Galakras is the 5th encounter in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, and 1st encounter in the Gates of Retribution LFR.

For a detailed view of the abilities and loot table across LFR/Flex/10/25 please CLICK HERE

General Strategy/Overview

Galakras is a 2 phase encounter. The first phase will deal with assortment of adds, and 4 named mini-boss adds.  The overall objective of the first phase is to clear the area of the adds and 4 mini-bosses to gain access to 2 towers with anti-air cannons on them.  Once you gain access to the towers you will utilize the cannons to shoot down Galakra's Proto-Drake and start Phase 2.  During this phase you will be assisted by 3 Alliance Lore characters who will help kill mobs - Varian Wrynn, Jaina Proudmore and Vereesa Windrunner.

Phase 2 will deal with Warlord Zaela's proto-drake Galakras and her abilities.  Needs to be pushed hard and fast to ensure stacking buffs to Galakras does not overwhelm/wipe the raid.

It appears the primary challenge of this fight will be surviving the first phase and bringing Galakras down.  After that it gets easier, similar to Warmaster Blackhorn in Dragon Soul.

Phase 1

While riding Galakras, Warlord Zaela wll constantly summon adds into battle to prevent you from gaining access to the towers to shoot her down, etc.  There are 4 named mini-bosses during this phase. You will fight 2 on the ground and 1 on top of each tower.  The ones at the top of the towers primarily spam conal knock-backs to knock players off the towers.  At the beginning of the encounter, the doors to the towers are locked.  The opening of the doors appears to be time-based, but may change when it goes live. The South Tower should open first, followed by the North tower.  From videos it appears to be around the 2 minute mark for the first tower, then the 4 1/2 minute mark for the 2nd tower.

Ground Mini-Bosses and adds

1. Korgra the Snake (appears 1st) - is a rogue style mob that deals in poison dmg
   1. Poison-Tipped Blades - poison daggers inflict ~10k poison dmg to her primary target.  Effect stacks!
   2. Poison Cloud - throws a poison vial, causing a smokey poison cloud to appear.   Deals ~75k poison dmg to those standing in it.
   3. Dragonmaw Ebon Stalker - Kogra will command stealthed units to appear behind a random target and stab wildly.  Any player standing within range of the attack will take high phys dmg.  When you see them appear, GTFO!
   4. Curse of Venom - When she is low on health, she will transform into a snake, and begin spam casting poison bolt volleys until she is defeated.
2. High Enforcer Thranok (appears 2nd) - Melee heavy boss, deals high dmg.
   1. Shattering Strike - deals 250% normal dmg to his primary target and nearby targets, use individual CD/mitigations
   2. Crusher's Call - throws chains onto 5 random players (10 in 25-man) within 45 yards and brings them to him.  He will then use...
      1. Skull Cracker - deals ~1mil phs dmg to all players within 10 yards.  If you are grabbed by his chains, GTFO!!
3. Adds/Foot Soldiers - (these names come from the dungeon journal and may be different in vids/live)
   1. Dragonmaw Bonecrusher - Will charge random targets and stun, then unleash high dmg on them.
   2. Dragonmaw Waraxe(Grunts?) - deal basic dmg with axes, but will also interrupt spellcasting
   3. Dragonmaw Tidal Shaman - cast chain heals (interruptable) and tidal waves to dmg players
   4. Dragonmaw Wind Reaver - Supposedly ride proto-drakes and hurl axes at random players, dealing phys dmg and roots players with nets.  I never saw these mobs specifically on vids yet, may be a heroic only mob.
   5. Dragonmaw Proto-Drake - Face away from the raid as they do a frontal fire breath.
   6. Dragonmaw Flagbearer(should be primary focus on spawn) - with the waves of mobs comes one flagbearer (not noted in the dungeon journal).  These are a priority as they will drop warbanners greatly increasing the dmg the adds deal. You can target/kill the banners, but will be best served by killing the flagbearers quickly.
   7. Kor'kron Demolisher - Demolisher catapult that appears once a tower door opens and players ascend it.  Will spam Bombard at the tower and damage players in/on top of the tower.  Mob does not appear in the DJ for info.

Tower Mini-Bosses and adds

1. Master Cannoneer Dagryn - Guards the top of the North towers he must be killed to gain access to the cannon.
   1. Shoot - shoots at random nearby players, deals heavy dmg.
   2. Muzzle Spray - unleashes a front conal AoE, dealing dmg and knocking players back.
2. Lieutenant General Krugruk - Guards the top of the South tower, must be killed to gain access to the cannon.
   1. Thunder Clap - deals 100% normal dmg to primary target and nearby allies
   2. Arcing Smash - spams a conal ability in multiple directions causing dmg and knock back to knock players off the tower.
3. Adds
   1. Dragonmaw Flameslinger - These will appear on the top of the towers, shooting flame arrows at players on the ground.

Once you have gained control of a tower (even the first one) shoot down proto-drakes that are flying in the air to alleviate some of the extra raid damage.  Do the same after the 2nd tower when you are shooting down Galakras.

Phase 2 - Warlord Zaela/Galakras

Once you have the 4 mini-bosses down, you must hit Galakras with "2" shots from the tower cannons, it may take more when it goes live.  You MUST shoot Galakras with both tower cannons, one will not do.  It appears that Warlord Zaela falls from Galakras and dies when the drake is shot with the cannons.

Dungeon Journal only lists 2 primary abilities for Galakras during Phase 2 - ground phase.

1. Flames of Galakrond - Spews flames at a random player.  The targetted player will noted by a red beam.  For each player that the beam passes through, they will suffer ~50k fire dmg every 1 sec.  However, the more people it passes through, the lesser damage it will deal to the subsequent players it hits.  When the Ball of flame at the end of the cast reaches its destination, it will erupt and deal ~200k fire dmg to all players.  This dmg is also reduced by the amount of people that help diminish the flame.  Ideally you want to have multiple people in the beam to reduce overall dmg taken by the fire beam, and the AoE blast.
2. Pulsing Flames - Galakras erupts and begins pulsing AoE fire dmng to all players, approx ~25k per pulse to start.  However, each pulse increases Galakras' fire dmg by 2% and stacks for the remainder of the encounter.

Again, this fight appears to be all about add control and surviving the first phase, then a hard burn while trying to mitigate as much raid AoE dmg as possible before you wipe.

For the Towers, it appears the best bet is to nominate 1 tank, 1 heal and 2 dps as the tower group to bum-rush the towers when they are open and deal with the bosses up top.  Best to have more mobile healers/dps on the towers so they can dodge the conal knock-backs with relative ease.  The bottom group should primarily focus the Flagbearers and Tidal Shamans first and interrupt any healing.  Tanks should try to tank as many as you can and survive using personal CDs.  When the Demolishers appear, try to make them a priority so the tower group doesnt get slammed by bombards.

There doesnt appear to be any tank swapping required for the last phase from what is readable from the DJ, but there may be a debuff in there somewhere that will require it.