Heroic Hivemind Boss Guide

BY Andrew Miesner / January 17, 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: