Mythic N’zoth Boss Guide

March 24th, 2020

N’zoth

Strategy
Phase 1
Psychus Maps
Phase 2
Secret Phase
Raw time tables
Timeline – up to end of secret phase
Timeline – Second Phase 2
Phase 2 Positioning
Healer Tips

  • Heart of Azeroth extra action button now restores only 25 sanity over 4s, but does this for ALL people within 8 yards
    • Still breaks from moving
    • Each player can only use their neck ONCE
  • Heroic’s Phase 1 does not occur. You begin the fight in what was Heroic’s Phase 2
  • Phase 1 changes
    • When a Corruptor Tentacle or Exposed Synapse dies, a Psychophage add spawns in the Vision realm
      • 2 casts
      • Devour Thoughts
        • Deals 295k Shadow and drains 10 Sanity from players within 10 yards
      • Psychic Burst
        • When these die, leaves a purple swirlie behind. After a few seconds the swirlie explodes, dealing 295k Shadow damage and drains 30 Sanity to everyone within 5 yards
    • Psychus dying still stuns N’zoth, but no longer stuns any of the Tendy adds
    • Everything hits a LOT harder. Healers pumping 100k+ each
    • Paranoia
      • Affects ALL players in the Physical realm on Mythic
      • Deals about 100k/s if you’re apart from your partner, scaling up as the duration ticks
      • Running over someone other than your partner drains 5 Sanity per second
  • Phase 2 changes
    • Damage of everything greatly increased
    • Thought Harvester’s Harvest Thoughts, in addition to the massive damage increase, now drains 300 Sanity split among everyone hit, up from 200
      • 2 Thought Harvesters spawn at a time
    • If it fails to hit at least 5 people, drains 100 from everyone
  • Phase 3 – SECRET PHASE
    • This occurs 2:35 after Phase 2 begins
    • Gateway opens in a set location
      • Clicking the gateway sends you to the Chamber of the Heart
    • Inside, you’ll kill a Voidspawn Annihilator add
      • While you’re fighting the Annihilator, Countermeasures will periodically spawn
      • These need to be clicked and disarmed. Clicking one uses your heart of Azeroth button, meaning you cannot use it again for the remainder of the encounter
      • Any that go un-clicked do massive AoE damage, reduced by distance
        • From what we can tell, the absolute minimum damage you can take from one of these within the Chamber is about 350k damage
    • The Voidspawn Annihilator does an Annihilation cast
      • This places a healing absorb on multiple players
      • Once the healing absorb has been healed off, it puts a purple circle around the person
      • Explodes after 8 seconds
      • If the purple circle explodes and hits the Countermeasures, it immediately triggers them
    • After the add dies, you click the gateway to return to Phase 2
    • From that point, you burn the boss, continuing with P2 mechanics. Kill boss before enrage
    • Hard Enrage at 13:00. There’s an Evoke Anguish cast at about 13:03 that’ll instantly kill anyone who’s hit (unless they have an immunity)

Strategy

  • We recommend bringing 2 tanks, 4 healers, and 14 DPS
    • You’ll need a minimum of 5 players with an immunity, but we strongly recommend having 10 immunities available for Phase 2.
  • This entire fight is pretty much scripted. There’s very little mechanical change from Heroic to Mythic, but everything is amped up to 11, and the set timings create rough overlaps
    • Because of just how scripted this is, we’ll be focusing mostly on timing of abilities. Phase 2/Secret Phase/Second Phase 2 will simply be timelines with information about each mechanic as it happens
  • Last note here before we get into the phases – Sanity matters significantly more than on Heroic.
    • Necks can only be used once per person
    • Because of this, and the fact several MUST be committed to the “secret” phase, Sanity is a valuable resource
    • You do NOT want to take any extra Sanity damage past what’s required
    • We have 18 Neck clicks assigned to set spots in our strategy, giving you 2 extras. Use these as needed to regenerate Sanity lost to Paranoias
  • Phase 1
    • This phase is extremely similar to Heroic
      • The adds spawn faster, the red swirlies from killing tendies now hurt WAY more and drain 15 Sanity (up from 5), and the damage of everything is tuned way up
      • Important to note, the tanks get ANNIHILATED by the Basher Tentacles
        • Healers need to keep a close eye on the tanks and make sure they don’t just go splat
    • Mindgate goes out at 1:00 and 4:00
      • Pre-assign your two Psychus groups
      • Each group should have 8 people – 1 tank, 2 heals, 5 DPS
      • DPS players need their CDs available for Psychus, as it can get very tight killing him before he hits full energy
      • As in Heroic, the first Mindgate has Deathwing, the second has Azshara and Sylvannas
        • If you’re in the second Mindgate, you want to minimize movement as much as possible. The damage taken from Azshara can be deadly
      • Note – The Anguish puddles Psychus creates don’t deal damage for about 1 second or so after it’s dropped, giving you a little wiggle roo
    • Paranoia goes out at 0:12, then about every 1:26 after that
      • You should pre-spread before the cast goes out, then prioritize SAFELY getting to your partner without ever running through any other player in the raid
    • Psychophage adds
      • Their cast is an AoE explosion. You can interrupt it, or move away from it
      • Move away from the Psychic Burst AoE on the ground when they die
      • Being hit by either deals damage plus drains Sanity, so don’t get hit
      • They have pretty low HP, so interrupt them and cleave them down
    • Add Priority
      • On Mythic, the add kill priority changes a bit. It’s Bashers > Spikes > Corruptors
        • The Bashers absolutely destroy your tanks, so they’re second priority
        • The Spike tentacles do a LOT more damage, and since they can’t be interrupted you’ll want to kill them off quickly. Do not forget about them.
        • The Corruptors can largely be countered by interrupting their casts, can mostly be killed from cleave
    • You should use Bloodlust around 2:05-2:10 into the fight
      • This is a 12:30-13:00 encounter, allowing you to use BL twice
      • First lust at 2:05ish means you’ll have it during a P1 burn phase on N’zoth, and also have it active when you get the Servant of N’zoth debuff in p2
    • Post-Psychus Burns
      • You get 30 seconds of pure burn each time. Maximizing boss damage during this is essential
      • Ideally, you’ll have the boss to 89% or lower after the first one, and 78% or lower after the second one. The lower the boss is, the better
      • You should use 2 Heart of Azeroth neck extra-action buttons during each burn phase to regenerate Sanity for the whole raid
    • Note for Healers
      • The damage intake on this fight is nutty. You’re looking at 600-700k DTPS across the raid for the entirety of Phase 1. During p1, use CDs as necessary, and just pump your minds out
      • Your tanks need your help. As mentioned above, the tanks get shit on by the Bashers, so make sure you’re tossing as much healing their way as you can
      • There’s ticking damage of 42k per person every 2s, plus the Eternal Torment dealing 88k/s for 2s periodically being cast by the boss
    • Mindgrasp requires a bit more coordination
      • Make sure to clear a path from the Neurons
      • You’ll need this path to be 3 Neurons wide, as Paranoia overlaps with this
      • Make sure you’re standing on top of your partner, and not overlapping with anyone else in the raid
      • To help make more room, you can have 2 layers of groups, one closer to whichever edge, one just outside their circles
      • Be extremely careful of your positioning for this. If you touch the goop from a Neuron, it’ll likely kill you damn near instantly. It ticks for 320k/second, and the first tick is the instant you touch it
        • If you actually live touching the goop, it also drains 10 Sanity per second
      • Tip from THD: You can Fear and Banish the Neurons when they reach their smallest size goop puddle, and it won’t re-grow for the duration of the CC
  • Psychus Maps
    • These are the paths Limit used for their kill. Please note, some of the tendy locations may be off by a hair, it’s hard to get them perfect.
    • Psychus 1

