The Strategy

Phase One: Sara's guardians

From the clouds in the room Guardians of Yogg-Saron will spawn at an increasing rate as phase wears on, these have to be picked up by the tanks and DPSed down. To end phase one, 8 Guardians of Yogg-Saron have to be killed next to Sara.

When players touch the clouds in the room a Guardian of Yogg-Saron will spawn from that cloud (pets and totems do not trigger additional spawns), this can lead to a raid wipe. The clouds always follow the same path and can move faster than you think. Because of the orbiting behaviour of these clouds the outer edges of the room are less frequently visited by these clouds making it easier to setup the raid there. A general rule in this part of the encounter is to stop all that you are doing when a cloud comes close and move away from it, 3 seconds DPS / Healing lost in this encounter doesn't matter so much as an extra Guardian of Yogg-Saron.

While they are active the Guardians of Yogg-Saron can cast Dark Volley which can and should be interrupted.

Upon death the Guardians of Yogg-Saron will cast Shadow Nova dealing massive AoE damage and therefore no one but the tank (and Sara) should be near it when it dies.

There are several ways to deal with the Guardians of Yogg-Saron in this phase, and raid composition matters a lot when choosing the method of dealing with the Guardians of Yogg-Saron. A melee heavy raid might want to DPS down the Guardians of Yogg-Saron away from Sara and then drag the Guardians of Yogg-Saron down to Sara on Low HP so that the ranged DPS can finish it off.

While a ranged heavy raid might opt for DPSing down the Guardians of Yogg-Saron near Sara to speed up the killing process.

Each method has it pros and cons in terms of speed and cloud dodging.

As spawn rate is based on a fixed timer and not on Sara's life, popping at least one guardian on purpose will allow to finish phase one earlier when spawn rate is not too high, providing a cleaner room to begin with phase two. Those additional spawns should be triggerd as early at possible as spawn rate is rather low at the beginning on phase one. Popping one guardian is enough to get a comfortable start of phase 2, but do not hesitate to pop another one if you have good dps, you'll get even better transitions between phase one and two.

In the mean time Sara will be casting her spells throughout phase one, however these are a minor part of the phase.

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Phase Two: Tentacles and the Brain

When phase two starts any remaining Guardians of Yogg-Saron from phase one should be killed at a safe distance from the raid as soon as possible. They will still cast all their spells from phase one.

A word of warning for any raids utilizing feral tanks: If a Constrictor Tentacle grabs your feral tank, it will cancel bear form. That is to say, your tank will become terribly vulnerable, and will lose the ability to generate any significant threat.

Phase two consists of two areas, outside and the Mind's Eye. During the phase Yogg-Saron will open portals to the Mind's Eye. After Yogg-Saron has opened portals four times the spawn rate of the tentacles outside will increase dramatically, wiping the raid. No more than 3 portal phases should be used to get to phase three.

During phase two three types of tentacles will spawn outside the Mind's Eye:
Crusher Tentacles
Corruptor Tentacles
Constrictor Tentacles

And inside the Mind's Eye another type of tentacle will spawn:
Influence Tentacles

Phase two ends when the Brain of Yogg-Saron inside the Mind's Eye hits 30%. This removes the invulnerability from Yogg-Saron's main body.

Outside: Tentacles Once all the remaining Guardians of Yogg-Saron have been dealt with, the ranged DPS should focus on the Crusher Tentacles while the melee DPS focuses on the Corruptor Tentacles. It is possible for the melee DPS to help out on the Crusher Tentacles, however much like the Snaplashers in the Freya encounter, the Crusher Tentacles get a stacking buff which increases their melee speed and damage. Melee-ing the Crusher tentacles will disrupt their damage reduction aura so a tank dancing in and out can be helpful.

During the phase random people will get picked up by a Constrictor Tentacle which will squeeze them slowly to death. While in a Constrictor Tentacle casters can still DPS the tentacle and should do so. Also the other players need to free the caught players quickly. To make freeing caught players easier the raid should try and stay together.

Corruptor Tentacles will cast numerous spells at players which can and should all be dispelled by various classes. Corruptor Tentacles do not melee can and should be interrupted and stunned while killed by the melee DPS.

Sara will hover above Yogg-Saron's main body casting various spells:
Psychosis
Malady of the Mind
Brain Link
Death Ray

Psychosis is chain cast without pause upon random raid members whenever Sara is not casting anything else. Brain Link, Malady of the Mind and Death Ray will come randomly when Sara "feels" like casting them, with a 30 second cooldown on each.

Players afflicted by Malady of the Mind will flee in horror and so nearby players must run away from the afflicted player to avoid the Malady spreading.

Brain Linked players will get a linking beam between them which is red or yellow. When the beam is red the players are too far apart and both players will take damage and lose sanity. As soon as the beam is yellow the players are close enough together. Upon entering a portal to the Mind's Eye the brain link is severed without additional effects.

When Sara casts Death Ray small green beams will appear, and after a few seconds these will become bigger, begin to move around, and start doing massive damage. The beams need to be avoided.

60 seconds into phase 2, and then 20 seconds after each brain phase, Yogg-Saron will open portals into the Mind's Eye allowing players to enter (4 on normal, 10 on heroic). When Yogg-Saron opens the portals he will yell: "MADNESS WILL CONSUME YOU!"

