The Ironsong Tribe

N'Zoth is a three phase encounter.

In Phase One, we must defeat Psychus in the "Mind Realm," dragging him from place to place to apply big damage taken debuffs on him.  In Phase Two, we'll fight waves of tentacles while half the raid takes turns entering the Mind Realm to repeat what they did in Phase One.  Phase Three is a race to the finish.

This fight has Sanity as a mechanic, just like Carapace did.  At 0 Sanity you'll gain a damage and healing buff for 20 seconds, they you'll become permanently mind controlled.

We will, however, have an extra action button which will allow us to channel our Sanity back up.  We'll use this button at set points throughout the fight.

PHASE ONE

When we pull the boss, we'll all enter the Mind Realm.  In this phase we need to kill Psychus in order to leave the Mind Realm and start Phase Two.  Psychus will cast Void Gaze, which does ticking damage and removes sanity from players.

We'll want to get through Phase One quickly, before Psychus reaches 100 energy and casts Manifest Madness: he'll shield himself and drain Sanity from the raid, causing a wipe.

Psychus has a LOT of health, but there's a mechanic that will help us.  If we kill a Synapse Tentacle near him he'll gain a debuff (Synapse Shock) that causes him to take 50% more damage for 20 seconds, and it stacks.

Note: each time we kill a tentacle, all the others will heal up to full, so we need to focus on killing one tentacle at a time.

--> Drag Psychus from tentacle to tentacle, killing the tentacles, until Psychus has 5-6 stacks, then nuke him down. Don't use DPS cooldowns here as we'll need them later.


Psychus' abilities

Anti-tank ability (Mindwrack):  Hits the tank and applies a debuff, but this can be interrupted.

Void Zone (Creeping Anguish):  Spawns a void zone under him that grows VERY quickly.  It slows and does a lot of damage, and drains sanity.

--> Position the boss carefully.  Take him from tentacle to tentacle along the edges of the room.  May want to delay moving him if he's about to drop another void zone.  After killing 3 tentacles along the wall, start slowly dragging him toward the middle, killing tentacles along the way.  Then head toward the door where we entered the room.  At this point he should have enough stacks to nuke him down.

Once he's dead, click on your body to re-enter the physical realm.

Tentacle abilities

The tentacles will be casting Probe Mind on a random player, which chains to other players near the target.

--> Can spread to reduce the effect of Probe Mind, but this is a low priority, as killing the tentacles and Psychus is much more important.


PHASE TWO

Once we kill Psychus, we leave the Mind Realm.  N'Zoth will be stunned and vulnerable in the middle of the room for 30 seconds.  

--> use your DPS cooldowns and NUKE N'ZOTH.  He can only be damaged during these short windows.

Once the stun wears off, N'Zoth will become immune to damage and will spawn a bunch of Corrupted Neurons on the ground.  These are fixed in place and have a pools of anguish around them, the size of which depends on the neurons' health.  Damaging a neuron shrinks the pool around it.

Move to the WEST SIDE of the boss (this is a good spot for the tentacle adds which will spawn soon) and clear a path between the boss and the edge of the room by damaging the Neurons.

The boss will then cast Mind Grasp, which will cause each player to move towards or away from N'Zoth for 5 seconds.  You can tell which direction you will go as your shadow will point the way.  Move as close to the boss, or to the wall, as you can, before Mind Grasp goes off, making sure you have a clear path behind you.  (If you get pulled into the boss, or pushed into the wall, you'll be in pools of anguish and you will die quickly.)

Once Mind Grasp is over, a pack of tentacles will spawn on either side of the raid.  There are three different types:

Basher Tentacles:  Need to be tanked or they do raid-wide damage and a haste debuff (Tumultuous Blast).  They do ever-increasing damage to the tank, and do a large burst to the tank with Void Lash.  Focus the Basher Tentacles down first.

--> Tanks engage the Basher Tentacles, raid will focus them down first.

Corrupted Tentacles don't need to be tanked.  They cast Corrupted Mind, which is an interruptible cast that debuffs a random player with a DoT.  If not dispelled, it removes 15 sanity from that player.

--> Keep the Corrupted Tentacles interrupted, and if any Corrupted Mind debuffs get through they need to be dispelled.  Raid kills these second.

Spike Tentacles:  little tentacles around the room that do a little shadow damage to a random player (Pain Spike).

