Heroic Maut Boss Guide

January 17th, 2020

Maut is an encounter which alternates between two phases. During Phase 1, he gathers mana, during Phase 2 he begins a cast using all his mana. This cast ends when his mana reaches 0, and you re-enter Phase 1.

  • Dark offering = 2% Maut mana
  • Adds lose 2% mana per 2 seconds within the circles, so 100 seconds in circle = ded
  • Adds spawn every 35-40 seconds
  • Maut naturally gains about .66% mana per second, or 1.5 seconds per 1% mana.
  • Maut gains 1% mana per person hit by devour magic
  • Boss has exactly 2x HP vs mana
  • Adds have 10% boss’s mana
  • Killing add is 5% of boss HP

Phase 1

  • Shadow Claws
    • Deals 268k Physical damage to the current tank, and applies the Shadow Wound Debuff
      • Deals 36k Shadow damage every 2 seconds for 24 seconds. Stacks.
  • Devour Magic
    • Marks 4 players with a purple targeting circle
    • After 6s, the circle explodes dealing 53k Shadow damage to everyone hit
    • Each person hit also generates 1% mana for Maut
    • Leaves a Devoured Abyss wherever the explosions happened
      • 9 yard radius purple circle of bad
      • Standing inside silences you, prevents incoming healing, deals 42k Shadow damage every 2 seconds, and drains your mana
      • While inside, you’re also immune to all other forms of magic damage
      • These explode when P2 starts, dealing 268k damage to anyone standing in them

  • Stygian Annihilation
    • AoE, deals 1.7 million Shadow damage to the entire raid
  • Consuming Shadows
    • Periodically puts a 3 second DoT on the raid that deals Shadow damage every 3s. This DoT deals more damage as Maut’s mana increases
  • Black Wings
    • Frontal cone ability, deals 142k Physical damage and knocks back anyone hit
    • Targeted at a random melee
  • Dark Manifestation
    • Large purple swirly pool of bad spawns, lasts 6 seconds. After 6s, it explodes dealing 267k Shadow damage to anyone inside
      • Has a relatively weak sucking effect, dragging players towards the bad circle
    • After the explosion, a Dark Manifestation add spawns where the explosion occurred.
      • Adds take damage to their mana instead of HP. At 0 mana they die.
      • Periodically cast Dark Offering. If the cast completes, the add loses 20% mana and the boss gains 2% of his max mana.
      • If the add gets within 20 yards of Maut, he’ll eat it, consuming all the adds mana and adding it to his own. The max amount of mana an add can give Maut is 10% of Maut’s mana pool.

Phase 2

  • When Maut reaches 100% mana, he casts Obsidian Skin, followed by Obsidian Shatter. He also destroys all of the Devoured Abyss circles on the ground, dealing 268k Shadow Damageto anyone inside them.
    • Obsidian Skin
      • All damage dealt to Maut is instead dealt to his mana pool
      • You take 100% of the damage you deal to Maut as Arcane damage
      • Making Maut reach 0 mana immediately ends Phase 2 and stops his cast of Obsidian Shatter
    • Obsidian Shatter
      • 60 second cast. Upon completion, deals 1 million Shadow damage to the raid. You wipe. Don’t let this happen.
    • Consumed Magic
      • Every 6 seconds during Phase 2, Maut consumed 10% of his mana pool, and gains 1% increased magic damage dealt. Stacks.
    • Forbidden Ritual
      • Mana orbs spawn one at a time from the altars at the edge of the room.
        • When an orb spawns, it drains Maut of 10% mana
        •  If they reach Maut, they restore 20% of his mana
      • These can be soaked by players. Soaking deals AoE damage to the raid. The further the orb has traveled, the more damage it deals. Soaking an orb gives you the Forbidden Mana debuff
        • After 6 seconds, you explode with mana. All players within a 20 yard range of the explosion gain 150% increased mana regen and 50% increased healing done for 8 seconds

    • Drain Essence
      • Purple swirly on 2 players, deals 35k Shadow damage and burns 4k mana per second for 8 second. While the debuff persists, Maut gains 1% mana per second
      • DIspellable
      • When dispelled, deals 71k Shadow damage and burns 10k mana from players within 8 yards

Strategy

During testing, two strategies worked well to defeat this boss on Heroic. Option 1 makes Phase 2 longer in exchange for longer Phase 1s. This increased the strain on healers in Phase 2, and also allows the boss to accumulate more stacks of Consumed Magic, increasing the overall damage of the fight. Option 2 is basically a zerg strat, and required a higher DPS output. Both will be explained below. We’ll first talk about the fight as a whole, then break out the differences, as it all boils down to how you handle the adds.

  • Phase 1
    • Lust on pull
    • Tanks should start the boss either where he is, or just off to the left. Raid should stand behind the boss, loosely spread
      • Tanks swap every 2 stacks, preferably when there’s only 1 add alive
      • Tanks should slowly move the boss around the room to make sure the raid doesn’t run out of room from puddles
    • The rest of the raid should be loosely spread behind the boss, leaving space to the right-hand side (closest to the outer edge)
      • Players affected by Devour Magic will move to this open area on the right side to drop their puddles
      • When Stygian Annihilation goes out, everyone needs to step into a purple puddle, as it makes you immune to the damage
    • Melee need to move to the side of the boss right before Black Wings occurs to bait it
      • You want this going harmlessly to one side or the other, not through the raid
      • As soon as Maut starts casting, melee need to quickly move and get back with the rest of the raid
    • Consuming Shadows just needs to be healed through, no big deal
  • Phase 2 – Boss hits 100% Mana
    • Boss runs to the middle of the room, and simultaneously makes all the purple circles explode and begins casting Obsidian Shatter
    • Whole raid should stack together in melee range of the boss to help the healers be more efficient
    • Tanks should focus on soaking the Mana Orbs. After soaking, yeet yourself back on top of the raid stack point to apply the mana buff to your healers
    • Players affected by Drain Essence need to move 8 yards away to be dispelled, then move back after being dispelled
    • You’ll want to use 2 healing cooldowns each time you’re in this phase. Spread them out however works best for your raid, but this is a high intensity healing phase so CDs will be necessary to keep the raid stable
    • Once the boss’s mana hits 0, you go back to Phase 1. If you don’t do this before his cast ends, you lose gg
  • Add strategy Option 1 – slow and steady
    • Have the tank not currently on the boss pick up the add when it spawns, and drag it near a purple circle
      • When it begins casting Dark Offering, drag it into the purple circle. After the cast ends, bring it back out. This prevents the cast from actually finishing, and stops the mana from going into the boss
      • DoT up the adds, but don’t prioritize damage
    • Tanks swap whenever a new add spawns. When taunting the boss, bring your add with you and let him suck it. Do this for add #1 and add #2. Don’t let add #3 get sucked.
    • By doing this, you’ll have Phase 1 last around 2 minutes,give or take, assuming you did well with Devour Magic.
    • Once you enter P2, just kill the last add from cleave damage, focus DPS on boss
  • Add strategy Option 2 – Zerg
    • Have the tank not currently on the boss pick up the add when it spawns. Immediately drag it under the boss he can eat it.
    • All DPS just keep nuking the boss
    • Repeat for Add 2
    • Repeat for Add 3, although he’ll spawn when the boss is close to 100% mana, so make sure you get it eaten
    • Idea here is to maximize effective DPS on the boss with minimal downtime. By doing this, your Phase 1s will last between 1:35 and 1:45, so quite a bit less time than doing it slow and steady. It’s simpler overall, but not by much, and adds a little more risk of not killing the boss during the 2nd Phase 1
  • During PTR testing, the Zerg strategy seemed easier than the “Slow and Steady” strategy. However, we recommend using the “Slow and Steady” strategy, as it’s more forgiving and still pretty simple. It’s also much more likely the way Blizzard envisioned the fight, and more like what you’ll be doing for Mythic.

Positioning

Basic positioning during Phase 1. You’ll need to move the boss slowly as the Devour Magic puddles block too much space.

Phase 2 positioning. If you have Drain Essence, move away from the raid, somewhere like to X.

Video Guide

Heroic Skitra Boss Guide

January 17th, 2020

Skitra is an encounter that alternates between a primary phase and intermission phase based on boss HP. Phase 1 is where the encounter primarily happens. Phase 2 occurs at 80%, 60%, 40%, and 20% HP on Skitra. Phase 2 ends as soon as you defeat the add.

Primary Phase

  • Shadow Shock
    • Cast every 2 seconds, deals 71k Shadow damage to the active tank plus 2 random players
    • Also applies a debuff causing affected players to take 15% increased Shadow damage for 5 seconds
    • Stacks
  • Shred Psyche
    • Occurs 0:12 into each Phase 1, then every 34 seconds
    • Debuff on a random player that lasts 5 seconds
    • An add spawns at the location the player was at when the debuff falls off
    • Add has a 5 second cast when it spawns, deals 430k Shadow damage to everyone
      • Damage falls off based on distance. You only need to be 8-10 yards away from the add to be fine
    • After the initial AoE, the add will pulse for 14k Shadow damage every 1.5 seconds until it dies

  • Images of Absolution
    • Occurs 30 seconds into each Phase 1, then 1:25 later (if still in a Phase 1)
    • Same mechanic as Coven of Shivarra had in Antorus
    • Line of adds spawns at the side of the room, and slowly walk across the entire encounter area.
    • Deals 142k Shadow damage per second if they touch you
    • Immune to all damage for 30 seconds
    • CAN be CC’d, must be CC’d.