Assign good DPS and one healer to take the portals. Players assigned to take portals should pay extra attention to their sanity level and use the Sanity Wells (Freya) to recover sanity before entering the portal. Because of the Crusher Tentacles outside mostly melee DPS should enter the portals so that ranged DPS can focus on these tentacles.

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Inside: The Mind's Eye

Once Yogg-Saron opens portals into the Mind's Eye you have 60 seconds to get out before you become utterly insane by the Induce Madness cast.

You will see one of three random illusions along with some disguised Influence Tentacles and laughing skulls floating around the room. The skulls cast Lunatic Gaze so you must strafe around the room with your back to the skulls at all times. When you look at a skull you'll see a purple beam between it and your character.

The illusion will shatter once you kill all the Influence Tentacles in the room. Influence Tentacles will reflect 60% of the damage done to them.

Once the illusion shatters the DPS inside can enter the Mind's Eye and DPS the brain. Also in the Mind's Eye there is a portal back out. When there is 10 to 5 seconds left on the Induce Madness cast timer the players inside need to start getting out of the Mind's Eye.

The players outside the Mind's Eye should see all the tentacles become stunned when the illusion shatters. Also no new tentacles will spawn, and Sara stops casting her spells, spells in progress will still happen. This gives the players outside time to catch up on tentacles.

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Phase Three: The Head of the Beast

Note: Players who do not play with their game sound on are advised to turn it on for this phase at least once, due to the epic music and voicework that begin when the phase is initiated.

When phase three starts all tentacles left over from phase two will remain active. As long as there is only a limited number of Corruptor Tentacles up, these can be safely ignored as long as the debuffs are dispelled.

Phase three will end when Yogg-Saron dies. Yogg-Saron has no aggro list and is unable to move. Yogg-Saron will have 30% of his original HP in this phase, 3.3 million on normal mode and 16.5 million on heroic mode.

At the start of the phase the raid needs to choose a spot and bunch up there. The best spots are obviously near the green pillars if Freya is helping so that players can restore sanity. All healers should be facing away from Yogg-Saron at all times. The caster camp is best located about 20 yards away from the melee camp. Melee DPS can get knockbacked by Yogg-Saron when attacking him if they run into his body.

During this phase Yogg-Saron will cast Lunatic Gaze which will be displayed as purple beams between Yogg-Saron and the players facing him. This cast lasts 4 seconds after which DPS can face Yogg-Saron again, this is the main reason why healers need to look away at all time. Lunatic Gaze is cast very frequently, with a 12 second cooldown. It is therefore possible to preemptively turn at the 12 second mark and never lose sanity in this phase.

Yogg-Saron will also spawn additional Immortal Guardians every 10-15 seconds. These Immortal Guardians have to be picked up by the tanks and DPSed down fast. As they spawn they'll hit a well geared tank for 25k, but their damage is dependant on their HP, the lower they get the softer they start hitting. If Thorim is helping then the Immortal Guardians can be killed otherwise they need to be tanked throughout phase three. Yogg-Saron will cast Empowering Shadows to heal the Immortal Guardians. Empowering Shadows is an AoE heal so if Thorim is not being used a rogue with wound poison should keep it up on all the Guardians affected via fan of knives. Empowering Shadows is cast every 45 seconds.

Note that if the Immortal Guardians are tanked within 20 yards of Yogg-Saron, Yogg-Saron will also be healed by Empowering Shadows. Therefore if Thorim is not being used you will need to have one tank tank the Immortal Guardians which must be reduced to 1 HP and if neccesary AoE'd to keep them there, while the other tanks taunt and drag away any Immortal Guardian buffed with Empowering Shadows (hunters with distracting shot can also work). It should be noted Yogg-Saron can target multiple Immortal Guardians at once with Empowering Shadows, sometimes three or more towards the end of the phase. The Immortals targetted by Empowering Shadows will be obviously marked with a Shadow Beacon.

Note on the functionality of Empowering Shadows: Yogg-Saron actually launches shadowy missiles at the Guardians marked by Shadow Beacon after 10 seconds, these missiles explode and buff any Guardians or Yogg-Sarons within 20 yards with the Empowering Shadows buff. The Guardians do NOT continue to spread the heal after being buffed so after the beaconed Guardians are dragged away to receive the buff the raid can collapse them and AoE to prevent tank deaths (preferably on top of Yogg-Saron to beat the soft enrage).

Phase three is mostly a burn phase, where you have to kill Yogg-Saron quickly. If Thorim is not aiding the raid the fourth Empowering Shadows Yogg-Saron casts will be targetting five or more Immortal Guardians with Empowering Shadows which is almost assuredly a wipe putting a soft enrage of 180 seconds on the encounter's third phase. Caster DPS should focus solely on Yogg-Saron and help out on the Immortal Guardians only when they are swarming the melee camp. And the melee should focus on the Immortal Guardians and only DPS Yogg-Saron when no Immortal Guardian is being tanked.

If the raid is using three or fewer Keepers on heroic mode Yogg-Saron will emote, "Yogg-Saron opens his mouth wide!" while casting Deafening Roar. This is your cue to throw the [Shattered Fragments of Val'anyr] into his maw then defeat him to reforge the [Legendary Mace]. This ability is cast approximately every minute and is best dealt with via Holy Paladins rotating aura mastery with concentration aura up.

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