--> Focus these down last.

Whenever an add dies, it will send out void zones next to players (Corrupted Viscera).  Inflicts damage and drains 5 Sanity.

--> Dodge the void zones.

For the FIRST wave of adds, the raid should be evenly split in two, with one team dealing with the set of tentacles on the left, and the other with the set on the right.

During this time, the boss will be doing low damage to the raid every 5 seconds, and will occasionally deal a large burst of damage to the raid over 3 seconds.  These just need to be out-healed.  Don't run out of range of the healers!

The boss will also cast Paranoia on a timer.  This creates several pairs of players linked with a beam.  While paired players are >5 yards apart, players take increasing damage.  Players NOT paired with you will drain sanity from you if they're within 5 yards.

--> Linked players need to run to each other, while staying AWAY from other players.  So, pre-spread for Paranoia, then stay away from other players with Paranoia.  Paired players should carefully make their way to each other, then stand on top of each other, until the debuff drops.


Around the time the first wave of adds should be dying, a Mind Gate portal will open nearby.

--> Everyone should use their extra action button now to restore all of their sanity.

--> HALF the raid should pile on the Mind Gate to be sent to the Mind Realm.  Once inside, they will repeat Phase One.  Meanwhile, the other half of the raid will continue to deal with tentacles in the normal realm (these spawn in set locations).  The second half of the raid will enter a second Mind Gate portal later in the phase. (Note:  on normal, we can use the same players for the two Mind Gates.  On Heroic, we'll need to use different teams of players).

In the Mind Realm, half the raid will need to kill Psychus again.  This is harder than in Phase One as Phychus has the same health, but the raid is only half the size that it was.  Plus, the first Mind Realm of Phase Two has fire swirls that need to be dodged.  The second Mind Realm does damage to you as you move around, so move in small bursts so healers can top you off between movements. It may help to put more mobile DPS in the first Mind Realm, and less mobile DPS in the second Mind Realm.

As in Phase One, get 5-6 stacks of the damage increase debuff on Psychus, then use DPS cooldowns and nuke him down.

Paths to drag Psychus.  Meet him halfway then drag him along the edge of the room until you run out of synapse tentacles, then start backtracking.  This should put you near your bodies when Psychus has the number of stacks that you want.

Once Psychus has been defeated, the boss and all the tentacles in the normal realm will be stunned for 30 seconds. Use this time to clear up any remaining adds, and slam the boss once again.

Once the stun is over we'll get the neurons and the Mind Grasp mechanics again.  This time we should be on the EASTERN side of the boss as this is where the next set of tentacles will spawn at the end of Mind Grasp.

We'll need to kill a double batch of tentacles, like before, then the Mind Gate will reappear.  Everyone should use their extra action to get their sanity back, then the second half of the raid should pile on the Mind Gate to kill Psychus in the Mind Realm.

Once Psychus is defeated for the third and final time, everyone should reenter the physical realm as soon as possible, clear up any adds that remain, and get ready for Phase Three.


PHASE THREE

At the beginning of Phase Three the boss RPs for a while, and from this point on will take FULL DAMAGE for the entire time.  Use Bloodlust right at the start of this phase, and use DPS cooldowns.

Once active, the boss does not need to be tanked.  He will no longer cast Paranoia and will no longer do the burst of AoE damage.

Instead, he has gained two new abilities.

He will apply Evoke Anguish debuffs to all players, which do a lot of damage over 8 seconds and drop anguish void zones when the debuff expires. These pools grow a little after they are dropped, and each time the boss casts Evoke Anguish, ALL the pools will grow in size.

--> All players should stack on a single point, and the raid should quickly move to one side as soon after the pools have dropped.  Stack up on one side of the pool for the next cast.  We will gradually make our way around the boss this way.  (Alternate strategy if the fight is hot-fixed to disallow stacking: drop void zones in a line/wedge between the boss and the wall to one side of the raid).  DO NOT place the pools directly behind the raid, as the boss will occasionally cast Mind Grasp, which could push players into the pools.

The boss will also occasionally spawn eyes around him (two on normal, four on heroic).  These eyes start rotating around the boss, then send out a beam (Stupefying Glare) which does damage and a fear to everyone caught in the beam.