Intermission Phase – 80%, 60%, 40%, 20%

  • Skitra assigns half of the raid the Clouded Mind debuff, other half with Twisted Mind
  • Each half of the raid can see 4 Illusions of Prophet Skitra in random locations across the room
    • Only one is the real boss. The boss will be the only illusion which is located in the same place for both halves of the raid
    • Need to coordinate this on Discord
  • Mindquake
    • If an incorrect Illusion of Skitra is killed, the raid takes 375k Shadow damage. Don’t do this.
  • Dark Ritual
    • Stacking debuff on the whole raid. Increases Shadow damage taken by 2%
    • New stack every 5 seconds while in Phase 2
      • This does NOT reset after an intermission ends, but instead carries through all fight
  • Illusionary Bolt
    • Every raider takes 35k Shadow damage every 2 seconds while in Phase 2 (Increased by the stacking debuff)

Strategy

  • As a note, testing for this boss on heroic was super wonky with the AoE damages. They’ve made drastic changes in tuning for the Shred Psyche add, as it was overtuned on PTR. As such, the primary healing difficulty for the fight has been moved (according to the Dungeon Journal at least) and this strategy reflects this.
    • Also, the boss’s health pool was simply stupid on PTR. 19 man scaling was 274 million HP, not including transitions and adds. For reference, Wrathion had 151M with 21 people. Hopefully this has been scaled down quite a bit.
  • Primary Phase
    • Place your 8 raid markers around the room before you pull the boss, 4 on each side
      • You’ll use these to coordinate Phase 2
    • Tank the boss near the middle of the room, facing away from the raid
      • Tanks swap at 7-8 stacks of Shadow Shock
    • Rest of raid should be stacked directly behind the boss in melee range
    • We recommend lusting either on pull, or when the first add spawns 30s into the fight.
    • Players affected by Shred Psyche need to move to the side of the boss, 8 yards away from the cluster of everyone else
      • Don’t move too far past 8 yards
      • When add spawns, wait for its 5s cast to finish
      • Once it finishes, tank should move the boss onto the add
      • Nuke the add
    • When Images of Absolution spawn, have an assigned player CC one specific Image. Banish is the best, but Freezing Trap, Blind, Entangling Roots, etc, anything works
      • Raid stands in that spot from the CC’d add
      • After 30 seconds, the Images are no longer immune to damage and need to be tickled for 1 HP to die
  • Intermission
    • Coordinate over Discord (or whatever other voice chat you use) to determine which Illusion is the real Skitra. Have one assigned person from one debuff group call out the colors their 4 adds are at
      • Have one person from the opposite debuff group say YES or NO to whether that group has an add in the same place.
      • Example: Raid Leader in Clouded Mind says: “SKULL”
      • Person in Twisted Mind replies YES or NO
      • Keep going until you get a yes
      • Then kill that add
      • OR use the Weakaura posted above
        • If you elect to use the Weakaura, have one person from each debuff put a DoT effect on all 4 Illusions you see. The Weakaura will put a green circle on the correct Skitra
        • It’s possible Blizzard can implement a hotfix to this to prevent it from working. As of the most recent testing, it worked just fine on PTR. Recommend trying it first.
    • Raid should stack near the correct Illusion as you kill it to help the healers increase efficiency, as this is a heavy damage phase
      • You’ll want to use healing CDs here
    • Kill the correct Illusion as fast as possible, and you go back to Phase 1
    • Rinse and repeat, GGs

 

Positioning

Put up raid markers before you pull the boss, like below.

Tank the boss near the middle of the room

The person affected by Shred Psyche needs to move to the side of the group, somewhere around X below:

AFTER the add finishes its initial cast, the tank pulls the boss on top of it and everyone follows:

Video Guide

Heroic Xanesh Boss Guide

January 17th, 2020

This is a single-phase encounter with several standard fight mechanics. Oh, and soccer. Yes I said soccer, I’m American. You need to play soccer to defeat this boss. You’ll also see the Sea Witch you killed last raid being tortured in the middle of the room, so that’s kind of cool after 200-300 wipes to her. We’ll break out the soccer mechanic by itself, as there’s a lot of pieces to it.

Xanesh Abilities

  • Abyssal Strike
    • Big smack on the tank, deals 285k Shadow damage. Also applies a 1 minute debuff causing you to take 25% increased damage from subsequent Abyssal Stikes, stacks
  • Soul Flay
    • Creates a red glowing Soul copy of several players, denoted with a red targeting circle underneath. After 10s, the Souls explode and deal 578k Shadow damage to the affected players. You can only see YOUR Soul, and only take damage from YOUR Soul. Move outside the targeting circle to avoid insta-death
  • Ritual Obelisk
    • Xanesh creates several Obelisks at random locations around the room. Standing in the swirlie around an Obelisk deals 71k SHadow damage every 1.5s and slows you by 50%
    • 6-8 Obelisks spawn each time this ability occurs, with the previous ones despawning

Azshara Being Tortured

  • Torment
    • AoE ability, deals 286k Shadow damage if you stand in it
    • Covers most of the room, radiating out from Azshara, with multiple safe zone cones
    • Cast 3 times in a row, can get dicey trying to dodge all 3. Speed buffs are helpful
  • Anguish
    • The raid takes a static 21k Shadow damage every 2s for the entire fight. That’s it, that’s the mechanic. Blizzard thought healers would get bored.

Soccer!

  • Void Ritual
    • Begins at 0:52, 2:12, 3:32, 4:52, 6:13, give or take about 2 seconds
    • Xanesh creates 3 orange soak circles simultaneously in a triangle around herself. Each must be soaked by 1 person
      • If all 3 circles do not get soaked, the whole raid takes 1 million damage. RIP
    • After soaking, you get a 40s debuff called Voidwoken
      • You deal 99% less damage, get to play soccer
      • After you finish soccer, you gain a debuff called Void-Touched, take 13k Shadow damage every 1s and cannot participate in soccer again for 3 minutes (Duration from PTR, not listed in Journal)

Here’s a screenshot showing Obelisks and the soak circles for Void Ritual

  • Void Orb
    • After Void Ritual completes, two void portals spawn on opposite ends of the room. One will have a very visible extra glowing effect
    • The glowing portal is where the Void Orb (soccer ball) spawns
    • Anyone without Voidwoken who hits the orb takes 143k Shadow damage and are knocked back
    • If the ball hits an Obelisk, Azshara, or an outer wall of the platform, it explodes and triggers Dark Collapse
      • 214k Shadow damage to the whole raid
      • Buffs boss with Dark Ascension, increases damage taken by subsequent Dark Collapses by 500% for the rest of the fight
      • Also causes Xanesh to attack 50% faster for 30 seconds

Strategy

  • Lust on pull
  • Tanks taunt every 1-2 stacks of Abyssal Strike
  • Move away from your Soul Flay when affected by it. Try to get 8 yards outside the red targeting circle
    • You may want to use raid CDs for these. On PTR, roughly 40% of the raid was targeted each time, so this is a large burst of damage on a large chunk of the raid
  • Don’t stand under Obelisks
  • Watch your feet during Torment. The 3 casts happen relatively quickly in succession and can be tight to dodge, so use movement abilities as needed
  • Voidwoken Players Job
    • The only players who can interact with the Void Orb without being knocked back are the 3 Voidwoken players
    • When you come in contact with the Orb while Voidwoken, it bounces off you in the direction YOUR CHARACTER is facing
    • Your job is to kick the ball into the opposite portal, without letting it hit an Obelisk, Azshara, or a wall
    • While come in contact with the ball, you gain 1 stack of Imminent Doom, lasts 6 seconds
      • If you reach 5 stacks, you die, so don’t do that
    • So basically, ball spawns on one end of the room, the other portal (goal) spawns on the other side
      • Your job is to play soccer with your 2 best friends, avoid the defenders (Obelisks, Azshara), keep the ball in bounds (don’t touch wall), and score a goal (portal)
      • When the ball hits the portal, it disappears harmlessly and you win. Now start nuking the boss again
    • Dark Ascension basically allows for 1 mistake in soccer during the fight, but a 2nd one causes a wipe
  • Most of this fight just comes down to soccer. It’ll take multiple pulls for people to get used to it, and some people will be better at it than others
    • Let everyone try during your first few pulls. Once you’ve identified your stronger soccer players, assign them to do this
    • We recommend putting area markers in the corners of the room, and having your soccer players communicate where they’re kicking the ball using the markers. This’ll help reduce confusion and keep your team on the same page
    • On PTR, it seemed like the portals, while always on exact opposite sides of the room, spawned in corners in a random order
    • We found it easiest to try and only ever kick the ball at right angles, parallel to the edges of the room, and staying near the edges of the room. This reduced the chances of hitting an Obelisk or a non-Voidwoken player, and all but eliminated any change of hitting Azshara

  • Score goals, don’t stand in bad things, nuke boss, ggs

Positioning

You’ll want to tank the boss near where the circle around Azshara is. See the below screenshot.