    • Psychus 2

  • Phase 2
    • From here on out, the fight is entirely scripted. We have a timeline below, after some notes for P2 and an overview of the “Secret” Phase, showing which ability occurs when, and how to handle them.
      • We’ve broken up the timeline in two parts – first P2 + Secret Phase, and second P2
      • Reason for this is that all spell timings in the second P2 are relative to when you LEAVE the Chamber of the Heart, which can be give or take a few seconds
      • We’ll also include a “raw time tables” section, which has the full time stamps (relative to the beginning of P2) for our World First N’zoth kill
    • Paranoia affects every player in the raid, EXCEPT tanks. Whoever is linked to the tanks needs to yeet over ASAP so the tank doesn’t need to.
    • The Gateway for the “Secret” Phase always spawns in a set location. As such, we’ll include a map after the timeline with recommended drop locations for each individual set of Evoke Anguish puddles
    • You can NOT drop Evoke Anguish puddles on top of each other on Mythic, as there’s a 4 yard AoE circle explosion component when the puddle drops. Getting hit by someone else’s circle will probably kill you
    • Thought Harvesters always spawn on the tanks, so tanks should make sure they’re pre-positioned to where you want them
      • They cast Harvest Thoughts about 10-12s after spawning, so make damn sure you have them on top of each other. You’ll want soakers to be hit by both circles
      • Cast is 5 seconds long, all times listed below are when the cast COMPLETES (meaning deals damage)
      • This is where your immunities come in, you’ll want to use groups of 5 players with immunities to soak the casts. By using immunities, you’ll avoid both the massive damage intake and also the Sanity drain. The more sets you can immune, the better. Certain sets are more vital to have immuned, and we’ll discuss that below
      • We strongly recommend having a composition with 10 total immunities. If you are unable to field that, though, we will list which Harvest Thought casts are top priority to immune-soak.
    • We’ll show the timeline in reference to P2 beginning, based on the completion of N’zoth’s second Convergence cast.
    • AFTER the timeline, we have a small section of healer tips
  • Secret Phase
    • You’ll fight a Voidspawn Annihilator add down here, who has 2 casts as well as an environmental mechanic
    • The entire raid should be stacked closely in melee range. This both makes life easier for the healers, and helps minimize damage taken from Protocol explosions
    • Dark Matter
    • Puts a targeting swirlies on the ground, needs to be dodged
    •  Annihilate
    • Puts a purple targeting circle on two players. After 8s, the circles explode for heavy damage
    • If these circles explode on top of a Countermeasure Protocol, the Protocols instantly explode
    • Event Horizon
    • Applies a large healing absorb on the active tank
    • Simply tank swap after this is applied
    • After the absorb is healed off, this tank is targeted by Annihilate
    • Countermeasure Protocols
    • Glowing Titan interactable objects that spawn in groups
    • These explode for massive damage after a few seconds. Each set has a different amount of time, between 8-20 seconds. If you’re within the yellow targeting circle around a Protocol, the damage is lethal. Outside of the circle, it’s fall-off damage
    • You can disarm these by clicking them, which uses that player’s Heart of Azeroth neck, and makes them unable to use the extra action button to restore Sanity
    • Because of this, you should always leave up the furthest away Countermeasure
  • Raw time tables
    • Start 6:04 into the fight
    • Go into secret phase 8:48 into the fight
    • Leave secret 10:12 into the fight (4:08 after P2 begins)
    • Harvest Thoughts
      • 0:04, 1:20, 1:47, 4:18, 5:34, 6:01
      • HARVEST 0:15, 1:32, 1:59, 4:29, 5:47, 6:13
    • EVOKE ANGUISH
      • 0:20, 0:39, 1:13, 1:34, 4:34, 4:54, 5:28, 5:49, 6:31
    •  PARANOIA
      • 0:51, 1:57, 5:06, 6:12
    •  MINDGRASP
      • 1:05, 5:20
    • GATEWAY – 2:44
    • DARK MATTER – 3:11
    • ANNIHILATE – 3:29, 3:56
    • PROTOCOL EXPLODE – 3:02, 3:22, 3:42, 4:07
  • Timeline – Up to end of “Secret” Phase
    • 0:00 – Convergence ends, Phase 2 Begins
    • 0:04 – First set of Thought Harvesters spawns
      • Tanks should be standing on top of each other, so these spawn next to each other. This is true for every single set of these adds
      • In general, tanks want to keep the Thought Harvesters close to the boss, so your Fire Mages can have Ignite spread to them, as well as allowing other cleave to hit them
    • 0:15 – Harvest Thoughts cast completes
      • Everyone in the raid should group soak this cast
    • 0:20 – Evoke Anguish cast
      • Make sure you’re spread out every single time Evoke Anguish is cast
      • After this particular cast, collapse in melee range and use 2 Heart of Azeroth extra action buttons
    • 0:33 – Lazers, spinning Clockwise
    • 0:39 – Evoke Anguish cast
    • 0:51 – Paranoia cast
      • Pre-spread for this, about 5-6 yards away from other people
      • Focus on getting to your partner, and prioritize NOT running into other people
      • The damage for being apart is healable. The Sanity drain for running into other people is much more dangerous
    • 1:05 – Mindgrasp cast
      • Make sure to spread out, as the Mindgrasp hits right as Paranoia ends
      • Clear out a large area of Neurons, and make sure you’re positioned to not get dragged into one
      • You’ll want to be 2-3 pairs of connected people deep, making sure you’re as close to other groups around you as possible without being in their Paranoia circle
    • 1:13 – Evoke Anguish cast
      • Spread the hell out immediately after Mindgrasp ends
    • 1:20 – Second set of Thought Harvesters spawns
    • 1:32 – Harvest Thoughts cast completes
      • Immune this cast if you’re able to immune 2 per Phase 2
    • 1:34 – Evoke Anguish cast
    • 1:42 – Lazers, spinning counter-clockwise
    • 1:47 – Third set of Thought Harvesters spawns
    • 1:57 – Paranoia cast
      • If you’re connected to a player who’s immuning the Harvest Thoughts, use a personal defensive (not immunity though) to help survive. Do not go inside the soak circle, and do NOT run into other people
    • 1:59 – Harvest Thoughts cast completes
      • This set should be immuned. If you can only immune 1 cast per Phase 2, this is the cast to immune
      • Make sure to kill this set of adds quickly, then you can all-out burn the boss until the Gateway activates
    • 2:06 – Lazers, spinning Clockwise
    • 2:44 – Gateway becomes active
      • Slowly move towards the Gateway’s side of the room after the adds die, while nuking the boss
      • Everyone should stay closely grouped up during the burn on the boss
      • Use a Warlock’s Demonic Gateway from melee range to the Secret Phase Gateway, and click the gateway as late as possible, right before the first Eternal Torment cast goes off. Every little bit of DPS here helps
    • 3:02 – First Protocols explode
      • Click 2 Protocols to disarm
    • 3:11 – Dark Matter cast
      • Players need to watch their feet and just dodge these
    • 3:22 – Second Protocols explode
      • Disarm ALL 3 OF THESE, they’re directly in the middle of the room. There isn’t enough space to move away for fall off damage, so disarm all of them.
    • 3:29 – Annihilate cast
      • Players affected by Annihilate need to move away from the group, and be careful not to put their targeting circle on a Protocol
    • 3:42 – Third Protocols explode
      • Click 3 to disarm
    • 3:56 – Annihilate
    • 4:07 – Fourth Protocols explode
      • Click 3 to disarm
  • Timeline – Second Phase 2
    • 0:14 – Thought Harvesters spawn
    • 0:21 – Harvest Thoughts cast completes
      • Immune this one if possible. If not, the whole raid group should soak this one
    • 0:26 – Evoke Anguish cast
      • After this cast, collapse in melee range and use 2 Heart of Azeroth extra action buttons
    • 0:39 – Lazers, spinning counter-clockwise
    • 0:46 – Evoke Anguish cast
    • 0:58 – Paranoia cast
    • 1:12 – Mindgrasp cast
      • Make sure to spread out, as this Mindgrasp again hits right as Paranoia ends
      • Like before, clear out a large area of Neurons, and make sure you’re positioned to not get dragged into one
      • And again like before, you’ll want to be 2-3 pairs of connected people deep, making sure you’re as close to other groups around you as possible without being in their Paranoia circle
    • 1:20 – Evoke Anguish cast
    • 1:26 – Thought Harvesters spawn
    • 1:39 – Harvest Thoughts cast completes
      • Immune this set
    • 1:41 – Evoke Anguish cast
    • 1:48 – Lazers, spinning Clockwise
    • 1:53 – Thought Harvesters spawn
      • Lust immediately when these spawn, as soon as your Sated falls off.
    • 2:04 – Paranoia cast
    • 2:05 – Harvest Thoughts cast completes
      • Ignore this cast. Tank should move these adds towards the back of the room away from the raid, and avoid standing in the circles. By doing this, everyone in the raid will hit 0 Sanity instantly, and get the Servant of N’zoth buff, increasing damage dealt by 25%. From that moment on, you have 20 seconds to kill the boss before everyone gets mind controlled and you wipe
    • 2:13 – Lazers, spinning counter-clockwise
    • 2:23 – Evoke Anguish cast
    • KILL THE BOSS
  • Phase 2 Positioning
    • First Phase 2

    • Second Phase 2

  • Healer Tips
    • Thanks to Maeveycakes for sending in these tips
    • Phase 1 use CDs as necessary, which’ll likely be during the Eternal Torment
    • In Phase 2, you’ll want one CD for each Evoke Anguish
      • Limit’s heal comp was 2 Holy pallies, 1 Disc Priest, 1 RSham
      • They went Barrier first Evoke, SLT 2nd, Devo 3rd, other Devo 4th
      • For 3rd and 4th, they also added Rallying Cry
      • They repeated this CD rotation during the 2nd Phase 2 as well
    • The ranged-standing healers (so not holy pallies and MW) can just not stack during Harvest Thought soaking. Doing this allows you to pre-position where you’ll want to be for the upcoming Evoke Anguishes and focus on throughput instead of movement
    • During the Secret phase, just let the tank keep the absorb shield. Don’t bother padding and blasting through the absorb, conserve mana and keep the group alive

VIDEO GUIDE

Mythic Carapace Boss Guide

March 24th, 2020

Carapace

Strategy
Phase 1
Phase 2 
Phase 3
Phase 3 Timeline

  • Phase 1
    • Adaptive Membrane can now be targeted to players
      • When the Membrane breaks, it can now trigger either a Fragment of Sanity OR Shard of Sanity
        • Fragment works exactly the same as in Heroic
        • Shard of Sanity puts down a larger orb and restores 10 sanity to all players within 20 yards. Triggers once when someone runs into it
    • Growth-Covered Tentacles have new set formations they spawn in
      • First set is 4 Tendies, arranged in 2 groups of 2
      • Second set is 2 Tendies, diagonally towards the back of the room
      • Can NOT cross through Tendies, need to kill them
      • Using the Legendary Cloak ability can still fly you through the Tendies

 

  • Phase 2
    • Players no longer have their extra action button nor access to Wrathion to restore Sanity
    • Mycelial Cysts gain a new ability – Reactive Mass
      • 10 second cast, begins immediately when a Cyst takes damage
      • After the cast ends, the Cyst is untargetable for 20s
      • When this effect expires, the Cyst is healed to full Health and deals massive damage to anyone within 15 yards
    • Synthesis Growths
      • When these die, they now spawn 2 Nightmare Antigen, the little adds from P1
      • When all Growths are killed, Fury of N’zoth no longer engages the raid. It instead retreats and immediately starts Phase 3
  • Phase 3
    • Boss now summons lines of Mycelial Cysts, in addition to all previous P3 abilities
      • Happens at the beginning of P3, then every 2 minutes

Strategy

We recommend going in with 2 tanks, 4 healers, and 14 DPS

Adaptive Membrane

    • On Mythic, this drops 2 different size orbs. Little orbs work just like Heroic, Big Blue orbs restore 10 sanity to everyone within 20 yards
    • Which orbs you get is predictable
      • If the Membrane is on the Boss, a Synthesis Growth, or a player, it’ll generate a Big Blue orb when the Membrane breaks
      • If the Membrane is on anything else and breaks, it’ll drop some small yellow orbs, same ones as Heroic

