Heroic The Nine Boss Guide

BY Andrew Miesner / July 4, 2021

Written and produced by Crzypck

Special thanks to our consultant: Tagzz

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The Nine

This is a two phase fight. You start by fighting Signe and Kyra. When either of these hits 15%, a third boss drops down, Skyja, who has significantly higher HP than the other two. Activating Skyja is the beginning of Phase 2. 

Phase 1

  • Kyra
    • Unending Strike
      • Tank smack, deals 51k Physical damage
      • Also applies a 10% increased damage taken debuff, stacking
      • ALSO hits the entire raid with Repeating Slash
        • This deals 5k Physical damage, PER application of the stacking debuff on the tank who was hit with Unending Strike
    • Formless Mass
      • Creates a small blob add that has to be killed
      • Casts Siphon Vitality, which leeches 12k Shadow from every player & heals the add for the same amount
      • Can be interrupted
    • Wings of Rage
      • At 100 energy, Kyra sucks everyone towards her for 7s
      • At the end of the 7s, she does a big smash within 10 yards
        • Deals 49k Physical + stuns for 10s 

  • Signe
    • Song of Dissolution
      • Channeled ability, ticks every 1.5s for 6s
      • Each tick applies a stacking debuff to the whole raid
        • Deals 1600 Shadow per second for 5s, per stack
        • Each stack refreshes duration
      • Interruptible
    • Soulful Blast
      • Casted ability at the tank, deals 25k Shadow damage
      • Interruptible
    • Reverberating Refrain
      • At 100 energy, pushes all players away for 7s
      • After the 7s, she explodes and deals 49k Shadow to all players FURTHER than 10 yards from her, and also fears anyone hit for 6s

  • Val’kyr Stuffs
    • While you fight the first two bosses, the third will call down adds to cast abilities at you
      • These happen one at a time, spread out over time
    • Agatha’s Eternal Blade
      • Several lines appear, and shortly afterwards Val’kyr fly down the lines. Being hit deals 51k Physical damage & knocks you back
    • Daschla’s Mighty Impact
      • Puts purple circles around a few players, 20 yards
      • Circles explode after a few seconds, dealing 25k Shadow to anyone within the circle
    • Annhylde’s Bright Aegis
      • Annhylde drops to the ground and puts down a massive AoE protective shield for 40. Reduces damage taken by all bosses by 90% while inside the circle
    • Aradne’s Falling Strike
      • Creates several small soak circles around the room
      • After 8s, the soak circles explode
      • Deals 14k Shadow damage to anyone in the soak circle
      • If any circle is NOT soaked, the whole raid takes 29k Shadow damage
    • Brynja’s Mournful Dirge
      • Puts small 5 yard circles on several players
      • Affected players take 2500 Shadow per second for 6s
      • When the circles expire, they explode and deal 27k Shadow damage to anyone hit, except the person who actually had that circle
    • Arthura’s Crushing Gaze
      • Picks a random player & puts a 10 yard circle around them
      • After 8s, slams into that player, dealing 124k Frost damage, divided evenly among everyone hit
  • End of Phase
    • When either Kyra or Signe reaches 15% HP, Skyja activates, and you move into Phase 2

Phase 2

  • Both Kyra and Signe continue using all their abilities until they each respectively die
  • All of the Val’kyr stuff continues happening
  • Skyja
    • Fragments of Destiny
      • Puts a debuff on several random people. Deals 3k Frost damage every second. In testing, there were 3 debuffs out. 
      • Dispellable, but no duration
      • When dispelled, jumps to the next closest player
      • If all 3 of the debuffs jump onto the same player, they all disappear and instead leave a puddle of ice on the ground
      • Puddle is 10 yards wide, deals 10k Frost per second & slows you by 50% while standing in it
    • Word of Recall
      • Cast every roughly 1:15 after Skyja activates
      • Causes all previous Val’kyr abilities to be re-cast
    • Link Essence
      • Links several players together
      • If any linked player takes damage, 60% of that amount will be split evenly to the remaining linked players
        • Ex – one player in the link takes 10k damage. 6k damage will be split between the other linked players
    • Pierce Soul
      • Big tank smack, deals 62k Physical damage
      • Also reduces movement speed and healing received by 10%. Stacks
    • Resentment
      • Applies a raid-wide DoT for 12 seconds
      • Ticks for 3700 Shadow damage every second

Strategy

Phase 1

  • You’ll want to stack Kyra and Signe on each other for cleave damage, just off-center of the room. Give plenty of room to spread as needed
    • Tanks should swap when Kyra’s tank has 3 stacks of Repeating Slash
      • Or more, if your healers really want to pad
  • When a Formless Mass spawns, everyone should hardswap and burn ASAP.
    • Interrupt every cast, do not let any get off
  • Interrupt Signe’s Song of Dissolution ASAP, unless again your healers are begging you to let them pad. Gotta get that Rank 1 parse somehow
  • Interrupt Soulful Blast as much as possible. This is a much lower priority than the Formless Mass casts or Song of Dissolution.
  • When Wings of Rage is cast by Kyra, run away from the circle. When Reverberating Refrain is cast by Signe, run TO Signe and have a dance party in that circle
  • Keep an eye on timers for when Val’kyr are coming. Dodge lines, soak the small purple circles, spread out with big purple circles, move bosses out of the giant shield zone, move away if you have small white circles
    • Most important one here is the Crushing Gaze. If you’re the target run into melee
    • If you don’t have at least 4 people in melee, you’ll need some ranged to come in as well to help soak
  • Nuke these two down fast, and try to get them to both reach 15% HP as close as possible. As soon as one reaches 15%, Skyja activates

Phase 2

  • Pop Bloodlust when Skyja activates
    • Alternatively, if you’re struggling to keep up with all the mechanics coming in from the Val’kyr later in the encounter, you could save lust for the last ~30% HP
  • Prioritize finishing off Kyra and Signe, so you don’t hafta deal with their abilities anymore
  • Continue handling all the Val’kyr stuff. Soaks, dodges, etc. 
  • As far as Skyja is concerned, the biggest deal is Fragments of Destiny
    • You’ll want to assign a starting spot somewhere near the edge of the room
      • Use this as the drop point for the first set of Fragments
      • You’ll need to dispel the debuff and bounce it to people. Have one assigned person without the debuff stand directly on the marker. All 3 people with the debuff should stand around this person, then have healers dispel all 3 debuffs in quick succession
      • It may take a few pulls for some people to learn proper positioning here, but shouldn’t be too bad
      • Do it right and it essentially negates the mechanic
      • Just make sure to always have a marker down for the assigned person who’ll get all 3, and have it be near the edge of the room
      • See image below, the icons with blue outlines are the ones with the fragments, the player on Orange is going to get all 3 when they’re dispelled, leaving a puddle behind

  • Healers will need to keep a close eye on Link Essence players, so none of them die. 
    • If your GM gets the Link Essence, your healers should band together as a council and ensure nobody heals them
  • Tanks will want to swap after every 1-2 Pierce Souls
  • You’ll want to use some type of throughput CD for Resentment, to keep the raid stable
  • This phase can get pretty hectic. Between having the Fragments going out, lines to dodge, circles to soak, people needing to spread, needing to move the boss out of the shield circle, etc. Things start to ramp up as Skyja casts Word of Recall, and after her 2nd cast of it you basically have mechanics coming out non-stop
    • Keep your cool, focus on each thing going on, and nuke down the boss

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