https://www.ironsongtribe.com/ Fri, 05 Jun 2026 19:45:46 +0000 MyBB https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5807.html Thu, 20 Feb 2020 17:49:20 -0800 Zlinka]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5807.html
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.]]>
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.]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5806.html Tue, 18 Feb 2020 16:41:29 -0800 Zlinka]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5806.html Fury of N'Zoth boss.  We must keep our Sanity high throughout the fight, as losing all sanity will cause them to become permanently mind controlled.  You MUST have a legendary cape or you will be instantly mind controlled.

In Phase One we'll be fighting tentacles outside the carapace of N'Zoth.  We will venture deeper into the carapace during Phases Two and Three, chasing down the Fury of N'Zoth as it tries to beat a retreat.


Throughout the Fight

You'll have an extra resource bar showing your Sanity, just like the Sanity bar in the Horrific Visions.  You will lose Sanity throughout the fight due to encounter mechanics.  If you reach 0 sanity you will gain a 100% damage and healing buff for 20 seconds, then you will become permanently mind controlled, and you will try to make other players mind-controlled via some of your casts.

--> If a player becomes mind controlled, they must be killed.


Fury of N'Zoth's abilities

Run the bomb out:  The boss casts Madness Bombs on random raid members.  When it expires it does damage, a fear, and removes 15 sanity.  Tanks can also get Madness Bomb.

--> Run the bomb away from others.
--> If a tank gets it, the raid must move away from the tank.

Random DoT:  The boss will cast Mental Decay on random players.  It removes 15 Sanity and deals light ticking damage.  It is unavoidable.

Anti-Tank attack, Mandible Slam:  Damage + Debuff.

--> Tanks taunt at 2-3 stacks of Mandible Slam.

Damage absorption shield, Adaptive Membrane:  Fury will buff himself, or adds, with a damage absorption shield.  Absorbs damage and makes them immune to CC.  If the shield is broken, it spawns a fragment of Sanity, which gives 10 Sanity to the player that soaks it.


Additional Ways of Getting Sanity back:

From Wrathion:  If you are low on Sanity you can run to Wrathion at the entrance of the room and he will give them sanity back, plus a speed buff.

Extra Action Button (Shroud of Resolve):  flies your character to Wrathion, healing you back to full health and making you immune to sanity loss while flying.  2 minute cooldown.

HOWEVER, in Phase One, we should not need to use these methods to get Sanity back.

Adds:

Big Ass Tentacle + Horrific Hemorrhages:  The tentacle slams the shadowed area, dealing lethal damage to players caught in it.  It will then lie across the room.  After it slams, horrific hemorrhages will spawn on the tentacles, and we have 60 seconds to defeat them before they explode, dealing massive raid damage.  Defeating all the hemorrhages makes the tentacle back away.

The tentacle itself cannot be climbed on, or damaged, and it acts as a Line of Sight barrier.

--> The boss, one tank, and melee should be killing hemorrhages on one side, while ranged and one tank kill them on the other, with the healers split between the two groups.

--> Ranged should position themselves near the TIP of the tentacle, so they can assist melee as soon as the tentacle is gone.

The horrific hemorrhages, while active, will spam-cast globules, which do moderate damage in a 5-yard red targeting circle, AND will spawn antigen adds.  In melee, the antigens apply a stacking haste and movement speed reduction debuff, while they gain a stacking self-buff and become progressively less susceptible to slows.

--> IGNORE the antigens and kill the horrific hemorrhages, while the tanks pick up the antigens on both sides of the tentacles.

Once the hemorrhages are dead, the tentacle will back away AND the Fury of N'Zoth will lose a ton of health.

--> It's at THIS point that we should focus on killing all the little antigens.


PHASE TWO (50% health)

Try to make this transition with no adds up.

Once we're in Phase Two Wrathion will fly down and everyone will get their sanity back to full.  The Fury of N'Zoth will run down a small corridor and will then sit between two platforms.

The Fury of N'Zoth will continue casting the same abilities as in Phase One, but he'll ALSO cast Eternal Darkness.  Eternal Darkness deals unavoidable raid-wide damage that also drains 10 sanity from all players.  That is how we will be losing sanity in this phase.

In this room there will be two paths, one on the left and one on the right.  Both paths have growths all over the walls that make the Fury immune to damage and slowly heal him back up.

--> We need to kill all of these growths before engaging the boss.

There are also cysts on the paths, which slow players.  The radius of the slow effect is reduced by damaging the cysts.

Two strategies:

* Split the raid into two groups and each half take a path (faster).
* Keep the raid whole and do one path, followed by the other (safer).