Phase 1

    • You’ll want to pre-assign groups for the two sets of Growth-Covered Tentacles
      • The pattern of these tendies is pre-set on Mythic, as is the location of the Hemorrhages
    • For Set 1, you’ll want 3 groups, for Set 2 you’ll want 2 groups
      • Set 1 shadows appear at about 0:32, the tendies slam down at 0:39
      • Set 2 shadows appear at about 1:35, and slam down at 1:43
    • Just like in Heroic, the Tentacles themselves serve as a Line of Sight blocker. The different groups being in different areas allows the raid to simultaneously be damaging Hemorrhages on different tendies around the room
    • Set 1

      • Group 1 should be your melee players, Group 2 should be your ranged, Group 3 should consist of 2-3 ranged DPS, preferably Warlocks. Group 2 should focus on the northern Tentacle first, the one separating Group 2 from Group 1
        • Once the northern tendies are cleared, Groups 1 and 2 work on the southern tendies
        • Group 3 should be able to take out the southern-most tendie by themselves by the time the other 3 are cleared
        • Groups 1 and 2 should each have 2 healers and 1 tank
        • Group 3 needs to sustain themselves
        • At 0:43, 2 Gaze of Madness adds will spawn, killing this is a higher priority than killing the Hemorrhages
          • These will likely be in different groups, so whatever groups can reach each Gaze need to kill it
    • Set 2

      • You’ll want all melee DPS and most of your ranged DPS in Group 1. Put 2 DPS in Group 2, again preferably Warlocks. Once the four Hemorrhages Group 1 can hit die, everyone in Group 1 should use their Legendary Cloak button, flying back to Wrathion
        • Get full Sanity, then kill off the remaining Hemorrhages
        • You’ll again get spawns of 2 Gaze of Madness adds at 1:47. Gaze adds again are higher kill priority than the Hemorrhages
    • Adaptive Membrane now goes out in pairs of 2 casts
      • The first cast in the pair goes out at 0:16, then every 32 seconds
      • The second cast goes out 10 seconds after the first in the pair
      • The first cast goes on either the boss or adds, the second cast goes on 3 random players
    • Madness Bomb is cast at 0:10, then every 25s, and is applied to 3 people
      • Affected players just need to move away from the raid so they don’t explode on anyone
    • Mental Decay is applied at 0:08, then every roughly 21 seconds for the rest of the phase
      • 6 people get affected per application, and it lasts 20 seconds
      • Drains 20 sanity from the affected players immediately, and deals 41k Shadow damage per second for the duration
    • Mandible Slam is cast at 0:09 then every 16 seconds throughout the phase
      • Tanks should swap every 2 stacks
    • The sets of Gaze of Madness adds only spawn at the points listed above when the Growth-Covered Tentacles are up
    • At 50%, you’ll enter Phase 2

Phase 2

    • Like in Heroic, the beginning of P2 is the boss running through the tunnel and Wrathion blowing a hole in the wall to let you follow
      • The whole raid has their Sanity reset to 100 at the beginning of the phase
      • However, Wrathion NO LONGER helps you in p2
      • You will no longer have access to using your Legendary Cloak to port to Wrathion and restore Sanity
    • You’ll want your raid to split into 2 groups. 9 people should be assigned to go left, 11 should go right
      • Each group gets 1 tank and 2 healers
      • You’ll want classes with better 3 target stacked cleave to go to the right, especially things like Fire Mages, Havoc DHs, even Frost DK are great here
      • Classes that are better at spread damage should go left. Single-target focused specs are also good on the left
      • The left-side has 7 Growths, the Right side has 9
        • On the right, near the top of the platform, are two sets of 3 growths very close together, which is why strong cleave specs excel on this side

    • You’ll want to kill off the Synthesis Growths as you reach them, and work your way towards the back of the platforms
    • While moving through the platforms, be careful about damaging the Mycelial Cysts
      • From the moment a Cyst first takes damage, it’ll become un-targetable 10 seconds later
      • After 20 seconds, it’ll explode in a 15 yard radius, dealing heavy damage to anyone hit, and restoring the Cyst’s HP to full
      • The danger here is the AoE, as there’s not much room to move away from it
      • As such, you want to limit hitting these Cysts as much as possible, to try and prevent explosions from happening
      • This’ll put pressure on the healers though, as standing in the gunk around the Cysts deals 14k damage per second
    • During this phase, the boss continues casting Adaptive Membrane, Mental Decay and Madness Bomb
      • Membrane works just like before, but is now just cast every 10 seconds
        • Each cast alternates between being targeted at Synthesis Growths and players
        • When this is applied to Growths, DPS should focus down specific ones to make sure you actually pop the Membrane. Any padding damage on extra Growths that don’t have the Membrane killed is wasted, so don’t bother
        • You can have the RL/Officers mark specific Growths to target for each Membrane
        • When a Membrane is broken off a Growth, it’ll drop a Big Blue Sanity ball
          • Players should make sure they’re within 20 yards of the ball before someone runs over it and causes the Sanity restore to occur
          • This is your only way to gain Sanity during this phase, so coordinate using the balls properly
        • Madness Bomb is a bit harder to deal with in P2
          • Affected players need to be careful to move just far enough away nobody else gets hit by their circle
          • These players also need to be careful not to block people from getting access to the Growths currently being killed
    • The boss also casts Eternal Darkness, and just like on Heroic this deals heavy damage to everyone in the raid and drains 10 Sanity
    • Once all the Synthesis Growths have been killed, the boss immediately transitions into Phase 3

Phase 3

    • After following the boss down the tunnel to start p3, everyone’s Sanity will be reset to 100 again
    • As the boss begins P3, he’ll throw down lines of Mycelial Cysts around the platform in set locations around the room. Refer to the graphic we have a few lines below here, the Cysts are the red lines
      • 2 minutes after you enter Phase 3, he’ll put a second set of Cysts down. These are placed immediately counter-clockwise of the existing cysts, and just expand the area covered
    • Important note, Infinite Darkness is cast at the location of a group of players. This means you can fairly easily bait where it’ll be dropped, and should do so regularly
      • You can and should also use Warlock’s Gateways for certain Infinite Darkness casts to quickly move across the covered area, as well as the Mycelial Cysts
    • You’ll want to spend the majority of this phase grouped up near melee range, except for when Insanity Bombs are going out forcing you to spread
      • When the Big Blue Sanity Orbs drop from Membranes, having the raid stacked together will make sure everyone gains Sanity for each orb
    • When a PLAYER is affected by Membrane, they’ll need to intentionally take damage to break it
      • The easiest ways to do this are stepping in Infinite Darkness goop, or Mycelial Cyst gunk
      • Definitely do this, as you’ll need all the Sanity orbs you can get
    • Outside of the Cysts, and of course the Membranes being cast in the same pattern as Phase 1 and being applied to players, this phase remains the same mechanically as Heroic
      • This phase is actually scripted to a T, so we figured the most effective way to communicate the strategy was a timeline. We’ll list each ability and movement, showing timings represented both as “time since phase started” and full fight timers, based on our World First kill
      • We’ve also prepared a graphic, showing where to go for each movement, where Infinite Darknesses should be dropped, and where the original lines of Cysts are. The timeline is below the graphic, and refers back to it regularly

Phase 3 Timeline

    • 0:00 (4:38) Beginning of P3, initial cast of Cysts. Start on X
    • 0:09 (4:47) First Infinite Darkness
      • Everyone should stack tight on X to bait this. As soon as the cast completes, click a Warlock Gateway moving you towards Circle
    • 0:11 (4:49) First Adaptive Membrane, cast on the boss
    • 0:12 (4:50) Tendy Shadows appear
    • 0:18 (4:56) Tendies slam down
    • 0:21 (4:59) Second Adaptive Membrane, cast on 3 players
    • 0:28 (5:06) Insanity Bomb Applied
      • Everyone spreads for the explosions
    • 0:32 (5:10) Tendy Shadows appear
    • 0:38 (5:16) Tendies slam down
    • 0:40 (5:18) Insanity Bombs explode
      • Everyone collapse in on the boss and AoE down the adds
    • 0:52 (5:30) Tendy Shadows appear
    • 0:58 (5:36) Tendies slam down
    • 1:01 (5:39) Second Infinite Darkness cast
      • Stand on Circle to bait this one, then use movement speed abilities to get out and towards Star as fast as possible
      • Things like Stampeding Roar and Wind Rush Totem are great here
      • You’ll also want a couple Ranged DPS to hit one or two Cysts right before the Infinite Darkness is cast, to try and leave a gap in the gunk, since the gunk slows you
    • 1:05 (5:43) Third Adaptive Membrane, cast on the boss
    • 1:12 (5:50) Tendy Shadows appear
    • 1:18 (5:56) Tendies slam down
    • 1:15 (5:53) Fourth Adaptive Membrane, cast on 3 players
    • 1:32 (6:10) Tendy Shadows appear
    • 1:35 (6:13) Insanity Bomb Applied
      • Wait for the Tendies to slam, then quickly spread out
      • The tank who has the boss should move him to the next marker (Moon) BEFORE this set of Bombs explodes. Start moving as soon as the Tendies finish slamming.
      • Infinite Darkness is cast on the group, not on the tank, so to give everyone more room, move the boss early
    • 1:38 (6:16) Tendies slam down
    • 1:47 (6:25) Insanity Bombs explode
      • Stack tight on the Star marker to group up the adds, and blast them down
      • You want to be very tightly stacked on the marker, with the exception of the tank who moved the boss away
    • 1:52 (6:30) Tendy Shadows appear
    • 1:53 (6:31) Third Infinite Darkness cast
      • This Darkness is extremely dangerous, as you only have a few seconds to move across Tendy shadows after baiting.
      • To help make sure your raid makes it, we recommend using either another Stampeding Roar or Wind Rush Totem. If you don’t have access to a second ability like this, we STRONGLY recommend everyone in the raid use a Lightfoot Potion to sprint across faster
      • You’ll likely still have the little adds left over chasing your raid here, that’s fine. It’s more important to get this bait correct than worry about adds
    • 1:58 (6:36) Tendies slam down
    • 1:59 (6:37) Fifth Adaptive Membrane
      • This one’s applied to both the boss and any adds still alive
    • 2:01 (6:39) Cyst Genesis – Boss creates the second set of Cysts
      • This widens the existing gunk-covered areas
    • 2:09 (6:47) Sixth Adaptive Membrane
      • Applied to 3 players
    • 2:12 (6:50) Tendy Shadows appear
    • 2:18 (6:56) Tendies slam down
    • 2:32 (7:10) Tendy Shadows appear
    • 2:38 (7:16) Tendies slam down
    • 2:42 (7:20) Insanity Bomb applied
      • Spread for explosions
    • 2:45 (7:23) Fourth Infinite Darkness cast
      • For this cast, everyone will have the Insanity Bomb debuff on them
      • Use a Warlock Gateway for this cast, clicking the Gateway immediately when the cast completes
      • From the moment you click the Gateway, you’ll have about 6 seconds until the Insanity Bombs explode
      • As soon as you land from the Gateway, everyone needs to spread as quickly as possible so you don’t overlap Bombs
      • This is the most dangerous Infinite Darkness in the fight
    • 2:50 (7:28) USE BLOODLUST HERE
    • 2:52 (7:30) Tendy Shadows appear
    • 2:53 (7:31) Seventh Adaptive Membrane
      • On boss and the adds that spawn while this Membrane is casting
    • 2:54 (7:32) Insanity Bombs Explode
      • As soon as these explode, everyone needs to collapse back under the boss and AoE down the adds. Several adds will have the Membrane on them, make sure they die
    • 2:58 (7:36) Tendies slam down
      • As a note, these tendies will likely miss you, as they’ll be targeted where you were as you clicked gateway
    • 3:03 (7:41) Eighth Adaptive Membrane
      • Cast on 3 players
    • 3:12 (7:50) Tendy Shadows appear
    • 3:18 (7:56) Tendies slam down
    • 3:32 (8:10) Tendy Shadows appear
    • 3:37 (8:15) 5th Infinite Darkness
      • Ideally, you want to kill the boss before this Darkness is cast. If you aren’t able to, treat it the same as Darkness #1, but using movement abilities instead of a Gateway
    • 3:38 (8:16) Tendies slam down
      • These will slam before the 5th Infinite Darkness cast actually completes, so they shouldn’t actually interfere much with being able to get out for Darkness
    • 3:47 (8:25) Adaptive Membrane
      • Cast on boss
      • Break the shield, kill the boss