 

Heroic Hivemind Boss Guide

January 17th, 2020

Single-phase encounter with two bosses that you fight simultaneously. They do not share a health pool. They alternate control over “The Hivemind,” changing how some mechanics need to be handled. Oh, there’s also a lot of bugs in this fight, a massive amount of bugs. We’ll discuss the Hivemind mechanics separately. All mechanics listed specifically under the individual bosses occur regardless of who’s controlling the Hivemind.

The Hivemind

  • Tek’ris control 0:00-1:11, 2:24-3:30, 4:44-5:51, 7:04-8:10
    • When the bosses are more than 20 yards away, they and all adds take 99% reduced damage
    • All adds gain 1% damage dealt and 1% movement speed every second they’re alive, stacking
  • Ka’zir control – 1:11-2:24, 3:30-4:44, 5:51-7:04, 8:10-9:24
    • When the bosses are closer than 20 yards, they and all adds take 99% reduced damage
    • When adds are below 20% HP, they heal for 3% health per second
  • When control of the Hivemind swaps, Devouring Frenzy occurs
    • Deals 10k Nature damage to the raid every 0.5 seconds for 12 seconds
    • Damage dealt increased by 15% each swap

Tek’ris

  • Nullification Blast
    • Frontal cone ability with a targeting reticle on the ground. Dodgeable
    • Deals 117k Shadow damage to anyone hit, and applies Nullification debuff
      • 53k Shadow damage every 2s for 6s, and reduces healing received by 100%
  • Echoing Void
    • 1:04, 1:20, 2:00, 2:45, 4:20, 5:44, 6:00, 6:40, 7:25
    • Puts a small purple circle around every player in the raid
    • After 4s, the circles explode
    • Deals 89k Shadow damage to the whole raid
    • Also deals an additional 107k Shadow to anyone else standing in your circle

  • Accelerated Evolution
    • Turns one small Drone add into an Aqir Ravager, gives it 450% increased health and damage and healing it to full HP
    • Ravager has a standard threat table, needs to be tanked
    • Casts Ravage, deals 71k Physical damage every 2s for 20s to the tank

Ka’zir

  • Volatile Eruption
    • 1:52, 3:40, 6:32
    • Picks one small Drone add to empower, increases max HP of that add by 150% and gives it immunity to all CCs
    • After 20s, empowered add explodes for 285k Nature to the whole raid
  • Spawn Acidic Aqir
    • 0:16, 0:46, 1:26, 1:46, 2:11, 2:46, 3:16, 4:56, 5:26, 6:06, 6:26, 6:51, 7:26, 7:56
    • Spawns several rolling bugs around the room
    • Roll in a straight line in whatever direction they start in
    • Being hit deals 178k Nature damage and applies Corrosion
      • Corrosion deals 21k Nature every 2s and increases damage taken by 25% for 8s

  • Mind-Numbing Nova
    • Applies Mind-Numbing Toxin to the raid for 8s
    • Deals 36k nature damage every 2s and reduces Haste by 50%
    • This is interruptible.

Dark Reconstitution

  • When either boss reaches 1% HP, they become immune to damage and cast Dark Reconstitution, 12 second cast
  • If the cast completes, heals 50% of their max HP
  • If the second boss reaches 1% HP while the other is casting, they both die

Bug adds

  • Aqir Drone
    • Spawn at 0:35, 1:51, 3:40, 5:15, 6:32
    • Fixates on random targets
    • Leave puddles of acid when they die called Acidic Blood
    • Puddles deal 78k Nature damage every 1.5s when standing in it
    • Puddles despawn when the next set of Drones spawns
  • Aqir Darter
    • Spawn at 2:04, 2:42, 4:17, 6:45
    • Psionic Resonance
      • Deals 28k Shadow damage to the raid, then flies to a new spot in the room
  • Both types of adds spawn in groups.
  • Drones can be slowed and gripped

Strategy

  • On heroic, this boss is pretty straightforward. Dodge bad, kill priority adds.
  • Lust on pull
  • During Tek’ris’s Hivemind, tank the bosses together. During Ka’zir’s, tank them 22-25 yards apart
    • There is no tank swap mechanic on this fight
    • You start on Tek’ris’s Hivemind
  • Dodge the bowling ball bugs, don’t stand in the little green Acidic Blood puddles, and don’t get hit by Nullification Blast.
    • It’s dodgeable even by the tank it’s targeted at
  • Make sure to be spread 4-6 yards from everyone else during Echoing Void, so you don’t take the extra portion of damage
  • Use grips, knockbacks, etc to keep the Drones stacked on a boss to make cleave more effective
  • Hardswap the Ravager add, as they can get out of hand with damage on the tank fairly quickly. This is especially important during Tek’ris control
  • Also hardswap the Drone casting Volatile Eruption. It grows to about 3x the normal size and sticks out like a sore thumb. Killing it gives your healers a nice break
  • Interrupt the Mind-Numbing Nova
  • Use a raid healing CD for as many of the Echoing Voids as you can
    • Prioritize the ones at 1:20 and 6:00. These have overlaps with the Acidic Aqir bowling ball adds AND the Hivemind swap AoE effect. The combination of the raid-wide damage plus people getting hit by the bowling ball adds can be lethal
    • At 2:45 and 7:25, you have overlaps of Echoing Voids and the Bowling Ball adds, but without the Hivemind swap AoE. You will probably want CDs here too, but not as critical.
  • This fight isn’t really strategy-difficult. Rather, it’s personal responsibility difficult. It’s very easy to kill yourself on this fight during the bowling ball bugs, especially when paired with anything else going on.
    • Most of your wipes will simply be people learning and understanding how to effectively deal with the bowling ball bug mechanic. Once people figure it out, the boss falls fairly easily

Positioning

When Tak’ris is controlling the Hivemind, stack the bosses:

When Ka’zir controls the Hivemind, spread them 20 yards away:

 

Heroic Shad’har Boss Guide

January 17th, 2020

Shad’har is a very not good boy doggo fight with 3 phases. He has several abilities which remain the same through each phase, and two abilities that morph based on the current phase

Shad’har All-Phase Abilities

  • Crush & Dissolve
    • Each ability has a 3 second cast, and Shad’har casts 3 total abilities per combo
      • Random order
    • Crush
      • Deals 625k Physical to the tank, increases Physical damage taken by 50%, and increases damage taken from DIssolve by 400%. Lasts 20 seconds. Stacks
    • Dissolve
      • Deals 35k Nature damage, plus applies a DoT dealing 53k Nature damage per second for 15s. Stacks
  • Debilitating Spit
    • Applies a stacked debuff to a random target. Starts at 4 stacks. Deals 21.4k Nature damage per second for 5 seconds, per stack. After 5s, jumps to 2 targets, each gets 2 stacks, still lasts 5s on them. After it expires from the 2 targets, jumps for 4 targets for 1 stack each, lasts 5s on the 4 targets. Then disappears. So,, first target takes 82k/s for 5s. Second 2 targets take 43k/s for 5s. Last 4 targets take 21k/s for 5s.
  • Living Miasma
    • Spawns 2 little slime adds that fixate on random players
    • When they reach their targets, they explode for 268k Shadow damage to the raid, reduced by distance

Phase 1 – 100%-66%

  • Umbral Mantle
    • Every 20s, Shad’har explodes. Deals 53k Shadow damage every 2.5s to the raid. Lasts 5s
    • Separately, every few seconds swirlies appear around the room
      • After a few seconds, the swirlies get hit by Umbral Eruption. Deals 178k Shadow damage to anyone that gets hit in a swirlie
      • Happens more frequently as the phase progresses
  • Umbral Breath
    • Frontal cone breath, deals 214k Shadow + fears anyone hit for 10s
    • Occurs more frequently as the phase progresses
    • Dodgeable

Phase 2 – 66%-33%

  • Everything Umbral morphs into Entropic
  • Entropic Mantle
    • Deals 10k Shadow damage to the raid as the phase begins
    • Then deals 3,500 Shadow to the raid every 2s for 25s. Stacks.
  • Entropic Buildup
    • Several void orbs spawn around the room. After 15s, they explode and deal 45k Shadow to the raid, each
    • These can be soaked to reduce the size of their explosion
    • Soaking deals 7k Shadow per 2 seconds
    • The longer you’re in this phase, the more void orbs spawn
  • Entropic Breath
    • Frontal cone, deals 143k Shadow to anyone hit, and reduces their healing taken by 50% for 6s
    • Cast more frequently the lower Shad’har’s HP gets
    • Dodgeable

Phase 3 – 33%-GGS

  • Everything Entropic morphs to Noxious
  • Noxious Mantle
    • Deals 53k Nature to everyone every 3s the rest of the fight
  • Bubbling Overflow
    • Creates pool on the ground which grows bigger over time
    • Standing in the pools deals 10% of your max HP per second
      • Damage doubles every second you stay in the puddle
      • See the start of Bubbling Overflow in the screenshot below:

Here’s what the room looks later in the phase, almost completely covered in green goop:

  • Bubbling Breath
    • Frontal cone, deals 214k nature to anyone hit
    • Also applies a DoT, deals 35k Nature every second for 10s
    • Occurs more frequently as Shad’har’s HP is reduced
    • Dodgeable
  • Frenzy
    • At 30%, boss enrages and deals 25% increased damage from all abilities

Strategy

  • Tank the boss near the middle of the room
    • That’ll make it easier to dodge the various frontal cone abilities
  • See section below for Tanking info
  • If you’re targeted by the initial application of Debilitating Spit with 4 stacks, use a defensive CD/healthstone/health pot
  • If targeted by Living Miasma, just move away from the raid to reduce the AoE damage
  • Always dodge the frontal cone breath abilities. Umbral Breath, Entropic Breath, Bubbling Breath are all dodgeable. Don’t let yourself get hit
  • In Phase 1, dodge the purple swirlies on the ground
  • In Phase 2, all ranged DPS should help soak the Entropic Buildup void orbs. More soaking is not a bad thing
    • As the phase progresses, more and more soaking will be required. Please help soak so your raid doesn’t explode
  • Phase 3 is a hard burn phase. Healers will want to save their raid CDs for sub 30%, and rotate them from there
    • Bloodlust when the boss dips below 30%
    • Healers may want to time using CDs for Living Miasma explosions. With the reduced space in P3 as the fight goes on, it’ll be harder to properly drag the slime away before it explodes, so expect the damage actually taken per explosion to go up
  • When you enter Phase 3, the Bubbling Overflow puddle will spawn at the center of the room and slowly grow larger. Eventually it CAN grow large enough to cover the entire room. This is a soft enrage. Do not stand in the puddle
    • As the puddle grows, tanks will need to inch the boss closer to the edges of the room. Try to have the boss close to the edge of the puddle
    • The puddle makes dodging Bubbling Breath much more difficult over time. Ranged/healers should move closer to the boss, making dodging the Breath require less movement
    • You’ll also periodically have green swirlies spawning throwing more Bubbling Overflow. These are targeted at random player locations. Try to bait these either in the existing puddle, or towards the opposite direction of where the raid is planning on moving to as the puddles grow
      • Don’t trap yourself and kill the raid
  • Nuke hard, use all CDs, don’t get hit by breath, and hope you beat the soft enrage of running out of room
    • If you get the first application of Debilitating Split in Phase 3, pop any/all defensives you have to keep yourself alive. That DoT plus the standard P3 DoT will cause 466k total damage over a 5 second time period, assuming 2 ticks of the basic P3 DoT.
      • If you don’t have any personals left, call for a healer external.

Tank Info

  • Crush and Dissolve are cast in a random order sequence, with 3 abilities total per combo
  • Each tank should be assigned one ability they’re responsible for taking. Tank 1 is assigned to all Crushes, Tank 2 is assigned to all Dissolves
    • Taunt swap as needed to make sure you stick to this assignment
    • NEVER take a Dissolve if you have the Crush debuff
    • If the boss uses Crush twice during the combo, Tank 1 needs to make sure they use a personal CD to survive

Positioning

Normal positioning for P1 and P2:

If you get Living Miasma, move away from the raid:

In Phase 3, you’ll need to move the boss towards the edge as the green goop grows:

 

Heroic Drest’agath Boss Guide

January 17th, 2020

Big tentacle gal trying to win over N’zoth’s heart. Technically a one-phase encounter, but alternating between killing off smaller tentacles and burn phases on the boss.

Drest’agath

  • Aberrant Regeneration
    • Heals self for 11.2 million health every 5 seconds
    • Cannot heal damage which was inflicted by players with Void Infused Ichor
  • Throes of Agony
    • When boss hits 100 Agony (energy), flails and deals 39k Nature damage to the raid every 2s for 10s
  • Void Grip
    • Grabs a target, pulls them to the boss, stuns them for 5s
    • Only occurs when nobody is within melee range of the boss
  • Volatile Seed
    • Occurs at 0:05, then every roughly 17 seconds
    • Puts a 10s DoT on the current tank
    • Deals 107k Shadow every 2s for the 10s
    • When it ends, explodes in a Volatile Detonation
      • Deals 143k Shadow damage to all players AND tentacle adds within 13 yards
      • Players hit take 60% increased damage for 15s
      • Tentacles hit (other than the actual boss) take 60% increased damage for 15s

  • Entropic Crash
    • Occurs at 0:15, then every 45 seconds
    • Large AoE, deals 533k Shadow to the whole raid, reduced based on distance
    • Also causes all tentacle adds to cast the same ability

  • Mutterings of Insanity
    • Occurs at 0:30, then every 50 seconds
    • Denoted by a large void swirlie
    • Slows a random target until they’re immobile over 5 seconds
    • Targets 1 additional player for each Maw of Drest’agath add alive
    • After 5s, explodes for 160k Shadow damage to everyone within 12 yards
      • Also stuns anyone hit
  • Void Glare
    • Occurs at 0:45, then every 45 seconds
    • Giant void beam from the boss’s face, deals 71k Shadow damage every 0.5 seconds to anyone hit
      • Also cast by all active Eye of Drest’agath adds

Adds

  • Dismemberment
    • Whenever an add dies, Drest’agath gains 5 Agony every second for 5 seconds
  • Void Infused Ichor
    • When tentacle adds die, they leave behind small void puddles
      • These puddles last for 25 seconds before disappearing
    • Touching a puddle makes it disappear and debuffs you for 30 seconds
    • While you have this debuff, the damage you deal to the boss cannot be healed back by her passive healing
    • When you pick up Ichor, you get Umbral Aversion, a 1 minute debuff preventing you from picking up Ichor again

  • Eye of Drest’agath
    • Mind Flay
      • Deals 28k Shadow damage every 1 second and slows the target for 5 seconds
    • Errant Blast
      • Cast when the boss hits 100 Agony
      • Causes gunk to fall from the ceiling every 3s for 9s
      • If hit by the gunk, deals 143k Shadow damage
      • Gunk spots are denoted by red swirlies
  • Tentacle of Drest’agath
    • Crushing Slam
      • Slams the ground and deals 143k Shadow damage in a circle around it
      • Cast non-stop by this mob, except if Reality Tear occurs
    • Void Miasma
      • Creates a cloud around itself. Standing in the cloud deals 53k Shadow damage every 3s
      • Also acts like Smoke Bomb, blocking Line of Sight
        • Players inside cannot target anything outside, players outside cannot target anyone inside

    • Reality Tear
      • Cast when boss hits 100 Agony
      • Creates a small moving void zone on the ground every 3s for 9s
      • Deals 143k Shadow damage to anyone it touches
  • Maw of Drest’agath
    • Mutterings of Betrayal
      • Applies a 71k healing absorb debuff to all players within 10 yards
      • Stacks
      • If you reach 4 stacks, you become Hostile to the raid
    • Acid Splash
      • Spits acid at a random player, dealing 107k Nature damage to the player and anyone within 4 yards
    • Spine Eruption
      • Cast when the boss hits 100 Agony
      • Releases random sized rings of spines, deals 160k Physical damage every 3s for 9s

Positioning

Since Drest’agath is stationary, your tank should just face her away, and everyone should be spread around the room. Move to the adds you need to kill as they spawn.

Strategy

  • You start out fighting Drest’agath and two Eyes of Drest’agath
  • Tanks need to be on Drest’agath the entire fight. The adds don’t require a tank
    • Tanks will swap when Volatile Seed is applied
    • When you get seed, move to the adds, preferably a Tentacle if possible
  • Players afflicted with Mutterings of Insanity need to move towards the edge of the room
    • Everyone else needs to make sure they aren’t in the giant swirlie
  • Damage should be focused on the adds, as anything you do to the boss will just be healed up
  • Healers should use a raid CD every time the boss casts Throes of Agony
  • Make sure to get out of the purple graphic for Entropic Crash
  • Make sure to dodge Void Glare, both from the boss AND any Eye adds which are alive
  • The tank afflicted with Volatile Seed should try and have it explode on as many of the adds as possible
  • In general, you want melee DPS to nuke the Tentacle, and ranged DPS to nuke the Maw
    • You’ll need 1-2 healers to be within the cloud for the Tentacle to keep the melee DPS alive
    • Once the Tentacle or Maw dies, those DPS players then move to any remaining Eyes
  • About 25 seconds into the fight, you’ll have 3 adds spawn. One Eye, one Tentacle, one Maw
    • Try to hold off killing the initial 2 Eyes you start with. You want to kill the 2 Eyes and 1-2 of the newly spawned adds around the same time
      • Each add you kill drops 5 puddles of Ichor, and they last 25 seconds
      • Once you kill enough adds that every DPS player can get an Ichor , everyone should run over a puddle to get their Ichor debuff
      • Follow this up with Bloodlust, and a hard nuke phase on the boss
    • Ignore any remaining adds until the Ichor debuffs drop, then swap and kill them
  • From that point on, kill adds as they spawn. Make sure all Ichor puddles get soaked. 
    • Prioritize letting DPS who have their cooldowns available to soak puddles
    • Soaking puddles, and then letting people with Ichor nuke the boss, is priority
    • Whenever you don’t have Ichor, work on killing off add

Heroic Il’gynoth Boss Guide

January 17th, 2020

Il’gynoth is a two phase encounter. Phase one you fight Il’gynoth’s body, phase 2 you destroy organs. You will need to cycle through 3 times total to defeat his 3 organs and complete the encounter.

