npc:15984]], are smaller versions of her with nearly the same abilities.

Abilities

• [[forever:spell:26083]]: Sartura spins in a whirlwind for several seconds, moving quickly and cutting everyone near her. It hits tanks for about a thousand and cloth wearers for several times that. She can't be stunned while spinning.
• [[forever:spell:25174]]: a cleave that hits up to three targets and leaves them taking more physical damage.
• Random targets: every so often Sartura and her guards forget their tank for a few seconds and chase a random player, then return to whoever has the most threat.
• Enrage: at 20% health she enrages, hitting harder and faster.
• Hard enrage: after ten minutes she goes berserk and kills the raid.
• Royal Guards: the three guards whirlwind too, and they can knock players far across the room.

Strategy

The raid spreads out across the cavern so that one spinning bug can't hit everyone. Each Royal Guard gets its own tank, or a pair of tanks trading taunts, and Sartura gets two well-geared tanks of her own with two or three healers each. Raids usually pull Sartura to the back of the room, then kill her guards first, away from her.

The key tool is the stun. When Sartura isn't spinning, paladins with Hammer of Justice, rogues with Kidney Shot and warriors with Concussion Blow keep her locked in place, and taunts drag her back when she wanders. Her guards can be stunned even while spinning, although the spin keeps going. Detect Magic shows when one of them is whirlwinding, so melee know when it's safe to step in. Anyone a spinning bug is coming toward simply runs, since its path often changes.

Raid leaders also warned players to stay away from the tunnel toward Fankriss. A guard's knockback can throw a player into the tunnel, and pulling the bugs there during the fight almost always wiped the raid. The encounter could also reset if a guard targeted a dead player running back, which respawned everything.

Once the guards are down, the whole raid turns on Sartura and kills her before the ten-minute timer runs out. Shield Wall and healing cooldowns cover the 20% enrage.

Loot

From our database (patch 1.12):

The [[forever:item:21666]] is a held-in-hand item for healers, with healing power and mana regeneration. The [[forever:item:21673]] is a one-handed fist weapon with attack power and critical strike chance, popular with rogues and warriors. The [[forever:item:21670]] is a trinket that, when used, makes its wearer's attacks pierce more and more of the target's armor. Like every boss in the temple, Sartura drops a [[forever:item:21229]] for each player.

Quests

• [[forever:quest:8579]]: the [[forever:item:21229]] is handed to [[forever:npc:15503]] at the temple entrance for Brood of Nozdormu reputation.

Trivia

• Warcraft Wiki credits Sartura's voice to Marc Graue, who also voiced The Prophet Skeram and Ossirian the Unscarred.

Sources

• Battleguard Sartura, Warcraft Wiki
• Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, Warcraft Wiki