VIDEO GUIDE

Mythic Il’gynoth Boss Guide

March 2nd, 2020

Il’gynoth

  • Cursed Blood
    • Il’gynoth regularly puts a debuff on several players, denoted by a targeting circle
    • Circle will grow and shrink
    • When any circle expands to its maximum size, it’ll explode for moderate damage to the affected player
    • When this debuff is removed, it explodes and deals damage based on its size when removed. The larger the circle was, the higher the explosion’s damage
  • Clotted Corruption add now spawns in Phase 2 while the raid fights the Organs
    • It’ll periodically charge forward, dealing moderate damage to anyone hit and absorbing Blood of Ny’alotha adds
    • Absorbing a Blood of Ny’alotha add causes the Clotted Corruption to grow in size and increase damage dealt
    • This add must be tanked

A note on strategies here

While we don’t necessarily like this strategy, we strongly recommend you use the “no dispel” strategy pioneered and popularized by Alpha. It makes the fight significantly easier, removes a mechanic, and will allow you to get much further into the fight much more quickly. Unless Blizzard does something to alter this strategy’s effectiveness, it’ll remain the recommended strategy. We’ll list both strategies here, but for the time being, your guild will likely find the “no dispel” strategy to be easier.

UPDATE 4/25/2020 – Blizzard has made several tuning changes to this fight over the last couple of months. The most recent one reduces the maximum size of the Cursed Blood circles, but does not change the speed at which they grow. If effect, this change actually increases your raid’s damage taken in the no-dispel strategy. With that, plus the changes to the damage from the Curse being dispelled, the “proper” strategy may actually prove simpler for your guild if you’re just beginning the fight.


No-Dispel Strategy

  • General Info
    • This strategy is exactly what it sounds like, you just never dispel Cursed Blood for the entire fight
    • This effectively removes about 30% of the total raid damage output of the fight
      • Additionally, the Touch of the Corruptor (Mind Control) cannot be applied to people with Cursed Blood
      • Therefore, rather early into the fight, you’ll stop having to deal with the Mind Control mechanic as well
    • We recommend 2-3 tanks, 3-4 healers, and 14-15 DPS
      • If you run 3 tanks, at LEAST one should be a BDK, with heavy Echoing Void or Twilight Devastation
        • That player’s only purpose is to help grip the Blood adds, and deal as much damage as possible
      • If you run the “No Dispel” strat, use 3 healers
      • If you use the “Proper Dispel” strat, use 4 healers
    • Cursed Blood is cast at 0:20, then every 45 seconds
      • 8 players are afflicted with the debuff per cast
      • If using this no-dispel strat, your entire raid will have Cursed Blood by 1:50 into the fight
    • Cursed Pulse
      • This is the damage a player takes when their circle reaches full size
      • Deals about 175k damage
      • Reaches full size about every 20 seconds
    • Managing the circles
      • Remember, the Cursed Blood circles only deal damage at full size, you have a full 20 seconds between pulses
      • It’s safe to stand near people when circles are small, or shrinking
      • Just make sure players move away from each other when a circle is growing and getting close to full size again
    • “House of Cards”
      • I personally like this term in describing this strategy
      • You’re removing some mechanics and a lot of damage from the fight, but there’s a major downside
      • In essence, this is a High Risk – High Reward strategy
      • The risk is that after 1:50, when the whole raid has Cursed Blood, a single player dying will likely result in a nearly instant raid wipe
        • When a player dies, their Cursed Blood circle immediately explodes, and if the circle is at half-size or larger you’re kinda screwed
        • As soon as 1 player dies and their circle explodes, it’ll lead to a chain-reaction of other people dying, circles exploding, and the entire raid falling over within seconds
      • The reward, though, is that all it takes is one good pull where nobody messes up and the boss dies. For many guilds, this strategy can nearly halve the total number of progression pulls before a kill
      • As such, it’s vitally important that every player in the raid does everything they can to keep themselves alive
        • This includes using personal defensives, Healthstones, Health Potions, and even going as far as to make sure they’re sub-40 corruption. A single Thing from Beyond spawning at a bad time and killing that one player can instantly wipe the entire raid
  • Phase 1 – Fighting Il’gynoth
    • Phase 1 (whenever you’re fighting Il’gynoth) is very similar on Mythic to Heroic
    • Tanks should swap after soaking 2 Eye of N’zoth giant lazers
    • Managing positioning is more vital, and dropping the Corruptor’s Gaze (eyebeam lazer) puddles in the correct spot is important
      • You’ll want to keep the puddles as consolidated as possible, giving you more room to move around
      • You can essentially use up old areas near previously-killed Organs in subsequent Phase 1s
    • On the pull, everyone should be stacked in melee range of the boss, on the opposite side of him to where the first Organ you’ll fight is
      • A Warlock should set up a Gateway directly through the boss, towards the side with the first Organ that’ll be killed
      • As soon as the first Corruptor’s Gaze swirlies come out, everyone in the raid clicks the Gateway and gets flown to the other side of the boss
      • By doing this, you’ll drop all of the puddles from this first Gaze inside the boss’s frame, essentially removing it from needing to be worried about
    • As in Heroic, have the tanks positioned in set locations for each of the 4 Phase 1’s you’ll enter. Have the rest of the raid spread around, based on which Organ was last killed
      • Make sure to not be standing in someone else’s circle when it’s about to reach full size

    • In all subsequent Phase 1’s after killing the first organ, managing the Blood adds is important
      • DPS should be swapping to these and killing them
      • If you have a Blood DK, they should be using Grip on CD to bring Bloods under the boss for easy cleave
      • Players being fixated by Blood adds need to run away
      • If you’re being hit by a Blood and get several stacks of the DoT, plus your circle reaches full size, it’s likely you’ll die
      • Do absolutely anything you can to prevent these guys from reaching people
      • Keep in mind, when Blood adds die they explode and deal about 75k damage to the raid
    • If you enter a Phase 1 with a Clotted Corruption add still alive, cleave it down. We don’t recommend hard-swapping to the Clotted add over killing Il’gynoth, just keep it tanked near the boss and cleave it
      • As a note, the damage from this add’s Charge can be mitigated by BoP, so utilize this as much as possible
      • Nobody else except the target should get hit by the charge, as it deals about 250k Physical damage to anyone hit
    • We recommend using Bloodlust immediately upon killing the 3rd Organ and entering the 4th and final Phase 1
      • As in Heroic, this is an all-out burn, kill the boss before anyone in your raid dies
      • Raid should be primarily focused on pure boss damage here, as you won’t be able to fully kill off all the Bloods as they spawn
  • Phase 2 – Fighting Organs
    • Again as in Heroic, have a set order for killing Organs
      • See graphic below, we recommend killing Skull first, X second, Star third
    • Because the raid will all have Corrupted Blood circles, positioning here gets sketchy and much more difficult
      • Healers will likely want to use CDs during this phase, as people likely will end up getting hit by circles overlapping
      • Everyone in the raid needs to do the best they can of spreading out and not being in someone else’s circle explosion
      • This is most difficult for Melee, as there’s a limited amount of room available
        • Ranged should make sure they aren’t too close to the Organ you’re killing. Do not take away a melee player’s spot
    • Your DPS should focus on killing the Organ, but also get the Clotted Corruption add as low as possible
      • When the Clotted add is sub-20% HP, it’s useful to let it charge over Blood adds, absorb them, then kill the Clotted off
      • When the Blood adds are absorbed, they don’t explode like they do when they’re killed
      • Nobody else except the target should get hit by the charge, as it deals about 250k Physical damage to anyone hit
    • Assign Ranged players to interrupt the Organs that are active, but not being killed yet
      • You do not want to let any casts go through, as any extra Blood adds spawning is always a bad thing
      • Warlocks are amazing for this, as they can just set their Felhunter pets to the far Organs and interrupt with minimal DPS loss
    • After an Organ dies, the raid should shift and reposition for the next area where Corruptor’s Gaze puddles will be dropped
  • Rinse, repeat, kill the 3 Organs, lust and burn the 4th and final Il’gynoth
    • By doing this “No Dispel” strategy, you’ll likely start getting to the 3rd Il’gynoth or even 3rd Organ relatively quickly. It’s at that point the fight becomes much more dangerous
    • Between a large number of Blood adds chasing people, the Bloods dying and exploding, and the entire raid having Corrupted Blood circles exploding on them at various times, it’s very easy to die
    • As we’d said earlier, especially later in the fight, if a single person dies it’ll likely lead to a near immediate raid wipe