If we can go fast enough to beat the boss before the enrage timer, then it makes sense to have the raid stay in one group.

--> While running down the sides, ranged should focus on the cysts just ahead, allowing the raid to move past them quickly.  Melee should focus on the growths at the start of the path, then move further after those are dead.

--> Once one side is cleared, run back to Wrathion to get sanity restored before doing the other side.

The moment the last growth is defeated, the Fury will become active again.

--> As we are clearing the second path, one tank will need to be ready to jump down to engage boss as soon as he becomes active.

--> The rest of the raid should use their extra action button to get back to Wrathion, get their sanity restored, and WAIT for the Fury to cast his Occipital Blast.

In Phase Two the Fury will cast Occipital Blast, a beam that drains 40 sanity and deals massive damage.

After the blast, use a warlock gateway to jump forwards and engage the boss.

We will need to deal with all the Phase One abilities, plus Occipital Blast.

--> Stand close to him, as this makes it easier to dodge the Blast.


PHASE THREE (40% Health)

He'll run down a passage to a new area, and everyone's sanity will go back to 100%.  

The Fury will continue to hit the tanks with Mandible Slam and hit people with Mental Decay.  What's new is his Insanity Bomb.  This debuff is applied the entire raid.  After 12 seconds it explodes, does damage, and removes sanity from everyone within the targeting circle.  And it spawns one antigen per debuff.

--> Spread out widely with Insanity Bomb.  Ignore the little adds until the boss applies the damage absorption shield to them.  Because there is NO WAY to get your sanity back except by soaking orbs dropped by the boss or adds when their shield breaks.

There will also be Tentacle Slams.  There will be more of these, but they won't have hemorrhage adds.

We will bloodlust in this phase.]]> Fury of N'Zoth boss.  We must keep our Sanity high throughout the fight, as losing all sanity will cause them to become permanently mind controlled.  You MUST have a legendary cape or you will be instantly mind controlled.

In Phase One we'll be fighting tentacles outside the carapace of N'Zoth.  We will venture deeper into the carapace during Phases Two and Three, chasing down the Fury of N'Zoth as it tries to beat a retreat.


Throughout the Fight

You'll have an extra resource bar showing your Sanity, just like the Sanity bar in the Horrific Visions.  You will lose Sanity throughout the fight due to encounter mechanics.  If you reach 0 sanity you will gain a 100% damage and healing buff for 20 seconds, then you will become permanently mind controlled, and you will try to make other players mind-controlled via some of your casts.

--> If a player becomes mind controlled, they must be killed.


Fury of N'Zoth's abilities

Run the bomb out:  The boss casts Madness Bombs on random raid members.  When it expires it does damage, a fear, and removes 15 sanity.  Tanks can also get Madness Bomb.

--> Run the bomb away from others.
--> If a tank gets it, the raid must move away from the tank.

Random DoT:  The boss will cast Mental Decay on random players.  It removes 15 Sanity and deals light ticking damage.  It is unavoidable.

Anti-Tank attack, Mandible Slam:  Damage + Debuff.

--> Tanks taunt at 2-3 stacks of Mandible Slam.

Damage absorption shield, Adaptive Membrane:  Fury will buff himself, or adds, with a damage absorption shield.  Absorbs damage and makes them immune to CC.  If the shield is broken, it spawns a fragment of Sanity, which gives 10 Sanity to the player that soaks it.


Additional Ways of Getting Sanity back:

From Wrathion:  If you are low on Sanity you can run to Wrathion at the entrance of the room and he will give them sanity back, plus a speed buff.

Extra Action Button (Shroud of Resolve):  flies your character to Wrathion, healing you back to full health and making you immune to sanity loss while flying.  2 minute cooldown.

HOWEVER, in Phase One, we should not need to use these methods to get Sanity back.

Adds:

Big Ass Tentacle + Horrific Hemorrhages:  The tentacle slams the shadowed area, dealing lethal damage to players caught in it.  It will then lie across the room.  After it slams, horrific hemorrhages will spawn on the tentacles, and we have 60 seconds to defeat them before they explode, dealing massive raid damage.  Defeating all the hemorrhages makes the tentacle back away.

The tentacle itself cannot be climbed on, or damaged, and it acts as a Line of Sight barrier.

--> The boss, one tank, and melee should be killing hemorrhages on one side, while ranged and one tank kill them on the other, with the healers split between the two groups.

--> Ranged should position themselves near the TIP of the tentacle, so they can assist melee as soon as the tentacle is gone.

The horrific hemorrhages, while active, will spam-cast globules, which do moderate damage in a 5-yard red targeting circle, AND will spawn antigen adds.  In melee, the antigens apply a stacking haste and movement speed reduction debuff, while they gain a stacking self-buff and become progressively less susceptible to slows.