Phase 1

  • Eye of N’zoth
    • Beam shoots out from Il’gynoth’s chest, dealing 446k Shadow directly in front of him, and increases damage taken by subsequent Eye of N’zoth by 75%
    • Debuff lasts 43 seconds
    • Cast at 0:06 into each Phase 1, then every 18 seconds

  • Touch of the Corruptor
    • MC’s random players, and causes them to run around
    • If an MC’d player gets too close to another player, they will also become MC’d
    • Broken when the MC’d player reaches 30% HP
  • Corruptor’s Gaze
    • Standard Eye Beam type ability, cast at several random players
    • Starts as a swirlie, then turns into a beam
    • Beam chases the selected players for 5 seconds
    • The Beam leaves pools anywhere it went over, called Morass of Corruption
      • Standing in the pools deals 89k Shadow damage every second, and pacifies and silences you
  • Blood of Ny’alotha
    • During your second and third Phase 1, blood goop adds will spawn
    • These fixate on random targets and chase them
    • Each time you’re melee’d by one of these blood adds, you’ll gain a stack of Recurring Nightmare
      • Deals 18k Shadow damage every 2s for 40s
      • Stacks
      • Dispellable
    • When a blood add dies, it explodes and deals 86k Shadow to the entire raid
    • Spawn every 30s in your 2nd and 3rd Phase 1s
    • These are slowable, rootable, etc
  • When Il’gynoth’s HP reaches 0, you enter Phase 2

Phase 2

  • Cursed Blood
    • Infects 8 random players with a debuff, dealing 18k Shadow every 2s for 8s
    • When it ends, players explode for 143k Shadow to everyone within 11 yards

  • Organ of Corruption
    • 3 Organs spawn around the room
    • Killing any Organ ends Phase 2, and moves you back to Phase 1
    • That Organ stays dead the rest of the fight
  • Blood of Ny’alotha
    • Created by living Organs in this phase, as a cast
    • Cast is interruptible
    • If one spawns, it has all the same abilities as listed above

Strategy

  • Phase 1
    • Tanks need to swap every 2 stacks of Eye of N’zoth
      • Nobody else should be standing near the tanks, and the tanks should be slightly spread so they don’t both get hit by the same Eye of N’zoth beam
      • You may find it helpful to have markers on your tanks, or a world marker down at the location tanks will be, to help people avoid being hit
    • Everyone else should be spread throughout the room
    • When Touch of the Corruptor goes out, hard swap to the MC’d people and break them ASAP
      • You do not want them reaching other players and spreading this, do everything you can to prevent it
    • If targeted by Corruptor’s Gaze, move away from the beam. Try to drop your puddles in a neat little circle near where you are. This’ll help reduce the area covered by puddles, and help prevent the puddles from blocking parts of the room. Here’s an example of a good goop drop:
    • In your 2nd and 3rd Phase 1s, the Blood adds become priority, behind only the MC’s.
      • These come from the location of the Organ/Organs you’ve killed up until that point
      • Slow them, root them, stun them, whatever
      • If you’re targeted, make sure you’re running away and don’t let the Blood reach you
      • If you do get melee’d by the Blood, call for a healer to dispel you
    • Once Il’gynoth’s HP reaches 0, you enter Phase 2
  • Phase 2
    • This phase lasts until you kill off an Organ. You may only kill off 1 per phase, so you’ll repeat this phase 3 times to defeat the encounter
      • Once you kill an Organ, Il’gynoth respawns with full HP and you enter a Phase 1 again
    • Have a set order to kill the Organs each time, so the raid moves together to the proper Organ
    • Organs cast Pumping Blood frequently to spawn Blood adds. Interrupt as many casts as possible
      • The first cast of Pumping Blood happens as soon as the adds become targetable
      • Subsequent casts occur every roughly 7 seconds
      • Assign ranged DPS to each Organ not being focused down to interrupt
      • Just get as many interrupts as you can. The more Bloods that spawn, the more dangerous this phase is
    • Players affected by Cursed Blood need to move away from the raid to prevent exploding on people
    • Priority for DPS in this phase is Slowing/CCing adds, then nuking Organs. You want to kill off your targeted Organ as fast as possible
    • When you re-enter Phase 1, clean up any Blood adds
  • After cycling through killing the 3 Organs, you’ll go into a 4th and final Phase 1
    • There’ll be a large amount of Blood adds, so we recommend using Bloodlust and raid healing CDs here

Positioning

Before you pull, put markers along the 3 passageways where the organs spawn:

During Phase 1, you should have the raid loosely spread around the room, except where the tanks are assigned to stand:

During Phase 2, just move towards whatever Organ you’re assigned to be killing.

Video Guide

Heroic Vexiona Boss Guide

January 17th, 2020

Vexiona is a three phase encounter, and is accompanied by multiple adds throughout the fight.

Phase 1

  • Encroaching Shadows
    • Debuff cast on 3 random players that deals 71k Shadow damage immediately to the affected players, and anyone within 9 yards
      • Visible purple circle around affected people
    • After 8s, the debuff expires and deals 71k Shadow again to the affected players, and anyone within 9 yards
    • Leaves behind a puddle of shadow goop wherever the debuff expires at
      • Puddle deals 71k Shadow every 1s to anyone standing in it
  • Twilight Breath
    • Frontal cone ability, cast at the active tank
    • Dodgeable by everyone but the active tank
    • Deals 43k Shadow every 0.4s for 1.6s
    • Also applies 1 stack of Void Corruption for each tick of damage taken

  • Void Corruption
    • Permanent DoT, deals 4,400 Shadow damage every 3s
  • Despair
    • Cast at 0:10, 0:47 each time in Phase 1
    • Debuff placed on the tank
    • Deals 53k Shadow every 1s for 6s
      • After 6s, explodes on the raid
      • Deals 36k Shadow damage, PLUS 90% of the target tank’s missing health to the entire raid
      • So, if the tank has 600k HP and is at 50%, this explosion will deal 306k to the entire raid ((300k * 0.9)+36k)
  • Void Ascendant
    • Powerful Void add that begins the fight alongside Vexiona
      • Annihilation
        • Frontal ability, deals 18k Shadow damage every 0.25s for 5 seconds
        • Each tick that deals damage to you applies a debuff, increasing damage taken from Annihilation by 25% for 6s. Stacks up to 20 stacks
        • This ability can damage players AND the Cultist adds present in the encounter
        • It’s targeted at the tank with threat, and followed that tank if they move

  • Gift of the Void
    • When the Void Ascendant dies, leaves behind a void orb that can be picked up
    • The player who picks up the ball as all of their Void Corruption stacks removed
  • Dark gateway
    • Vexiona creates a gateway, dealing 125k Shadow damage to the raid, and spawning multiple Cultist adds
    • Fanatical Cultist
      • Deals weak melee damage, needs to be tanked
      • Upon reaching 100 energy, becomes immune to CC and starts transforming into a new Void Ascendant
    • Spellbound Ritualist
      • Basically a warlock add
      • Casts Void Bolt, which deals 160k Shadow damage to the target
        • Interruptible
    • Sinister Soulcarver
      • Rogue type add
      • Spiteful Assault
        • Teleports to a random location up to 15 yards away
        • Then deals 50k Shadow damage to the nearest player every 0.4s for 4s
        • Casting Spiteful Assault removes Root and Slow effects from the Soulcarver

Phase 2 – 1:25, 3:32

  • When Vexiona reaches 100 energy, she flies up and becomes unattackable for about 50 seconds. This begins Phase 2
  • As she flies up, Vexiona empowers one Cultist to become a Void Ascendant
    • Void Ascendant works just like the P1 one. Same abilities.
  • Twilight Decimator
    • Vexiona breathes twilight flames in a line from overhead
    • Deals 893k Shadow damage if you’re hit by the initial impact
    • The flames themselves deal 43k Shadow damage every 0.5 seconds from standing in them after they land
  • Encroaching Shadows
    • Continues occurring just like Phase 1
  • After she casts Twilight Decimator 3 times, she’ll land back on the platform, and you re-enter Phase 1
  • You’ll continue doing Phase 1 and Phase 2 until Vexiona reaches 40% HP

Phase 3 – 40% HP

  • No more adds spawn once Phase 3 starts
  • Empowered Void Corruption
    • All abilities now cause a stack of Void Corruption to any player when they take damage
  • Encroaching Shadows
    • Continues exactly as it did in P1 and P2
  • Twilight Breath
    • Works same as P1, frontal cone
  • Terrifying Presence
    • All players have their haste reduced by 100% unless they’re within 6 yards of another player
  • Heart of Darkness
    • Casted ability, deals 714k Shadow to all players
    • Damage taken reduced by distance
    • Big obvious glowing red circle under the boss. Get far enough away that you’re out of the circle
    • If you have Terrifying Presence debuff when the Heart of Darkness damage goes out, you’re feared for 8s and gain 1 extra stack of Void Corruption