“Proper” Strategy – Dispelling Cursed Blood

  • General Info
    • This is the strategy Complexity Limit used for the WF Il’gynoth kill, and are continuing to use
    • It requires more overall coordination from the raid, but there’s less individual pressure on most of the raid (except the raid leader)
    • If you’re using this strategy, every single player in the raid needs this Weakaura:
      • https://wago.io/XzVH4DElE
      • This Weakaura will put an Icon with a 9 second countdown on raid frames, indicating the size of someone’s circle
      • Dispels should happen when the circles are at their smallest, so when this countdown is at 2 or lower
      • 4/25/2020 NOTE ABOUT THIS WEAKAURA – IT IS NOT PERFECT. IF YOU TAKE DAMAGE FROM ANYBODY ELSE’S CIRCLE, THE WEAKAURA BREAKS. THERE IS NO WEAKAURA THAT FUNCTIONS PERFECTLY FOR THIS FIGHT.
    • Your raid leader should call out all dispels, based on when a player’s circle is at its smallest
      • You don’t want too many dispels going out at a single time, or the combined damage can wipe the raid
      • We recommend never doing more than 3 within a 5 second window
      • The biggest danger isn’t necessarily the raid dying to too many dispel explosions, but the other people still with Cursed Blood
        • If 3 dispels go off, and someone’s circle reaches full size at the same time, that person is likely to die
        • When that person dies, their circle will explode for raid damage and likely wipe the raid
    • It’s hard to know if this strategy will increase or decrease the time you spend on initial progression
      • Once you learn it, the fight becomes very consistent to deal with in the future
  • Phase 1
    • Largely the same overall idea as above. Positioning and dropping of the Gaze puddles remains the same, as does prioritizing annihilating Blood adds in the 2nd and 3rd Phase 1
    • Your healers should dispel Cursed Bloods as they’re called out by your raid leader. Make sure you don’t dispel more than 3 within a 5 second window, or it’s likely someone may die
    • The real difficulty here in Phase 1 with this strategy is just properly managing dispels
      • It’ll take your guild a while to understand the flow of dispels, when it’s okay to pop 3 Cursed Bloods off back to back, when they need to be more spread out, etc
      • There really isn’t a hard and fast rule for this, other than dispel when the circle is as small as possible
    • In later Phase 1s, when you have Blood adds running around, your raid leader needs to keep an eye on when they’re dying. A Blood add dying does about half the damage as a Cursed Blood dispel, so if 2-3 Bloods all die in close succession, it’ll chunk the raid down pretty hard
    • Watch the timer for the MC closely. Right before it goes out, make sure to spread out as much as possible, then CC and focus down the MC’d targets
      • Absolutely do not let them get to you
      • This is especially dangerous if a player with Cursed Blood gets MC’d by a previously MC’d player. You lose control over managing that circle for a time, and it’s extremely dangerous

  • Phase 2
    • Using the Dispel strat, P2 is actually a bit easier
      • There’s no longer a major worry about positioning, since there won’t be nearly as many circles
    • Everyone (except assigned interrupters on other Organs) should stack near melee range soon after the Organs become attackable
      • As Circles start to shrink in size, drop a major raid CD, like a Barrier or Devo Aura, then dispel circles as they reach their smallest
      • Here, you can dispel up to 4 within a 5 second window. A major raid CD plus everyone being stacked for heavier healing should be enough for everyone to survive
    • As in the “No Dispel” strat, get the Clotted Corruption as low as possible, and try to have it absorb as many Blood adds as you can when it’s at low health
  • We still recommend using Bloodlust during your 4th and final Phase 1 with this strategy. Again, this is a hard burn, you need to kill the boss before the Blood adds overwhelm you
  • And that’s really all there is to say about this strategy. Learning how many dispels you can do at a time, or in close succession, is the primary difficulty of this strategy. Most of your wipes will be along the lines of dispel AoE damage killed someone who’s circle just reached full size, causing that person’s circle to explode on the raid and wipe everyone. There’s no easy way to explain figuring that out except just keep working on it.

VIDEO GUIDE

Mythic Drest’agath Boss Guide

February 25th, 2020

Drest’agath

  • Throes of Dismemberment
    • When an add dies, it now causes all other adds of the SAME type to use their 100 energy ability immediately
  • When an add dies, it leaves behind 4 puddles of Void-Infused Ichor
  • Adds spawn more frequently throughout the encounter
  • Killing an add now generates 30 boss energy over 6 seconds
  • The Umbral Aversion effect, which prevents you from picking up another Ichor, now lasts 1:15 from the moment you get an Ichor debuff

Drest’agath herself doesn’t gain anything new on Mythic. Instead, the way her adds interact throughout the encounter is altered. Whenever any add dies, all other adds of the same type immediately cast their 100 Energy ability. As an example, if a Tentacle of Drest’agath dies, all remaining Tentacles of Drest’agath will cast their 100 Energy ability Reality Tear.

In addition to this, adds in general will spawn more frequently. This’ll alter how guilds need to handle the timing of killing adds, as just killing adds one by one and hoping for the best may prove very inefficient.

Strategy

  • Drest’agath’s Mythic-Only mechanic doesn’t really change the way the fight plays out, it just requires your raid to dodge more things on the ground.
    • The more impactful change is just how much more HP Drest’agath and her adds have.
  • This fight has a hell of a lot of things going on, and seems very complicated. In reality though, it’s fairly straightforward. Don’t overcomplicate it.
  • We recommend a comp of 2 tanks, 3 healers, and 15 DPS
    • The boss enrages at 10:00. The extra DPS player will help make sure you beat it
  • Throes of Dismemberment
    • Eyes
      • When you kill an Eye, the remaining Eyes will cast Errant Blast
      • This puts red swirlie puddles all over the floor, just move out of them
    • Tentacles
      • These cast Reality Tear
      • Purple puddle with a spike shooting up from it
      • These move in straight lines away from the Tentacle that cast it
      • Simply move out of the way of the puddles to dodge them
    • Maws
      • These cast Spine Eruption
      • Series of circles that appear around itself
      • After a few seconds, spikes shoot up from the circle, dealing heavy damage
      • Again, just don’t stand on the actual circle animation
  • What we found is that trying to manage and prevent Throes of Dismemberment by killing all same-named adds together is not an effective strategy
    • Instead, we found it much more effective to prioritize killing adds that were close to each other
    • This lets the raid stay closer, making it easier to heal as well
  • Entropic Crash is cast at 0:15, then every 45 seconds
    • This is delayed by Throes of Agony if the boss hits 100 energy
    • Throes of Agony is always the boss’s #1 priority cast. Whenever she hits 100 energy, that’ll always be cast as her NEXT ability
  • As far as actually killing the adds, you’ll want to focus on timing of them dying, to both maximize Ichor uptime and manage the Throes of Agony
    • Keep in mind that Dismemberment, the mechanic giving the boss energy, lasts 6 seconds, stacks, and REFRESHES.
    • If you kill two adds 5 seconds apart, the Dismemberment will refresh AND gain a stack, so you’ll end up giving the boss 6 seconds of 10 energy per tick, instead of the normal 5 per tick
    • Space out the actual killing of adds 7-8 seconds apart
  • Your most useful tool to effectively kill the adds is Volatile Seed
    • Your tanks should always prioritize dropping this on the higher HP add the raid is currently trying to kill
    • Getting the debuff on 2 or more adds near each other is even better, but not always something that’s possible
    • Since the adds take 60% more damage during the debuff, it’ll help you burn them much more efficiently
  • Killing Adds and Using Ichors
    • At 0:45-1:05 into the fight
      • Kill the two Eyes that you begin the fight with, and 3 more adds by this time. Have BOTH DPS groups grab Void-Infused Ichor, use Bloodlust, and blast the boss as hard as possible. Every DPS should have Ichor here, and leftovers can be taken by tanks or healers
    • From this point on, you’ll want to kill 2-3 adds every 30-40 seconds
      • DPS should be focusing on the adds that have the Volatile Seed debuff
      • Any DPS players with a 2 minute CD should wait to grab an Ichor until their CD is available
      • Players with CDs less than 2 minutes, or 3+ minutes, should just pick up an Ichor every time they are able to
        • BM hunters fit this really well, and should be included here, as BW can be up every time you’re able to grab an Ichor
    • Work your way around the room in a Clockwise fashion, killing adds as you get there
      • Again, your tanks dropping Volatile Seed on the adds you’re killing is vitally important
      • The goal is to kill 2-3 adds every 30-40 seconds, so you don’t fall behind
      • As mentioned above, don’t kill the adds too close together time wise, or else the boss will get way more energy than she should
        • Kill them 7-8 seconds apart
    • Your raid leader should keep an eye on the Entropic Crash CD
      • Ideally, you want to push a Throes of Agony right AFTER the Crash happens, and use a healer raid CD
      • You can actually get the boss to 100 energy during the Entropic Crash cast
  • Important Healer Info
    • At 6:33, you’ll have two fresh Tentacle adds, as well as the boss casting Entropic Crash. Since the Tentacles copy this ability, there’s a massive amount of damage to the raid here. Make absolutely sure you have 1-2 raid CDs for this
    • It’s likely you’ll also have Entropic Crash from the boss + 2 Tentacles at 1:01 and 7:18
      • These are generally nowhere near as dangerous. The 1:01 cast, the Tentacle adds are much further away from the boss, so the damage they deal is reduced by falloff
      • The 7:18 is the same 2 Tentacle adds as at 6:33, so it’s possible you’ll have killed one by this point. If not, use a raid CD
  • Add Spawns
    • These are give or take a few seconds. The adds don’t all just pop up at exactly the same time, it’s over the course of 2-3 seconds
    • On the maps, X = Tentacles, Moon = Eyes, Green = Maws
      • These are locations as viewed from where the entrance to the room is