--> IGNORE the antigens and kill the horrific hemorrhages, while the tanks pick up the antigens on both sides of the tentacles.

Once the hemorrhages are dead, the tentacle will back away AND the Fury of N'Zoth will lose a ton of health.

--> It's at THIS point that we should focus on killing all the little antigens.


PHASE TWO (50% health)

Try to make this transition with no adds up.

Once we're in Phase Two Wrathion will fly down and everyone will get their sanity back to full.  The Fury of N'Zoth will run down a small corridor and will then sit between two platforms.

The Fury of N'Zoth will continue casting the same abilities as in Phase One, but he'll ALSO cast Eternal Darkness.  Eternal Darkness deals unavoidable raid-wide damage that also drains 10 sanity from all players.  That is how we will be losing sanity in this phase.

In this room there will be two paths, one on the left and one on the right.  Both paths have growths all over the walls that make the Fury immune to damage and slowly heal him back up.

--> We need to kill all of these growths before engaging the boss.

There are also cysts on the paths, which slow players.  The radius of the slow effect is reduced by damaging the cysts.

Two strategies:

* Split the raid into two groups and each half take a path (faster).
* Keep the raid whole and do one path, followed by the other (safer).

If we can go fast enough to beat the boss before the enrage timer, then it makes sense to have the raid stay in one group.

--> While running down the sides, ranged should focus on the cysts just ahead, allowing the raid to move past them quickly.  Melee should focus on the growths at the start of the path, then move further after those are dead.

--> Once one side is cleared, run back to Wrathion to get sanity restored before doing the other side.

The moment the last growth is defeated, the Fury will become active again.

--> As we are clearing the second path, one tank will need to be ready to jump down to engage boss as soon as he becomes active.

--> The rest of the raid should use their extra action button to get back to Wrathion, get their sanity restored, and WAIT for the Fury to cast his Occipital Blast.

In Phase Two the Fury will cast Occipital Blast, a beam that drains 40 sanity and deals massive damage.

After the blast, use a warlock gateway to jump forwards and engage the boss.

We will need to deal with all the Phase One abilities, plus Occipital Blast.

--> Stand close to him, as this makes it easier to dodge the Blast.


PHASE THREE (40% Health)

He'll run down a passage to a new area, and everyone's sanity will go back to 100%.  

The Fury will continue to hit the tanks with Mandible Slam and hit people with Mental Decay.  What's new is his Insanity Bomb.  This debuff is applied the entire raid.  After 12 seconds it explodes, does damage, and removes sanity from everyone within the targeting circle.  And it spawns one antigen per debuff.

--> Spread out widely with Insanity Bomb.  Ignore the little adds until the boss applies the damage absorption shield to them.  Because there is NO WAY to get your sanity back except by soaking orbs dropped by the boss or adds when their shield breaks.

There will also be Tentacle Slams.  There will be more of these, but they won't have hemorrhage adds.

We will bloodlust in this phase.]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5805.html Tue, 18 Feb 2020 09:34:30 -0800 Zlinka]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5805.html

During Phase One the boss alternates between being Vita Empowered and Void Empowered, and we'll need to handle different sets of mechanics based on the empowerment he has.  Phase Two is a race to the finish.

Tank mechanic:  Nullifying Strike

Cast at 100 energy.  Applies a stacking debuff to the tank.

--> Tanks swap after each strike to keep it from stacking.


PHASE ONE

Essence of Vita / Void

Throughout the phase, the boss will summon two orbs from portals that spawn on either side of the room:  a Vita orb on the left, and a Void orb on the right.  The orbs will travel toward the boss.  When they reach him, they grant him new abilities for 40 seconds.  When one orb is killed, the other orb becomes immune.

-->  Kill one orb before it reaches him.

For the first set, we can choose which one to kill.  But after that, we need to alternate, because if he soaks the same orb twice in a row, he'll gain Overwhelming Rage, a 300% damage increase.

--> Alternate orbs after that.


Temporary abilities gained after soaking an orb:

When he soaks the Void Orb, he'll apply a healing absorption shield to the raid which does ticking damage.  

--> Raid stand behind him for AoE healing.  Spot-heal the tank as soon as possible.

He'll also launch an Unstable Void missile into the air, which will begin to fall in a random nearby location.  Its landing spot is marked on the floor by a blue-black patch. If it lands it will deal raid-wide damage and silencing the raid whenever it lands.  Soaking the orb prevents this.  But soaking it debuffs the player with a 300% damage taken increase.  The orb despawns after about 5 bounces (depends on raid size).  The orb will generally go in the direction that the soaking player was facing, so make sure to face in a direction that makes it easy for the next player to soak it.