  • Desolation
    • Vexiona debuffs the tank with Desolation, reducing their movement speed by 50%][
    • Also creates a large purple soak circle under the tank
    • Soak circle deals 803k Shadow damage after 5s
      • Also applies 30 Void Corruption stacks, split evenly among all players that soak
    • If less than 3 players soak this, Vexiona gains a 100% increased damage buff and immediately re-casts Desolation

Strategy

  • Phase 1
    • Tank the boss where she starts, but facing the right-hand side (looking towards the boss from where you come into the room)
      • The other tank needs to pick up the add (obviously)
      • Tank the add under the boss, but facing a different direction than the other tank
        • This is to prevent Annihilation from hitting anyone other than the add tank
    • The rest of the raid should be to the side of the boss
    • Lust on pull, nuke down the add, but don’t let it die until after the 2nd Twilight Breath from the boss happens at 0:25
      • The tank on Vexiona should grab the Void orb after the 3rd Breath at 0:45
      • When the adds spawn, the tank who’d been holding the Ascendant add needs to pick them up and bring them under the boss for cleave
        • You’ll need ranged DPS to interrupt the Ritualist, or a Death Grip
    • Players afflicted with Encroaching Shadow need to move to the back of the room to drop their puddles
      • You can, and should try to, drop these on older puddles
    • When the tank is afflicted with the Despair debuff, healers will want to bomb heals into that tank. The more healing you pump into the tank here, the less raid healing you’ll need to do after it explodes
    • When the little adds are up, DPS should be focusing DPS on Vexiona with cleave blowing up the adds. You don’t want everyone to hardswap to AoE and pad meters.
  • Phase 2
    • A new group of small adds spawns a couple seconds before P2 begins, then one Cultist becomes an Ascendant
      • Focus damage on the Ascendant, with cleave melting the rest of the adds
      • When the Ascendant dies, your tank with Void Corruption should grab the orb and reset stacks
    • Encroaching Shadows continues being cast, so you’ll need to keep handling that like in P1 and drop it at the edge of the room
    • Twilight Decimator is the standard flyover breath attack. Vexiona will fly to the side of the room, picking either Front, Middle, or Back. After a couple second delay, she’ll fly in a straight line from one side of the room to the other, breathing void evil fire on whichever zone she picked
      • After she makes a pass, there’s a few seconds of downtime, then she’ll pick a new zone and repeat the process
      • It’ll then happen a 3rd time
      • As a note, the flame from the previous pass dissipates once a new pass begins. This means if she does Middle first, as soon as she starts flying down her next zone the flames will dissipate and you can stand in the Middle as a safe spot
      • After 3 passes, she’ll drop back down and you’ll re-enter Phase 1
    • You’ll repeat between Phase 1 and Phase 2 until Vexiona reaches 40% HP
  • Phase 3
    • Encroaching Shadows continues like it did the rest of the fight. Keep dropping it off to the sides
    • Make sure you have a friend in your raid, and hold hands. Don’t let yourself be alone, being lonely makes you lose all your haste =(
    • When Vexiona casts Heart of Darkness (big glowing red circles under the boss) GTFO away from the boss
      • Make sure you’re still holding hands with someone, you don’t want to be lonely and scared!
    • When Desolation goes out on the tank, you’ll want at least 5 people total to soak it. More is better.
    • As this phase goes on, the raid damage can get intense. Healers will want to have all raid CDs available for when the boss is below 20%, and use them as needed from that point on to keep the raid stable
    • Nuke boss, healers blow your loads on the raid, boss falls over. Ggs.

Positioning

Keep the boss near where she starts. Tank the add (X) right under her, with the tank facing away from the boss tank. Melee stand on the other side, with heals/ranged loosely spread. Drop Encroaching Shadows near the back, and close to each other, denoted by the circles below.

Video Guide

Heroic Ra-den Boss Guide

January 17th, 2020

Dude yeeted out of ToT and decided to submit to the one true God, N’zoth.

Ra-den is a two phase fight. You start in Phase 1, and transition into Phase 2 at 40% hp.

Phase 1

  • Nullifying Strike
    • At 100 energy, boss does a big tank smack for 214k Shadow damage, and reduces that tank’s HP by 20% for 25s
  • Vita & Void Essences
    • At 0:10, then every 45 seconds during Phase 1, the boss spawns orbs on opposite sides of the room, one Vita (lightning) one Void
    • These orbs move from their spawn point directly to the boss
    • Each orb has a health pool and is attackable
    • When you kill one orb, the other becomes non-targetable
    • When an orb reaches the boss, he gains an empowerment from it and gives him new abilities
    • If he soaks the same type of orb twice in a row, he gains a 300% damage dealt buff
    • Each Empowerment lasts 40 seconds
  • Vita (lightning) Empowered
    • When the lightning orb hits the boss, he immediately blasts the raid with a lightning AoE ability, dealing 214k Nature to everyone
    • Unstable Vita
      • Debuff placed on a random target, person1. After 7s, this jumps to the furthest person possible, person 2, dealing 178k Nature damage to person 2 and anyone standing between person 1 and person 2.
      • Jumps 3 times total
      • Anyone who takes damage from this gains Instability Exposure, increasing damage taken by any “Unstable” ability by 300% for 30s
    • Crackling Stalker
      • Add that spawns, casts Chain Lightning every 6s while it’s alive
  • Void Empowered
    • When the void orb hits the boss, he puts a healing absorb shield on every player which absorbs 214k healing. While this shield is active, everyone also takes 18k Shadow damage every 3s
    • Unstable Void
      • Soak circle appears on the ground, with a void missile launched at the location
      • After a few seconds, the missile lands, dealing 196k Shadow to anyone hit and applying Instability Exposure to those people
      • If this is not soaked, it’ll deal 157k to the entire raid, apply Instability Exposure to everyone, and Silence the raid for 8s
      • After impact, the Missile will bounce to a new soak circle
      • Impacts 5 times total

    • Void Hunter
      • Shadow add that spawns. Casts Void Collapse
        • Group soak circle. Deals 1.4 million Shadow damage split evenly among everyone within 8 yards
        • Everyone hit is also debuffed with Void Defilement, reduces healing taken by 50%

Phase 2 – 40%

  • Ruin
    • Ra-den deals 53k Plague damage to the raid every 2s for the rest of the fight
  • Decaying Strike
    • Replaces Nullifying Strike
    • At 100 Energy, smacks the tank for 89k Physical, and applies the Decaying Wound debuff
      • Deals damage every 2s for 10s
      • Damage is equal to 75% of the affected tank’s HP when this effect is applied. The higher health you were when you got hit by Decaying Strike, the heavier this DoT is
  • Void Eruption
    • Ra-den creates several large purple swirlies
    • After 4s they explode, dealing 196k Shadow to anyone hit

  • Charged Bonds
    • Tethers multiple players together
    • Deals 25k Nature every second
    • Increases by 20% every second
    • Breaks when you move 40 yards away from who you’re tethered to
  • Gorge Energy
    • Cast every 30s in Phase 2
    • Applies a stack of Lingering Energies each cast, increasing damage dealt by 10%

Strategy

  • Phase 1
    • Tank the boss where he stands, with everyone stacked behind the boss in melee range
    • Pre-assign a 6 person Unstable soak group. These people will handle all of the Unstable abilities
      • Unstable void is pretty straightforward, assigned group takes turns soaking
    • Set up two world markers behind the group, one to the left one to the right. These should be 10 yards away from the stack point, in different directions
      • These will be used as drop points for Unstable Vita
      • The first person affected is random, but you can have the rest handled by your pre-assigned group
      • If one person in your order is the random person picked, just remove them from your set rotation
      • It should be handled as follows:
        • Player X gets Unstable Vita. They run to the Left marker.
        • Player Y is assigned first in the rotation. They run to the Right marker
        • Unstable Vita jumps from Player X to Player Y
        • After that jump, Player Z is the next assigned person. They move to the Left marker, and wait for the jump from Y
        • Keep repeating that through your assigned player rotation until the debuff ends
    • Void and Vita Orbs
      • Make sure you alternate which Orb you let hit the boss, or you’ll wipe
      • While the order you do these in is irrelevant to the difficulty of the encounter, we STRONGLY suggest you always do these in the same order every pull, just for simplicity sake as you progress this boss
      • When the orbs spawn, Ranged dps swap immediately to the assigned Orb target
        • Melee swap as the orb gets closer to reduce downtime
      • Once the assigned orb dies, everyone should get back to the raid stack point
      • You may want to use a healing raid CD for every time an Orb reaches the boss
    • Tanks will want to swap every stack of Nullification Strike
      • The adds that spawn after an orb hits should be taunted by the tank who’s not currently holding Ra-den, and all DPS should hardswap and nuke the add
      • Tank the add right under the boss for cleave
    • When the Void Add casts Void Collapse, the affected player should just stay at the raid stack point to split the damage
  • Phase 2
    • Once the boss reaches 40%, you reach Phase 2, which is a hard burn phase
    • You’ll want to use Bloodlust either when you enter this phase, or at 30% if you have a lot of classes with Execute-style effects
    • Don’t stand in Void Eruption swirlies
    • Healers should keep the tank holding Ra-den at around 50-60% hp. Any higher than that, and it’s likely they’ll die from the Decaying Would DoT
      • Remember, this ticks for 75% of the affected player’s HP at the time of application. At 50% HP, this’ll tick for 37.5% of the tank’s HP every 2s, versus 75% of the tank’s HP if they’re at full.
    • Players affected by Charged Bond need to spread out ASAP to break the chains. Use movement abilities here
      • There’s already a LOT of damage going out this phase, so breaking these ASAP is important to your survival
    • Healers will want to coordinate and rotate raid CDs during this phase. Ruin ticks for 53k every 2s, but that’s increased by 10% per stack of Lingering Energies the boss has
      • The longer you’re in P1, the more stacks you’ll start with
      • He also gains a stack every 30s in this phase
      • It’s likely that by the time the boss dies, you’ll have 8 or more stacks, meaning the raid will be taking close to 100k damage every 2s. Without raid CDs, that won’t be healable
      • Start rotating CDs after Bloodlust ends
    • Nuke the living hell out of this old Titan Keeper fella, thank your healers once he dies, and get ready to fight an Old God
      • Sk’tek agth nuq N’Zoth yyqzz.