    • Wave 1 – 0:24
      • 1 Eye, 1 Maw, 3 Tentacles

    • Wave 2 – 1:55
      • 3 Maws, 1 Eye, 1 Tentacle

    • Wave 3 – 3:22
      • 3 Eyes, 1 Maw, 1 Tentacle

    • Wave 4 – 4:55
      • 1 Eye, 2 Maws, 2 Tentacles

    • Wave 5 – 6:26
      • 2 Eyes, 2 Maws, 2 Tentacles

    • Wave 6 – 8:10
      • 2 Eyes, 2 Maws, 2 Tentacles

    • Wave 7 – 9:53
      • 2 Eyes, 2 Maws

VIDEO GUIDE

Mythic Ra-den Boss Guide

February 13th, 2020

Ra-den

  • New 3rd orb – Essence of Nightmare
    • When it hits Ra-den, causes Unleashed Nightmare
      • Missiles cast at every player’s feet, dealing 295k damage within a 5 yard radius
    • Unstable Nightmare
      • Debuff with 5 stacks, lasts 6s
      • After 6s, explodes for 343k Shadow damage to everyone within 15 yards, then jumps to the closest player
        • After it jumps, the 6 second duration followed by the explosion repeats
        • Each jump uses 1 stack
        • 5 people total will be affected by this
        • Causes Instability Exposure, like all other Unstable abilities
    • Night Terror add
      • Casts Dread Inferno
        • Giant fire tornado, follows a random person
        • Deals 122k/s to anyone hit
  • Since there’s 3 orbs each time now, there will be 2 orbs empowering Ra-den each time
    • You need to alternate which orb you kill each time
  • Vita changes
    • The Vita add’s chain lightning now INCREASES damage each jump, requiring the raid to to spread out >5 yards
  • Void changes
    • Void collapse now splits 2.9 million Shadow damage, which is effectively 150k per person, assuming everyone alive
  • Phase 2
    • Decaying Strike DoT is now 100% of the tank’s current health when applied per 2 seconds, up from 75%
    • Ra-den also gains a new ability – Corrupted Existence
      • This places a debuff on 3 targets for 15s
      • The debuff instantly deals a massive amount of Shadow damage, and also increases the max HP of the affected players
      • If at any point a player with this debuff reaches full HP, they instantly die

Strategy

We recommend going in with 2 tanks, 3 healers, and 15 DPS. This fight is a fairly tight DPS check as of the time of writing, and we expect that to continue for a few more weeks. This fight will take you a lot of pulls, and is probably the first boss that’ll be a bit of a wall for your raid.

Phase 1

  • This phase is significantly more difficult on Mythic. The addition of the 3rd Orb complicates things greatly.
    • You want to ensure you push into Phase 2 before the 4th set of orbs reaches the boss
    • Use Bloodlust on pull to help ensure this happens
  • UPDATE 4/25/2020
    • It’s now possible with current gear and corruption levels to push Ra-den into Phase 2 allowing only 2 sets or Orbs to reach him. We recommend using Bloodlust on pull, and pumping damage into Ra-den to achieve this. When the 3rd set of Orbs spawns, your tanks should kite the boss away giving your DPS enough time to push into 40%
  • Tanks should swap after each Nullifying Strike
  • Make sure when a Nightmare Orb is about to hit the boss, you spread out. If you’re standing within 4 yards of someone else when the missiles hit you, you’ll both likely die. That’s just not ideal.
  • You’ll want to pre-assign two groups of 5 players to handle the Unstable abilities
    • Each group should also have 2 assigned backups
    • Group 1 will always handle Unstable Vita. If there’s no Unstable Vita, this group will handle Unstable Void
    • Group 2 will always handle Unstable Nightmare. If there’s no Nightmare, this group will handle Unstable Void
    • Utilize the positioning graphic below

    • Tank the boss on Skull, with the group stacked on X
    • Players with Unstable Nightmare will run to either Diamond or Triangle. The next assigned person for Nightmare to jump to will run to either Moon or Blue (obviously, run to the one on the same side as the person with Unstable Nightmare)
      • Once Nightmare jumps from Diamond to Moon, the person who now has the debuff runs to Diamond, and the next person in the order runs to Moon
      • Rinse and repeat
    • Players with Unstable Vita will use Star and Circle. The FIRST application of Unstable Vita should run to Star. Have it jump back and forth from Star, to Circle, and back again, just like Heroic.
    • Players handling Unstable Void just need to go soak, like on Heroic.
    • You can either just pre-assign a set order, or use the same weakaura the guild did on the WF Ra-den kill:
      • https://wago.io/0pFsUA824
      • If you use this Weakaura, please read the instructions and understand exactly how it works
      • If you use this, it’ll assign which group is doing Vita, Void, or Nightmare itself. You’ll just need 2 teams assigned with your backups.
  • We recommend killing the orbs in the following order: Nightmare > Void > Vita
    • UPDATE 4/25/2020 – If you’re aiming to push before the 3rd orbs reach the boss, we recommend killing Vita first, then Void.
    • When the orbs spawn, DPS need to swap immediately. They have a very large health pool, and it’ll be tight killing them
    • You can also have your tanks move Ra-den as necessary
    • The most difficult orb to kill in time is the Nightmare Orb. When you’re killing this orb, we recommend that your tank drags Ra-den up the stairs by the entrance of the room, giving you as much time as possible. See below:

    • As soon as the Nightmare Orb dies, the boss needs to be moved back to his original positioning. Move quickly, you don’t want to be in the way of the Unstable Vita jumps
  • As far as the adds are concerned, the Void and Vita adds are much more dangerous on Mythic. The Nightmare add is by far the least lethal
    • Kill Priority is always Void > Vita > Nightmare. Yes, we know there’s only ever 2 adds, but this priority holds true regardless of which set you’re on
    • Void Add
      • When Void Collapse is cast, make sure it’s dropped directly on the group. The only exception is if the player targeted has an immunity, in which case they should move out of the group and use said immunity.
    • Vita Add
      • The Chain Lightning now jumps, and increases in damage
      • When these adds are up, loosely spread so the Chain Lightning doesn’t jump through every player and just wipe the raid.
      • Additionally, since this is a targeted cast, the player being targeted can try to move out of the group. It’s a relatively short cast, but every bit helps.
    • Nightmare Add
      • These guys periodically spawn 2 fire tornados that follow people. The tornados really don’t hit that terribly hard. They should just be kited around by the targeted players, away from the rest of the raid
      • Killing these adds is definitely lower priority than either other type. It’s OK to leave them up until right before the next set of orbs spawns. If one does happen to still be alive when orbs spawn, shift your entire focus to killing the orbs, then finish off the Nightmare add.
    • Add Overlaps
      • Void + Vita
        • This is the most difficult overlap to deal with, which is why we recommend doing this set first. Learn it early, then get it out of the way.
        • UPDATE 4/25/2020 You’ll now want to skip this set altogether
        • Your healers will need to commit 1-2 raid CDs during this overlap
        • The raid should loosely spread until Void Collapse is cast. Once the cast finishes, the raid should spread out again
          • Make sure not to get in the way of the Unstable Vita in the back of the room
        • Focus down the Void add ASAP. Do NOT let a second Void Collapse be cast
      • Void + Nightmare
        • Fairly straightforward
        • Everyone can be stacked in melee range
        • Players targeted by the tornados need to run out of the group and kite the tornado around
      • Vita + Nightmare
        • Kill the Vita add first
        • Loosely spread to prevent Chain Lightning from jumping too many times and killing people
        • Players targeted by the tornados need to run out of the group and kite the tornado around
  • Phase 2
    • During P2, everyone should be stacked in melee range to help the healers more efficiently keep everyone alive
    • The primary player affected by Charged Bonds needs to yeet the hell out of the group ASAP. Other players chained to them can help by moving in the opposite direction
      • To make this easier, we recommend always having the primary target of Charged Bonds move to the right-hand side. Other chained players should move left.
    • Everyone needs to move ASAP for Void Eruption. Getting hit is very likely to result in a death
    • Tanks and healers need to focus on managing Decaying Strike properly
      • Pre-assign which tank will take the Decaying Strike. We’ll refer to this person as Tank 2
        • We recommend this be your tank with better self-healing. BDK, VDH, even Protadin
      • Tank 1 will hold the boss the majority of P2. Tank 2 will only taunt for Decaying Strike, then Tank 1 will taunt back immediately after the Strike is applied
      • Tank 2 should be no higher than 50-60% HP when the Decaying Strike goes out. Lower is ideal.
        • To help facilitate this, healers should stop healing Tank 2 about 4s before the Decaying Strike goes out
        • Tank 2 should also use a macro to remove any HoT effects during this 4s window
        • Tank 2 can also let themselves be hit by a Void Eruption if the timing works out
      • Immediately after the Decaying Strike goes out, Tank 1 needs to taunt the boss back, and Tank 2 goes into self-healing mode. Do everything you can to help the healers keep you alive
    • The healers also need to keep an eye on the players with Corrupted Existence
      • Let these affected players float around 60% hp
      • These players should move about 8-10 yards out of the group, to help reduce how much passive healing they receive
      • IF YOU ARE A DEMON HUNTER and you get affected by Corrupted Existence, your life is in grave danger. Your leech can be a major problem, especially if you’re in Meta and have the Soul Rending talent.
        • You should NOT use the Dribbling Inkpod trinket on this fight if you’re a DH. We had a DH’s Inkpod crit while they had Corrupted Existence and were in Meta. The 20% leech heal from the Inkpod crit healed him to full and instantly killed him. Great meme, bad for prog.
    • Kill this big boy before your raid just slowly falls over from the damage

