N’zoth is an old god. There is no strategy, just succumb to the whispers and join his eternal Black Empire! Ilith qi’uothk shn’ma yeh’glu Shath’Yar! H’IWN IILTH!
N’zoth is a three phase encounter. Stage 1 serves as an introductory phase, Stage 2 half the raid repeats Stage 1, followed by the other half repeating Stage 1. After both halves successfully complete Stage 2, you’ll enter Stage 3.
As a note, this fight was buggy both times it went up for testing. We believe we have a good idea of how Blizzard intends it to work, and that’s what we’ve represented here. Stage 3 take with a grain of salt, though, as there was only a limited amount of testing possible in the phase. We’ll make any necessary edits and updates after the fight is live.
Encounter-Wide Ability
Sanity
When you pull, you get a Sanity bar. Several mechanics throughout the fight reduce your Sanity. If you ever reach 0 Sanity, you get blessed with the Gift of N’zoth
Increases your damage and healing by 100% for 20 seconds
When this expires, you get MC’d and try to destroy your raid. MC cannot be broken and you must be killed
While MC’d, you cast Mental Decay, draining 15 Sanity from your target and dealing 35k Shadow damage every second for 12s, interruptible
Azeroth’s Radiance
Extra action button, uses your Heart of Azeroth to restore 25 Sanity every second for 4s
Moving or attacking breaks the channel
This seemed to only be available in the Physical realm
Stage 1
When you start the encounter, N’zoth casts Glimpse of Insanity and pulls the entire raid into a vision. While in this vision, you’ll fight Psychus and deal with a plethora of void tentacles called Exposed Synapses. This Glimpse of Insanity effect pulls your mind out of your body.
Psychus Abilities
Psychus has an incredibly massive amount of HP
Mindwrack
Cast on tank, deals 107k Physical damage and applies a debuff, causing you to take 33% increased Physical damage for 14s
Creeping Anguish
Psychus drops a void zone below himself, which expands out to be 60 yards wide
While in the void zone, you take 78k Shadow damage every 1
Also lose 5 Sanity every second
Your movement speed is also reduced 33%
See screenshots below. It grows from barely wider than Psychus to covering a massive portion of the room
Synaptic Shock
Killing a void tentacle while Psychus is within 8 yards of it causes Psychus to take 50% increased damage for 20s. Stacks.
Manifest Madness
If Psychus reaches full energy, he channels Manifest Madness
Reduces damage taken by 99%
Inflicts 107k Shadow damage to the entire raid every 2s
Also drains 20 Sanity from the entire raid every 2s
This is a wipe
Shattered Ego
Killing Psychus stuns N’zoth and any tentacle adds (including the ones you’ll fight in Phase 2) for 30 seconds
Void Gaze
N’zoth’s eye opens, dealing 35k Shadow damage and draining 5% Sanity from all players in the vision every 1 second for 3s
Exposed Synapse
Probe Mind
Zaps a random player within 30 yards, dealing 64k Shadow damage
This ability bounces to any other players within 5 yards of the targeted player, and keeps bouncing to anyone within 5 yards, dealing the same 64k damage
Resilient Synapses
When one void tendy dies, the rest all heal to full HP
Restore Consciousness
When Psychus dies, you can run to your body and leave the vision, returning to the Physical realm
Collapsing Mindscape
N’zoth casts this when Psychus dies. Anyone who doesn’t reach their body and leave the vision before the cast ends dies instantly
Stage 2
During this phase, you’ll be fighting N’zoth in the physical realm. He’ll cast Mindgate soon after the phase starts, opening a passageway to the vision realm from Phase 1
After taking the Mindgate, you get a debuff preventing you from entering any later Mindgates
Half of your raid goes down during the first Mindgate, the other half goes down for the 2nd
Your team in the Vision phase will basically repeat Stage 1, with a couple additional mechanics to deal with
Psychus has the same HP pool as Stage 1, and retains all the same abilities
Exposed Synapses are spawned everywhere and work just like Stage 1
Corruption of Deathwing
Vision of Deathwing periodically appears, dealing 28k damage to everyone within the Vision every second for 5s
Also drains 4 Sanity per second for 5s
Flames of Insanity
Orange swirlies on the ground
Getting hit deals 107k Fire damage and drains 15 Sanity
Also DoTs you, dealing 43k Fire every 2s for 6s
DoT is dispellable
Treacherous Bargain
Visions of Azshara and Sylvanas appear
Azshara casts Tread Lightly
Anyone who moves during this takes 14k Frost damage every 2s until they stop moving
Sylvanas casts Black Volley
Deals 7k Shadow damage to everyone in the vision and drains 4 Sanity every 1 second for 3 seconds
When Psychus dies, the vision collapses and you need to run back to your body to escape, just like Stage 1
Soon after the first Psychus dies, N’zoth will re-cast Mindgate. The second half of your raid needs to take this one, go into the vision, and kill the fresh Psychus
N’zoth
Corrupted Neuron
Spawns a bunch of red Neurons around the room, heal themselves 1% every 2s
Veil of Anguish
Puddles of purple goop grow around all Neurons, around N’zoth, and around the very outer edge of the room
Puddles deal 78k Shadow damage and drain 5 sanity every second you’re in it
Mindgrasp
Immediately after the Neurons spawn, N’zoth will begin casting Mindgrasp
Grabs the entire raid with void tentacles, then pulls them
Can pull either to N’zoth, or to the edge. You’ll be able to tell which based on where the void tentacles are coming from.