Positioning

This graphic shows your general positioning throughout the first. Put raid markers at Star and Circle to handle Unstable Vita. The X markers represent roughly where the Orbs spawn.

Video Guide

Heroic Carapace Boss Guide

January 17th, 2020

Welcome to the center of Nyalotha. This is a 3 phase encounter, with you moving progressively deeper into the being known as N’zoth. Between each phase is a transition where you move through tunnels further into the madness. Ywaq mh’naus wgah zaix zygtahg.

Encounter-Wide Ability

  • Sanity
    • When you pull, you get a Sanity bar. Several mechanics throughout the fight reduce your Sanity. If you ever reach 0 Sanity, you get blessed with the Gift of N’zoth
      • Increases your damage and healing by 100% for 20 seconds
      • When this expires, you get MC’d and try to destroy your raid. MC cannot be broken and you must be killed
      • While MC’d, you cast Mental Decay, draining 15 Sanity from your target and dealing 35k Shadow damage every second for 12s, interruptible
    • In Phases 1 and 2, you get an extra action button which uses your Legendary Cloak

      • Pressing this will fly your character to the back of the room, where our boy Wrathion is hanging out
        • It also heals you to 100% HP and prevents you from losing Sanity while active
      • The little circle around Wrathion periodically restores your Sanity back to 100
      • When you leave the circle, you get Grace of the Black Prince, increases your movement speed by 40% for 10 seconds
      • Extra action button has a 2 minute CD

Phase 1

  • Fury of N’zoth
    • Large mob, functions as the boss for the encounter
    • Mandible Slam
      • Big slam on the tank, deals 286k Physical damage and 142k Shadow damage. Shadow damage is called Black Scar
      • Also causes subsequent Black Scars to deal 100% increased damage for 40s
    • Madness Bomb
      • 12 second debuff applied to several players. Actual number of people affected can be slightly different each time
      • After 12s, explodes for 143k Shadow damage and fears everyone within 10 yards of the affected player
      • Denoted by a purple circle under you
      • Players hit by the explosion who were NOT affected by the debuff lose 15 Sanity

    • Mental Decay
      • Applied to about 30% of the raid
      • Immediately drains 15 Sanity, then deals 36k Shadow damage every second for 12
    • Adaptive Membrane
      • Shields either an add or the boss for 12 seconds
      • While shielded, the target is immune to CC and interrupts, and cannot be slowed
      • If you break the shield, all damage dealt to the shield is then actually taken by the affected mob
        • Also creates multiple Fragment of Sanity orbs
        • Touching an orb gives you 10 Sanity back. Each orb may only affect 1 player
  • Adds
    • Growth-Covered Tentacle
      • Giant tentacle. Puts a shadow on the ground in the shape of the tentacle, then slams down on that spot after about 5 seconds
        • Deals 1 million Nature damage to anyone hit

      • After it slams down, two types of adds spawn from the giant tentacle
      • Horrific Hemorrhage
        • Spawn on the tentacle itself
        • Periodically throws goop on the ground. Deals 143k Shadow damage to anyone hit, and spawns a Nightmare Antigen
        • Hemorrhages don’t need to be tanked, just killed
      • Nightmare Antigen
        • Smaller adds with a threat pool that need to be tanked
        • Each of the adds melee attacks inflicts 36k Shadow damage, and debuffs the target
          • Reduces Haste and movement speed by 3% for 4s. Stacks
        • Periodically gain a stack of Adaptive Antigen, increasing damage done by 10% and prevents them from being slowed past 10% of their normal speed
          • Stacks
      • In summary, Horrific Hemorrhages spawn Nightmare Antigens regularly. Horrific Hemorrhages live attached to the big tentacle
        • When all 6 Horrific Hemorrhages die, the big tentacle goes away and the Fury of N’zoth takes 7.5% of its max HP in damage

    • Gaze of Madness
      • Eyestalk tentacle add dude
      • Chain casts Breed Madness
        • 3 second cast, which turns into a 9 second channel
          • Channel deals 143k Shadow damage per second for 9s to several targets
        • When the channel either completes, OR gets interrupted, it triggers Maddening Eruption
          • Deals 107k Shadow damage to the entire raid and drains 5 Sanity
        • Also causes a stack of Deepening Madness on the add
          • Increases damage by Breed Madness and Maddening Eruption by 5%, stacks
      • When a Gaze dies, Fury of N’zoth loses 3% of his max HP
  • Once the boss reaches 50%, he’ll run to the very front of the room, through the wall, and run away
  • Wrathion will turn into Dragonboi and burn a hole in the room, leading to a hallway you run through, beginning Phase 2

Phase 2

    • After you follow the tunnel Wrathion creates, you’ll get to the new room for P2
      • Wrathion follows you down to the tunnel. Wait for him to reach you in the new room, and he’ll restore your Sanity to 100
    • Fury of N’zoth is immune to damage when you enter the room
    • Off to each side of this new room is a gauntlet of little goop adds on the floor called Mycelial Cysts, and bigger goop adds on the wall called Synthesis Growth
      • You must kill off all the Synthesis Growth adds before you can engage Fury of N’zoth
    • Mycelial Cyst
      • These things are on the floor on the right-hand side
      • Similar to the cysts on the sides during the G’huun fight, these things create a pool around them which slows you 75% and deals 14k Nature damage per second while standing in the pool
      • The size of the pool is reduced as you damage the Cysts
      • Cysts regen 1% HP every 0.5 seconds
  • Synthesis Growth
    • Each Synthesis Growth heals Fury of N’zoth for 35k HP every 2s, and makes him immune to damage and healing reduction effects
    • 7of these will be on the Left side, 9 will be on the Right
  • While you’re fighting the Synthesis Growths, Fury of N’zoth casts several of his abilities at you, most of which are from Phase 1
    • Madness Bomb, Mental Decay, and Adaptive Membrane are cast in this phase like they were in P1
      • Madness Bomb can be cast on the Mycelial Cyst adds, so be careful of the purple circles
      • Unknown if that’s intended or a bug, but did occur on PTR
    • Eternal Darkness
      • Deals 143k Shadow to the raid, and drains 10 Sanity from everyone
  • Once you’ve killed all 16 Synthesis Growths, the boss becomes fully active again, needs to be tanked, and can be attacked
  • When Fury of N’zoth becomes active, he continues casting Madness Bomb, Adaptive Membrane, Mental Decay, and Eternal Darkness as before
    • Also gains 1 new cast, and begins using Mandible Slam again from Phase 1 on the tank
    • Occipital Blast
      • Frontal cone ability, targeted at a random player
      • If hit, deals 268k Shadow damage and drains 40 Sanity

  • As a note, once Fury of N’zoth is re-engaged here, the back end of the room gets covered in the goop from Mycelial Cysts, which will be between the fight area and where Wrathion is. This means to get to Wrathion and back when you need to reset your Sanity, you’ll be slowed and take damage
    • Using the Cloak extra action button will port you to Wrathion, but you’ll still need to run back into the fight through the goop
  • Once Fury of N’zoth reaches 40% HP, he’ll run away down another tunnel, and you’ll enter Phase 3

Phase 3

  • Follow Fury of N’zoth through the tunnel to the final platform, and begin Phase 3
    • He casts Mental Decay at you while you’re running
  • Adaptive Membrane, Mandible Slam, and Mental Decay continue in this phase exactly like they were the rest of the fight
    • Mental Decay is cast every 27 seconds
      • In Phase 3, it seems like every Mental Decay cast affects everyone in the raid, slightly staggered
      • According to logs, you’ll get affected by Mental Decay in Phase 3 every 20-ish seconds. This will occur more frequently per person if you have people dead.
    • Adaptive Membrane is cast every 45s
    • Mandible Slam doesn’t seem to have set timings
  • Madness Bomb is replaced with Insanity Bomb. It functions exactly the same as before, but now spawns 1 Nightmare Antigen near the location of every bomb when they explode
    • Nightmare Antigens work just like they did in P1
    • Insanity Bomb is placed on everyone except tanks
  • Infinite Darkness replaces Eternal Darkness
    • Cast every 45 seconds in Phase 3
    • Similar ability. Now deals 214k Shadow damage to everyone, still drains 10 Sanity
    • Now also creates an Infinite Void, sphere of bad
      • Touching the sphere of bad deals 35k Shadow damage per second, stacking
    • The Infinite Void sphere didn’t seem to spawn on PTR, so we don’t know what it looks like or how large it is
  • Thrashing Tentacle
    • A series of 4 shadows appear on the ground. After 5s, giant Tentacles slam down on each shadow, one by one
    • Getting hit by a tentacle deals 1 million Nature damage