VIDEO GUIDE

Mythic Vexiona Boss Guide

February 13th, 2020

  • The void pools dropped by Encroaching Shadows now give stacks of void corruption in addition to damage
  • Despair’s secondary explosion now deals 120% of tank’s missing HP, up from 90%
  • New add from the Gateway – Iron-Willed Enforcer
    • This add is immune to all CC
    • It regularly casts No Escape, pulling 3 far away players into melee range and casting Brutal Smash
      • Deals 980k Physical and stuns players that are hit
  • In Phase 3, a Shadow of Vexiona appears
    • This Shadow will cast Twilight Decimator, the Phase 2 flyover mechanic
  • Desolation now applies 60 stacks of Void Corruption total, up from 30. These are still split between everyone hit

Strategy

We recommend a comp of 2-3 tanks, 4 healers, and 13-14 DPS. Both tank comp strategies are viable and will be discussed below. Regardless of which tank comp you run, it doesn’t really come into play until Phase 3.

  • Phase 1
    • This actually remains largely the same as Heroic. The new add does not materially change the overall strategy
    • The tank who’s in charge of picking up adds should prioritize getting the Void Ascendant’s Annihilation lazer beam to blast the rest of the adds. This’ll deal massive damage to them, and make killing them much faster and easier
      • This is also the primary goal of using the orbs that drop from Ascendants when they die. You want to maximize the damage the tank can do with the orb on the rest of the adds
      • The rest of the raid needs to be careful to not get hit by the laer
    • You’ll want to time killing the Void Ascendant add right before you enter a Phase 2
      • The Boss tank, who’ll have Void COrruption stacks, should pick up the orb when the P2 adds spawn, and use the Annihilation beam to blow up the adds
    • When the adds are out, if you get pulled in by the Iron-Willed Enforcer, just make sure to move back out of the circle so you don’t die
    • Adds spawn at 0:36, 1:11, 2:20, 2:56, 3:28, 4:32, 5:10
      • An Iron-Willed Enforcer spawns each gateway except 2:56 and 5:10
    • As far as Encroaching Shadows is concerned, you want to drop this near the side wall, not the stairs. The puddles last MUCH longer on Mythic, so you want to ensure you’ll have enough space to maneuver around
    • During your SECOND Phase 1, you’ll want to retain your new Ascendant add that spawned during P2. The add tank should carefully aim the lazer to blast the new adds during this second Phase 1
      • Kill this second Ascendant add after the 2nd Dark Gateway adds are killed in this second Phase 2.
      • Your boss tank should pick up the orb when the second Phase 2 begins and the new adds for that spawn, using the lazer to destroy them
    • When you enter your THIRD Phase 1, continue managing the newest Ascendant add as previously. You’ll want this add to die right before you enter Phase 3
      • When this Ascendant does die, your boss tank should hold off on picking up the orb until after the 2nd Breath in P3 to reset Void Corruption stacks
      • Try to position the Ascendant so it dies near where your tank will be in P3
  • Phase 2 starts at 1:20 and 3:30
    • Management of this phase really doesn’t change at all from Heroic. Deal with the adds, kill the Ascendant, don’t get hit by breath
    • Your FIRST Phase 2, DO NOT kill the new Ascendant add
      • You want to keep this newly created Ascendant alive until the end of the second Phase 1, with your add tank carefully aiming the lazer to hit the new adds as they spawn
    • The boss tank should pick up the orb from the recently killed Ascendant add and use the lazer to annihilate the new Phase 2 adds
      • By doing this, your boss tank will always enter your next Phase 1 with no Void Corruption stacks
    • Again, prioritize dropping Encroaching Shadows puddles near the side walls of the room, not by the stairs
    • In your SECOND Phase 2, again DO NOT kill your newly spawned Ascendant add
      • You’ll still want your add tank using the Ascendant’s lazer cast to destroy any new Dark Gateway adds that spawn
  • Phase 3 – 40%
    • This is a tight burn phase on Mythic, and where the majority of your wipes are likely to occur
    • You should Bloodlust immediately upon entering Phase 3
    • Your raid leader should prioritize calling out which third of the room the Shadow of Vexiona is flying down. Call as early as possible to give the raid time to move
    • Healers should use cooldowns for Heart of Darkness, starting with the second one
      • Because of the Void Corruption stacks, the damage towards the end of the fight gets nutty. Healers should be prepped for this
      • You can also assign raid-wide Healthstones or Health Potions as extra healer CDs
      • The hardest part is just surviving long enough for the boss to fall over
    • Just as a reminder, make sure you’re within a few yards of at least 1 other player at all times during this phase, especially during Heart of Darkness.
    • For Desolation, the handling of this changes based on which tank comp you decided
      • Option 1 – 2 tanks
        • If going with a 2 tank comp, you’ll have one tank hold Vexiona for as long as possible in this phase. The other tank needs to be ready to grab Vexiona if the first tank dies
        • Have assigned people for soak groups, each group should be 2 people with immunities
          • You only want 3 people soaking each time total, including the tank
          • The people with immunities WILL STILL GET VOID CORRUPTION STACKS, so as the phase drags on these people will need a lot of healer attention
          • Stacks do NOT RESET upon death.
        • To help mitigate the number of stacks on the raid, have your first group of immunity players soak the first 2 Desolations
          • They’ll immunity the first Desolation, and just simply sacrifice themselves on the 2nd one and die. This prevents all of the Void Corruption stacks they take from instead needing to be healed through
          • Have your second group of immunity players soak Desolations #3 and #4, doing the exact same thing as the first group
        • Ideally, put your tank with better Magic damage mitigation to be tank #1
        • You should also save an Annihilation orb from a Void Ascendant. To do this, simply don’t click the orb after killing the Void Ascendant from the second Phase 2.
        • Your tank should use the Orb immediately after the 1st Desolation inflicts damage and stacks
        • If tank #1 dies, tank 2 needs to taunt immediately, and continue soaking Desolation as before.
        • As a note, you should be striving to kill the boss before a Desolation #4 happens.
      • Option 2 – 3 tanks
        • If you can have a BDK as a 3rd tank, this strategy may prove easier for you
        • Your 3rd tank Blood DK will be permanently assigned as one of the Desolation soakers
          • You’ll still need to assign 1 person with an immunity as the “sacrifice” player. This person will immunity Desolation #1, and die on Desolation #2
          • You’ll also still need to assign another person with an immunity to help with Desolations #3 and #4, working the same way
        • By doing this, the 3rd tank BDK can self-heal a LOT of the incoming damage from the Void Corruption stacks, allowing the healers to primarily focus on the rest of the raid
          • Additionally, the BDK should be able to survive until the stacks from Desolation #4. This’ll reduce how many DPS you sacrifice, and again remove more and more Void Corruption stacks from the rest of the raid

Positioning

You’ll want to position Vexiona near where she starts, and handle P1 and P2 positioning largely the same as heroic. The big thing with positioning is that you want to ensure you drop the Encroaching Shadow puddles off to the side, instead of the front or back. They don’t despawn on Mythic, so if you drop them in the front or back you can eventually run out of room to dodge the flyovers. See below:

As you get into Phase 3, you’ll have a large chunk of the room covered by the puddles. You’ll want to be moving towards the opposite end of the room, to make sure you have enough space to dodge the P3 Flyovers.

VIDEO GUIDE

Mythic Wrathion Boss Guide

January 30th, 2020

Wrathion

Creeping Madness

  • This is a debuff applied to everyone at the beginning of every Phase 1
  • As a player moves, they gain stacks of Slow
  • These stacks last 25 seconds, but accumulate quickly
  • If a player reaches 50 stacks, it’ll start dealing 300k damage per second while moving
    • Using an ability that clears movement affects also clears this, like a Paladin’s Blessing of Freedom or a Hunter’s Posthaste talent.

The Crackling Shard pillars in Phase 2 are invulnerable to damage

  • When the players who soak Scales of Wrathion run over pillars, they lose their invulnerability
  • DPS players will need to kill these pillars after the invulnerability is removed

Strategy

We recommend going with a 2 tank, 4 heal, 14 DPS comp, and use Bloodlust on pull.

  • Phase 1
    • To deal with Creeping Madness, you want to be aware of your positioning at all times
    • The melee should obviously still be next to the boss’s side, but the ranged and healers should be stacked together ~30 yards away
      • Players affected by Incineration still need to run out of the raid, but only go about 10-15 yards.
    • When Gale Blast occurs, move as little as possible to get just outside the edge of the animation
      • Do NOT start moving for Burning Cataclysm until you see the boss stop moving and pick the side he’ll be on, then run in the opposite direction of where Wrathion stopped
        • You can get a glimpse of where he’s going as Gale Blast ends, since the boss model will turn and point in the direction he’ll fly
      • After the explosions from Burning Cataclysm end, do NOT run to the boss, let HIM run to YOU
        • Again, this helps minimize movement and reduce your total stacks
        • As a note on Burning Cataclysm – it is a bit trickier to identify the safe spot on Mythic than Heroic, which may require a pull or two to get used to
        • There should still always BE a safe spot, but it may be more difficult to quickly identify it.
    • If players get above 40-45 stacks, they should either use an ability to clear stacks, or ask for a Blessing of Freedom if available
      • Things like Hunter’s Posthaste after disengage and Warlock’s Demonic Circle will reset stacks, so save these for tight situations, especially during Burning Cataclysm
  • Phase 2
    • Creeping Madness fades temporarily in P2
    • Each of your 3 players that soak Scales of Wrathion will have 10 stacks of Burning Madness to use
      • There are 30 Shards that need the immunity cleared
      • You’ll want to assign faster classes to this job, things like DH, shaman, or even use Skystep potions
    • Once all the shards are down and you reenter Phase 1, get back to your P1 positioning and pump into the boss. Rinse and repeat until Wrathion falls over
    • Breaking all of these Shards is the single most important part of this fight. Any shards you fail to kill will tick for raid-wide damage the rest of the fight. Pair this with the other damage going out, and 3-4 shards not dying can quickly turn into a wipe.