--> Find a gap between the eyes and rotate around with them to avoid getting hit by the beam.  If you get close to the Anguish Pools, ALWAYS choose to get hit by the beam rather than run into a pool, as the Anguish does way more damage.  Shamans can place a tremor totem to break the fear.

Lastly, there are Thought Harvester adds.  They spawn frequently and need to be tanked.  They'll cast Mindwrack, just like Psychus, but you can't interrupt their Mindwrack. 

--> Tanks need to pick up the Thought Harvester adds, and taunt off each other when their Mindwrack debuff drops (around the 1-2 stack mark).

The add will also cast Harvest Thoughts.  This does lots of damage to all players around the add, draining 100 sanity divided between all players hit.  If less than 3 players are hit, then the ENTIRE RAID loses 50 Sanity.

--> All players with high Sanity should stand in the zone around the Thought Harvester for Harvest Thoughts.

--> Tank the add near the boss and focus it down, as we don't want more than one of these up at a time.

Towards the end of the phase, though, TWO Thought Harvester adds will spawn at the same time.  This is the DPS check:  the boss needs to be low enough on health (from burst damage in Phase Two during the stun, and during Phase Three) that we can kill him before we get overwhelmed by Thought Harvester adds.

Ideally, the boss will be so low on health by the time the double Thought Harvesters spawn we can ignore them, soak their circles, and nuke the boss.

Note: In Phase Three, use your extra action button whenever your sanity gets low.

Okay, we got through Phase One smoothly several times on Tuesday.  Here are some additional notes:


PHASE ONE

Mindwrack (anti-tank attack): should be interrupted as often as possible.  If it is not interrupted, the other tank should taunt.

For a path through Phase One, Wowhead recommends 3-4 synapses along the wall, then doubling back to get a couple more before nuking him down not far from where our bodies are.


PHASE TWO



PHASE TWO:  NORMAL REALM

When we kill Psychus and click on our bodies we'll be transported to the Normal Realm, were we have 30 seconds to DPS N'Zoth freely.  We should nuke him here, using cooldowns.

After 30 seconds, Corrupted Neurons will begin to spawn.  These have a circle around them that does damage, a slow, and a Sanity drain.  The radius of this circle is connected to their health:  the lower their health, the smaller the zone.

--> As SOON as the neurons spawn, the raid should move to the WEST and switch to the neurons to clear a path between the boss and the wall.

Shortly after the neurons appear, the boss will cast Mindgrasp.  This casts a shadow on each player that will point where that player will be pulled.  After 12 seconds, the boss will then forcefully move players in that direction for 5 seconds.

--> Once you see your shadow, run AWAY from it, either all the way to the boss or all the way to the wall.

--> Make sure the path between the boss and the wall is clear.

Tentacles

As soon as Mindgrasp is done, tentacles will spawn.  A tank needs to engage each Basher Tentacle.

* Basher Tentacles:  need to be tanked.  Kill these first.  May want to split the raid in two and have each half DPS a Basher Tentacle.

* Corrupted Mind tentacles:  they cast a debuff a player.  This debuff can be DISPELLED.  So, the cast should be interrupted as much as possible, but if one gets through, the debuff should be dispelled.

* Spike Tentacles:  small, low priority.  Kill these last -- best to do this with multi-Dotting and long-range cleave spells.  Still, it's a good idea to kill them all before the next set of tentacles spawn.

Note:  After a tentacle dies, it explodes in a shower of Corrupted Viscera.  This makes several zones around the tentacle.  

--> Get out of these zones.

Lastly, N'Zoth casts Paranoia, which creates several pairs of players.  Each pair is linked with a beam.  Every second they spend apart deals increasing ticking damage.  AND if a player with Paranoia stands close to ANYONE that isn't their partner, they lose 5 sanity per second.

--> Linked pairs should try to stand on top of each other as soon as possible, but DON'T RUSH IT, because the ticking damage from being apart is far less serious than the Sanity loss that happens when you run into a non-partner.  So, take your time to fine a safe path to your partner.  Best to spread out before this cast, then stand still, to allow the Paranoid players to find one another quickly and safely.  Then move together for the duration of the debuff.

PHASE TWO: MIND REALM

When a Mindgate spawns, half the raid should go down into the Mind Realm to deal with Psychus.  Meanwhile, the rest of the raid will deal with more sets of tentacles, but there will be only half the amount of tentacles.