  • You do not have your Legendary cloak extra action button in Phase 3

Strategy

  • Phase 1
    • Start with the boss up near where he starts, pulled just a bit off to the right-hand side as you face him
    • If you get a Madness Bomb, make sure you move away from other players so your circle isn’t on top of anyone
      • Going a little extra distance for this is not a bad thing, other people being hit in your circle is a bad thing
    • 0:15 into the fight, a Gaze of Madness add spawns
      • Drag boss on top of it
      • Do NOT interrupt the Gaze’s cast of Breed Madness
        • Allow it to start channeling, and interrupt near the end of the channel, with between 1 and 1.5 seconds remaining
      • All DPS should swap and kill the Gaze as quickly as possible
    • 0:40 into the fight, the first shadow for a Growth-Covered Tentacle appears. The tentacle slams down at 0:45
      • Do not get hit by the tentacle, it’s a 1 shot
      • Ranged DPS need to focus down the Hemorrhages, melee should focus on the Antigens
      • Tanks need to pick up the Nightmare Antigen quickly so they don’t wreck your healers
        • Careful here, as the tentacle itself serves as an obstacle. The little adds cannot run through the tentacle and must run around
        • All healers should make sure they’re on the same side of the tentacle as the tanks, that way if you get healing aggro soon after the little adds spawn, the tanks can pick them up
      • Once the 6 Hemorrhages are dead, all DPS swap to the little Antigen adds and blow them up, then move back to nuking the boss
    • Tanks should taunt swap at 2 stacks of Black Scar
    • Adaptive Membrane doesn’t really cause you to change what you do in this phase. If you’re nuking the Hemorrhages and it goes out, just keep nuking until the Membrane explodes.
      • Don’t waste GCD’s padding on extra targets unless the target will actually have it’s shield drop
      • As an example, when fighting a Gaze of Madness, if Adaptive Membrane goes off don’t waste time applying DoT’s or going out of your way to cleave on the boss. Wait until the Membrane ends, then DoT up and cleave back onto the boss.
    • At 1:15 a new Gaze of Madness spawns. Handle this like the first one
    • At about 1:40, a second shadow for a Growth-Covered Tentacle appears. The tentacle slams down at 1:45
      • Handle this the same as the last one.
    • If you ever get below 30 Sanity in Phase 1, click your extra action button to port back to Wrathion and fill your Sanity bar
    • New Gaze of Madness spawns at 2:20. Handle the same way as previously
    • 3rd Growth-Covered Tentacle shadow spawns at 2:42. Slams down at 2:47
      • Handle exactly the same way
    • By the time the 3rd Tentacle and set of Hemorrhages die, the boss should be at, or close to, 50% HP. Everyone in the raid should reset their Sanity no later than this point
      • If you have a Warlock, set up a gateway from the center of the room to the back, as close to Wrathion as you can
      • Ideally, nobody will have used their Legendary cloak before this point, and everyone can press the extra action button to port back. You may have to sit in Wrathion’s circle for 3-4 seconds.
      • Once your Sanity bar is back full, run back to the front of the room. Click the Gateway on your way back if you have one
      • You do not want to push the boss to 50% until everyone has had a chance to reset here.
        • You do NOT want to go into the beginning of Phase 2 low on Sanity
    • A new Gaze of Madness spawns at 3:20. The DPS goal is to have the boss pushed to 50% before this Gaze spawns. If that doesn’t happen, hard focus the Gaze with no cleave, then finish off getting the boss to 50%
    • As an FYI, the Sanity orbs that spawn after breaking Adaptive Membrane should go to the tanks as first priority, as it’s much more difficult for tanks to reset Sanity by running to Wrathion
  • Phase 2
    • At the start of Phase 2, after Wrathion has blown the hole in the wall for your path, he’ll go ahead of you in his humanoid phase and put down his Sanity cleaning circle
      • Make sure you run over this on your way into the Phase 2 room
    • You’ll want your raid split into 2 groups for the beginning of Phase 2. Group 1 goes left, group 2 goes right. The Right side group should have 1-2 more DPS, since there’s more Synthesis Growths on that side
      • DoT up and lightly attack the Cysts to clear a small path with no goop
      • We recommend starting with the furthest back Synthesis Growths first. This requires you to run the length of the gauntlet. DoT up the Growths you’ll pass on your way to the back
      • Once you reach the back, go HAM on the Growths. Keep DoTs rolling on the Cysts to keep open a small safe spot with no goop
      • After your side kills the growths in the back part of the gauntlet, everyone on that side should use their Legendary cloak extra action button
        • This’ll bring you back to the start of the gauntlet and in Wrathion’s Sanity circle
        • Get back to 100 Sanity, then run back up through your gauntlet to kill the remaining Synthesis growths. These ones that are left should be the ones near the beginning of the gauntlet.
        • Again, keep yourself a safe spot from the goop by DoTing the Cysts
      • Once all of the Synthesis Growths on your side have been killed, go reset your Sanity one more time by running down to Wrathion
        • It’s helpful to have a Warlock gateway from Wrathion towards the center of the Phase 2 room
        • As soon as the boss is re-engaged, the same type of goop from the Cysts will cover an area between the center of the room and where Wrathion is, forcing you to run over goop to get back and forth. The Gateway helps you get past most of this easily, quickly, and safely
    • Once you begin fighting the boss, he’ll quickly cast Occipital Blast. This is cast at a random player, so it’s very possible it can be cast directly at Wrathion. Be very careful here not to get hit
    • Everyone should stand within 15 yards of the boss. This makes it easier to avoid subsequent Occipital Blast casts, but keeps the ranged and healers far enough away to make spreading for Madness Bomb easier
    • All Sanity Orbs that spawn during this part of Phase 2 should go to the tanks first. If they are both at 100%, other players who are lower on Sanity may grab them
  • Phase 3
    • Follow the boss as closely as possible as he runs down the hallway between phases. Wind Rush Totem, Stampeding Roar, and personal movement speed buffs should all be used.
      • Your Sanity is reset while you run down this hallway
    • He does cast Mind Decay while you run, so spend as little time in that tunnel as you possibly can
    • Once everyone makes it through the tunnel, move the boss towards the center of the room
      • We don’t know why, but the purpleish circle in the actual center of the room will insta-kill you if you get too close. See positioning graphic below for recommended spot.
    • Lust at the start of this phase once you begin fighting the boss
    • Insanity Bomb affects every single player, and almost always overlaps with Thrashing Tentacles in this phase. Make sure everyone spreads out when Bombs are cast. It’s absolutely worth losing DPS to ensure you don’t get hit by someone else’s circle or the Tentacles
      • Remember, there’s 4 tentacles per cast in this phase. Make sure you aren’t standing in the shadows, and still are spread out far enough from each other to not be in someone else’s Bomb
      • The second set of Insanity Bombs overlaps directly with the tentacles. You’ll be exploding as the tentacles are slamming down
    • After the Bombs explode, everyone should collapse behind the boss in melee range so all the Antigen adds get brought together for AoE
      • You want to blow up the first set of Antigen adds ASAP
      • The second set, you want to hold. 15 seconds after they spawn, the boss casts Adaptive Membrane
        • If you get this Membrane applied to the adds, you’ll get several extra Sanity orbs when they die
        • We couldn’t test this directly on PTR due to some mechanics previously working differently, but could confirm from P1 that the Antigen adds can get the Membrane and do spawn Sanity orbs if you break the Membrane
      • You’ll want to also hold the 3rd set until Adaptive Membrane, which is cast 10 seconds after the 3rd set of adds spawns
      • Same with 4th set, Membrane is cast 5s after the 4th set spawns
      • During the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sets of adds, you want to generate as many Sanity orbs as possible, and split them as evenly between the raid as possible. Prioritize people below 30 Sanity to get an orb first to prevent people from getting MCd. after everyone below 30 gets an orb, it’s a free for all. Just make sure they all get used, as they only last 15 seconds
    • This phase basically becomes a dance. Spread for Bombs and tentacles, collapse to group up adds, wait for membrane, blow up adds, nuke boss. Spread for bombs and tentacles again, collapse for adds again, wait for membrane, blow up adds. Keep going through this until the boss is dead and you get to move on to big daddy N’zoth.

Positioning

Start with the boss slightly to the right-hand side, as that’s where the first Gaze add spawns. Star denotes roughly where Wrathion is:

When the big Tentacle spawns, everyone should adjust and move to it. Melee should run on top of it:

In Phase 2, start with the Growths in the back of the side areas:

Once they die, you’ll come back down, preferably using your Cloak extra action button:

You’ll then fight the boss. Putting him near the middle of the room makes it easier to dodge the beam, and keeps you closer to Wrathion:

Phase 3, everyone just needs to be spread around the boss. Collapse after the adds spawn to help tanks pick them up.

VIDEO GUIDE