VIDEO GUIDE

Mythic Maut Boss Guide

January 30th, 2020

Maut

  • Ancient Curse
    • Curse effect which is cast periodically on everyone in the raid
    • This curse slows players by 15%. When removed by any means, this deals 34k Physical damage to the raid
    • Lasts 24 seconds
    • If this EXPIRES on a player, they die
    • This must be removed with a de-curse ability
    • It can also be removed by stepping into one of the Devour Magic puddles

Strategy

We recommend going with 2 tanks, 4 healers, and 14 DPS for this fight, and using Bloodlust on pull.

  • Phase 1
    • Need to coordinate clearing Ancient Curse
      • Tanks should be dispelled immediately
      • After that, rotate clearing the Curse off players by having them step in the puddles
        • 3 possible ways to handle this.
          • 1) Raid Leader calls 3-5 people every few seconds
          • 2) Assigned groups of 3-5 people. Groups step in puddles together, every 3-4 seconds
          • 3) Yolo it
        • Make sure everyone gets the Curse cleared off before it expires
          • Also make sure you don’t have too many people clear at once. 10 clears = 350k damage to the raid, easy to wipe
    • Tank Strategy
      • This fight can be either 2 or 3 tanked.
        • 2 tank strategy (recommended)
          • One tank is assigned as “boss tank,” other tank is “add tank”
          • The “add tank” actually starts on boss, holds until 2 stacks of Shadow Claws
          • Immediately after 2nd Shadow Claws, “Boss Tank” taunts the boss, holds until Phase 2
          • “Add Tank” then goes and picks up adds
          • As a note, the “boss tank” should be your tank that’s better against magic damage, as the DoT will start to hurt
        • 3 tank strategy
          • 2 tanks focus on boss, swap every 2 stacks of Shadow Claws
          • 3rd tank just grabs all the adds
    • Add Strategy
      • Raid needs to DoT and kill Add #1
      • Add #2 gets DoT’d, but don’t need to worry about killing it here
      • Add #3 gets eaten by the boss ASAP, should start Phase 2
      • Add #2 will just die to cleave during Phase 2
  • Add Cheese Strategy
    • A fairly straightforward and simple way to deal with Phase 1 is to essentially ignore that the adds exist
    • You have your tanks taunt the adds into the boss, and force him to eat them ASAP. By doing this, you never deal with them or interact with them.
    • Tanks swap at 2 stacks of Shadow Claws
    • You’ll push into Phase 2 in about 1:15-1:20, but it removes any difficulty from dealing with the adds and lets your tanks just focus on keeping stacks low
    • There are two primary drawbacks to this strategy
      • First, you must have the DPS to kill Maut before a 3rd Obsidian Shatter (Phase 2) occurs. If you cannot get that much DPS into Maut, this strategy won’t work
      • Second, later on in the tier as guilds are more geared, prolonging Phase 1 will become beneficial. It’ll most likely be possible to kill Maut with a single Phase 2, but you’ll need P1 to last as long as possible. Once this gear level is achieved, use one of the other strategies listed above.
        • Addendum – Once gear levels and DPS output is high enough you can kill the boss with a single Phase 2, AND insta-eat the adds, just do that instead.
  • Phase 2
    • The DPS check is much tighter on Mythic to break the shield
    • Getting out and dispelling Drain Essence ASAP is vitally important
    • Healers will want to rotate raid CDs during Phase 2, as the damage being reflected by the Shield is enormous and it’s very easy for people to die
      • DPS should keep an eye on their own health pools as well. Maybe hold off on a Chaos Bolt if you only have 30k HP left. Don’t kill yourself
  • Overall goal is to kill Maut after only 2 Phase 2’s occuring.
    • After 2nd Phase 2 ends, hold all the adds in the back, don’t DoT them unless it’s a single target dps increase, don’t waste the GCDs. Pump into the boss and kill him.
    • In time, with higher ilvls and corruption, it’ll be possible to kill Maut in only 1 Phase 2.

VIDEO GUIDE

Mythic Skitra Boss Guide

January 30th, 2020

Prophet Skitra

  • The Clouded and Twisted Mind debuffs, which are only active during the Intermission on Normal and Heroic, now both go out on the pull and last all fight
    • Shred Psyche adds can only be seen by players affected by one debuffs
    • Images of Absolution walls are also affected by this, so any individual player can only see half the wall.

Strategy

We recommend going in with 2 tanks, 4 healers, and 14 DPS. Do NOT use Bloodlust on pull.

  • Primary Phase
    • Functionally, very little changes from Heroic to Mythic
    • Place a raid marker ~8 yards away from where the boss is being tanked
      • This is the drop point for Shred Psyche
      • When the add comes out, wait 5s for its initial cast, then all players who can see it need to nuke ASAP
      • The tanks should still drag the boss on top of the add, even if they can’t see it. This’ll allow for some amount of cleave from the players targeting the add
    • For Images of Absolution, assign 3-4 people to focus on CC’ing an add to create an open space. Always ensure you have at least 1 person with each debuff
      • Mass Entanglement is OP for this. Druids should be running this talent.
  • Intermission Phase
    • Finding the correct Image as quickly as possible is much more important in Mythic. The stacking Shadow Taken increase debuff will come back to wreck you later on
    • On the 3rd and 4th Phase 2s, healers will want to rotate CDs, as the raid will be getting high on stacks
    • Use Bloodlust immediately after identifying the “real” Skitra during the 4th Phase 2. This’ll push you out of the phase as quickly as possible and prevent deaths
  • And that’s really it. Execute the fight like it’s Heroic, but with a little more added coordination. GGs!

VIDEO GUIDE

Mythic Hivemind Boss Guide

January 30th, 2020

Hivemind

  • Devouring Frenzy, the raid-wide damage ability that occurs following a Hivemind control swap, now gains 20% increased damage each time it’s cast, up from 15%
  • When Ka’zir is in control, adds now heal 5% health per second after their health falls below 20%. This is increased from 3% health per second
  • The add affected by Volatile Eruption now has its healthpool increased by a larger percentage
  • For the Acidic Aqir, the bowling-ball type adds, two waves spawn back to back
  • Mind-Numbing Nova now reduces haste by 100% if it’s not interrupted, up from 50%
  • The add buffed  into being a Ravager gets a larger Health increase buff
  • After Echoing Void deals damage, it leaves behind a new purple swirlie effect
    • Getting hit by this swirlie deals 200K damage and afflicts you with the Nullification effect, causing 73k Shadow damage every 2s for 6s, plus reduces healing by 100% for the duration

Strategy

We recommend going in with 2 tanks, 4-5 healers, and 13-14 DPS. It’s doable with 4 healers, but generally a little safer with 5. We also recommend using Bloodlust on pull. To help with add management, you can also run 3 tanks. If doing this, at least one of your tanks needs to be a Blood DK.

  • As mentioned above, there aren’t really any new mechanics on Mythic, but all the Heroic mechanics are amped up to matter more
  • You’ll want to have several players be AoE specced, as well as multiple players running the Focusing Iris major essence
    • Drone Adds spawn at 0:15, 1:25, 2:40, 3:53, 5:10
      • Spawns 1, 3, and 5 are during Tek’ris control, meaning all adds plus the bosses can be stacked for cleave
        • All players should just collapse on the 2 bosses here to stack all the Drones up and annihilate them
        • Use Focusing Iris major here, any other big AoE CDs. Make sure they all die.
      • Spawns 2 and 4 are during Ka’zir control.
        • Since the adds heal 5% per second during Ka’zir’s control, we decided to ignore them until it swapped back to Tek’ris control, and use healer CDs as needed to keep the raid stable.
          • This may not be a viable option for your guild.
          • If the healing is not manageable for your guild, you should instead pick a boss and have the entire raid collapse on it
          • Blow Focusing Iris here instead, as the add’s self healing is much more potent and you need to make sure they die
    • Darters spawn at 0:53, 2:02, 3:17, 4:20, 5:37
      • Sets 1, 3, and 5 are during Tekris. 2 and 4 are during Ka’zir.
      • If you have a BDK, they should use Mass Grip when these spawn during Ka’zir.
      • DPS need to make sure they actually swap and kill the Darters, as their Psionic Burst cast actually does a fair amount of damage. Keep them slowed and rooted as much as possible
  • When a Drone gets buffed into a Ravager, the tank with better Physical damage mitigation should pick it up.
    • These get created at 0:16, 2:40, 5:10. DPS should hardswap and nuke these
  • We recommend ignoring the Volatile Eruption adds, as the damage required to kill them is not worth the savings in damage taken from the explosion.
    • Instead, utilize healer CDs for this. Devo Aura is amazing. Barrier is certainly doable, but you’ll have an overlap with bowling ball adds, so be careful. If you have neither, use throughput CDs and have the raid use personals
    • Volatile adds are created at 1:25, 3:53
  • Bowling Ball adds come out at 0:46, 1:38, 2:27, 3:17, 4:07, 4:56, 5:46, 6:38
  • Echoing Void occurs at 0:27, 1:20, 1:50, 2:48, 3:40, 4:35, 5:41, 6:25, 7:20
  • Tek’ris in control 0-1:15, 2:34-3:45, 5:04-6:15
  • Ka’zir in control 1:15-2:35, 3:45-5:04, 6:15-7:30
  • Don’t stand in Volatile Eruptions. GGs.

VIDEO GUIDE