In the Mind Realm (where half the raid goes and fights Psychus), there will be two additional 'events' taking place:  Corruption of Deathwing in the first Mind Realm, and Treacherous Bargain in the second.


Phase Two: Mind Realm 1: Corruption of Deathwing

In the FIRST Phase Two Mind Realm, the raid will need to deal with Corruption of Deathwing, which involves two abilities:

* Cataclysmic Flames: Damage and a Sanity drain for everyone in the Mind Realm (every 3 seconds for 9 seconds).

* Flames of Insanity: Large red swirly circles on the ground.  Players caught in them take a burst of fire damage, lose 20 Sanity, and are disoriented for 6 seconds.

--> Avoid the fiery void zones.  The disorient can be dispelled.  


Phase Two:  Mind Realm 2: Treacherous Bargain

In the SECOND Phase Two Mind Realm, we will need to deal with Treacherous Bargain, which also involves two abilities:

* Black Volley:  Damage and Sanity drain for everyone in the Mind Realm (every 3 seconds for 9 seconds)

* Tread Lightly:  You will take frost damage WHILE MOVING.

--> Limit your movement as much as possible.  You still need to move to drag Psychus from tentacle to tentacle, but try not to engage in any excess movement.

--> Note, on Normal, the SAME set of players can enter the Mind Realm twice.  On Heroic, they will get a debuff that prevents them from going in a second time.


Psychus in Phase Two

Psychus has the same abilities as in Phase One, but the raid has only half the DPS.  Wowhead recommends waiting until he has 6-7 stacks before nuking him down.

When everyone is back in the Normal Realm:

Priority 1:  Kill the remaining tentacles
Priority 2:  Nuke the boss


Regaining Sanity

Players should use their special action button right before going into a Mind Realm, and whenever they get low in Phase Three.


So, Phase Two will have the following rhythm:

30 second stun on N'Zoth (nuke him!) --> Neurons Spawn, clear a path on the WEST side first (EAST side after the first Mindgate) --> Deal with Mindgrasp pull -->  Tentacles spawn (tanks engage Bashers, raid kills Bashers, Corrupted Minds (interrupt these too), and Spikes, in that order) --> Half the raid goes into the Mind Realm to deal with Psychus (First time: get out fire; second time: don't move too much) while other half deals with mire tentacles --> Another 30 second stun.  Repeat.

Stun, nuke boss --> Clear path on west side --> Push/pull --> Tentacles --> Mindgate (avoid fire) (other half does tentacles) --> Stun, nuke boss --> Clear path on east side --> Push/pull --> Tentacles --> Mindgate (reduce movement) (other half does tentacles) --> Phase Three


PHASE THREE

Nuke the boss at the beginning of Phase Three.  Use Bloodlust, potions, and DPS cooldowns.

N'Zoth will continue to cast Mindgrasp (the push/pull ability).

Evoke Anguish:  He will also gain Evoke Anguish:  debuffs entire raid.  When it expires a pool of anguish will drop.  The pool will grow a little, then stop.  Every time the boss casts Evoke Anguish, ALL the pools will grow in size.

--> All players should stack in melee on a single point to drop all the pools of Anguish in a single spot.  As soon as the debuff expires, all players move together in the same direction.  The next set of pools should be placed next to the old ones.  The raid will gradually rotate around the boss over the course of the phase.

Stupefying Glare:  Two eyes will appear on either side of the boss.  Each will blast out a beam.  The beams will begin to rotate around N'Zoth.

--> Stay out of the beams.  Once the beams are done, the raid should stack back up to deal with the next Evoke Anguish void zones.

Thought Harvester:  This add spawns at the beginning of Phase Three, and every 45 seconds after that.  It needs to be tanked.  It will cast Mindwrack on the tank (this cannot be interrupted), so the tanks should taunt when their debuff drops.

The add's main ability is Harvest Thoughts:  After a 5 second cast, all players within 15 yards will take a burst of shadow damage and will share 200 sanity loss.  If fewer than 3 players are hit by Harvest Thoughts, ALL players will lose 50 sanity.

--> Several high-sanity players should soak this mechanic.  The more high-sanity players, the better.  Kill the add as soon as possible so that we don't get more than one active at a time.

If the phase goes on for too long, two adds will spawn at a time, insert of one.