Paranoia
Gives every player a partner, and links them for 15s
Must get within 5 yards of your partner, or you take 10k Shadow damage every second
Damage increases over the duration of Paranoia
Coming within 5 yards of someone OTHER than your partner causes you to lose 5 Sanity every second
Eternal Torment
Casted ability
Deals 46k Shadow to everyone in the Physical realm every 1 second for 2 seconds
Adds
Corrupted Viscera
When any add in the Physical realm dies, it explodes and drops gunk
Deals 107k Shadow and drains 5 Sanity from anyone hit
NOTE – this did not occur on the PTR at all. We assume it’ll be a swirlie on the ground like most similar abilities.
Basher Tentacle
Gains 3% increased Physical damage after every successful melee hit
Void Lash
Bashes the tank (or highest threat target in range) for 161k Physical and 53k Shadow every 0.8s for 6s
Tumultuous Blast
Cast when there’s no melee in range
Deals 53k Shadow to the entire raid every 2s for 10s
Also reduces Haste by 33% for 10s
Corruptor Tentacle
Casted ability, applies a debuff on a random player
Deals 43k Shadow damage every 2s for 10s
If this does not get dispelled before it expires, it’ll also drain 15 Sanity
Spike Tentacle
Pain Spike
Throws a small void bolt at a random target, dealing 53k Shadow damage
After each half of your raid has gone down and killed Psychus, you’ll move into Stage 3
Stage 3
At the beginning of this Stage, N’zoth summons a Thought Harvester
They then spawn roughly every 42 seconds
Mindwrack
Same as when Psychus casts it
Harvest Thoughts
Deals 71k Shadow damage to everyone within 15 yards
Also drains 200 Sanity split evenly among everyone hit
If less than 3 people are it, it’ll instead drain 50 Sanity from everyone
N’zoth
Eternal Torment
Same as Stage 2
Mindgrasp
Same as Stage 2
Stupefying Glare
N’zoth creates several eyes that shoot eye beams
Deals 161k Shadow to anyone hit
Also fears anyone hit for 4s
Evoke Anguish
Debuffs everyone in the raid, dealing 178k Shadow damage every 5.2 seconds for 8s
When it expires, leaves a pool of Anguish, same type of pool as in earlier phases
Every time this ability is cast, all previous pools grow in size
Strategy
As a general rule throughout the fight, if your Sanity drops below 25%, use your extra action button
Before you pull, split the raid in half for your two Stage 2 groups. Each group needs 1 tank, and an even split of DPS and heals
Stage 1, Stage 2 Visions
While in the Vision fighting Psychus, you’ll need to move him around the room on top of the tentacles
Kill whatever tentacle you’re currently holding Psychus near
As soon as that tentacle dies, move Psychus to the next tentacle
While you’re killing the tentacles, make sure DPS are cleaving onto Psychus
In Stage 1, you can start nuking Psychus after 4 tentacles
In Stage 2, you’ll need about 6 before hard swapping to the boss
In Stage 2, killing Psychus before he reaches 100 energy is MUCH tighter than Stage 1. You’ll need to maximize cleave damage onto him as much as possible, while still killing tentacles as quickly and efficiently as possible
Once you kill the 6th tentacle, drag Psychus onto a 7th tentacle, and main target Psychus. Cleave damage should kill the 7th tentacle relatively quickly, then everyone hard focus Psychus
DPS should save cooldowns for after the 6th tentacle dies
Don’t stand in the purple void gunk
Synapses have a 30 yard max range on Probe Mind. Ranged and healers should stay near melee range of Psychus to minimize the number of Synapses within range to cast
During Stage 2 visions, make sure to dodge the orange swirlies from Deathwing
The mechanics from Azshara and Sylvanas are not as impactful overall as the swirlies from Deathwing. When Tread Lightly is up, only move as far as necessary
As soon as Psychus dies, get yourself to your body ASAP. It’ll be wherever you had entered the Vision from
Stage 2, Physical Realm
On PTR, the Physical realm was rather slow paced
Prioritize killing the Basher > Corruptor > Spike
Make sure your tank gets in range of the Basher ASAP and stays on it
Healers need to make sure to dispel Corrupted Mind
Dodge the swirlies (we think) that spawn when an add dies. These should be easily dodgeable, no reason to take unnecessary damage and Sanity loss
When affected by Paranoia, make sure to get to your new best friend as quickly as possible, and stay away from other groups
Corrupted Neuron and Mindgrasp function as a combo. Neurons will go out first, and you’ll have a few seconds to attack them. Need to nuke these down so a path clears in the puddles
Soon after, Mindgrasp starts. You want to be in the middle of the platform ring when this starts, and quickly move to the opposite side of where the tentacles grabbing you are coming from
Once both halves of your raid successfully complete a Stage 2 Vision, you enter Stage 3
Stage 3
Due to limited PTR testing time, we did not get much time to work through all of Stage 3. We’ll list the important points here, and complete the strategy after the fight is live and has been killed
When the eye balls spawn for Stupefying Gaze, make sure you do not stand in front of them so you don’t get eye beamed
When Evoke Anguish goes out, the raid should collapse and drop their pools as close together as possible
You’ll most likely want to drop the first set near the back of the room, and drop all subsequent sets as close to the edge of old pools as possible
After dropping pools, the raid should shift together around the room to an open area. Don’t go too far or you’ll eventually run out of room
When the Thought Harvester spawns, all DPS should swap and nuke it
When he casts Harvest Thoughts, the raid should collapse to all soak this together and spread the Sanity drain as much as possible
Stay near the middle of the platform ring when Mindgrasp is cast to help make sure you have enough time to move to whatever side is opposite of the tentacles