--> Five players will need to soak the orb.  Soakers should face a direction that makes it easy for the next soaker to get there.

The boss will also spawn a Void Hunter add from the portal that the Void Orb came from.  It will frequently cast Void Collapse on a player, which splits damage between everyone in its targeting circle and applies a 50% reduced healing debuff for 15 seconds.  This debuff stacks.

--> Tank the add beneath the boss.  The entire raid, except for the tanks and soakers, should pile on the player to  share damage.

Strategies for handling the healing reduction debuff:

* Nuke the add as fast as possible.  We can handle a second hit as long as everyone is topped off.
* Organize two groups of players to alternate taking the hits.


When he soaks the Vita orb, he'll do a flat burst of damage (Unleashed Vita).  Then he will apply Unstable Vita to a random non-tank player.  After 7 seconds it will jump to the farthest player, doing damage to all players in a line.  At each hit it applies a stacking 300% damage increase.

--> Bounce the debuff between different players in such a way that we don't hit anyone else.  We will set up 2 raid markers behind the raid.  We will assign three players to each marker, in a particular order.  The random player who gets the initial debuff must run to one world maker (e.g. left) while the assigned player goes to the right.  Once the debuff jumps to the second player, the initial player runs back into the raid while the next player gets on the marker to bait the jump.  Continue this pattern until the jumps are complete.

An add will spawn from the Vita portal.  This add casts Chain Lightning, but it's not really worth spreading out for this.

--> Just tank it under the boss and nuke it down.


PHASE TWO (at 40%)

Do not transition boss right before an orb, as we don't want to be dealing with orb mechanics during Phase Two.

The boss will cast Decaying Strike on the tanks in Phase Two.  He casts this at 100% energy.  Applies a DoT that deals damage equal to 75% of your health at the time of application, every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.  So, the more health the tank has at the time of application, the harder the DoT will hit.

--> Tank should be at about half health when Decaying Strike hits, then tank swap immediately.

In Phase Two the boss will be doing ticking damage to the raid (Ruin), while also gaining a 10% damage increase.

--> Raid stack behind the boss.  Bloodlust in this phase.

The boss will occasionally spawn large void zones around the room (Void Eruption).

--> Move out of these, then stack back up again.

He'll also mark players with Charged Bonds.  This ability chains two players together, dealing increasing ticking damage.  The bonds break at 40 yards.

--> Players run apart to break the chains.]]>

During Phase One the boss alternates between being Vita Empowered and Void Empowered, and we'll need to handle different sets of mechanics based on the empowerment he has.  Phase Two is a race to the finish.

Tank mechanic:  Nullifying Strike

Cast at 100 energy.  Applies a stacking debuff to the tank.

--> Tanks swap after each strike to keep it from stacking.


PHASE ONE

Essence of Vita / Void

Throughout the phase, the boss will summon two orbs from portals that spawn on either side of the room:  a Vita orb on the left, and a Void orb on the right.  The orbs will travel toward the boss.  When they reach him, they grant him new abilities for 40 seconds.  When one orb is killed, the other orb becomes immune.

-->  Kill one orb before it reaches him.

For the first set, we can choose which one to kill.  But after that, we need to alternate, because if he soaks the same orb twice in a row, he'll gain Overwhelming Rage, a 300% damage increase.

--> Alternate orbs after that.


Temporary abilities gained after soaking an orb:

When he soaks the Void Orb, he'll apply a healing absorption shield to the raid which does ticking damage.  

--> Raid stand behind him for AoE healing.  Spot-heal the tank as soon as possible.

He'll also launch an Unstable Void missile into the air, which will begin to fall in a random nearby location.  Its landing spot is marked on the floor by a blue-black patch. If it lands it will deal raid-wide damage and silencing the raid whenever it lands.  Soaking the orb prevents this.  But soaking it debuffs the player with a 300% damage taken increase.  The orb despawns after about 5 bounces (depends on raid size).  The orb will generally go in the direction that the soaking player was facing, so make sure to face in a direction that makes it easy for the next player to soak it.


--> Five players will need to soak the orb.  Soakers should face a direction that makes it easy for the next soaker to get there.

The boss will also spawn a Void Hunter add from the portal that the Void Orb came from.  It will frequently cast Void Collapse on a player, which splits damage between everyone in its targeting circle and applies a 50% reduced healing debuff for 15 seconds.  This debuff stacks.

--> Tank the add beneath the boss.  The entire raid, except for the tanks and soakers, should pile on the player to  share damage.

Strategies for handling the healing reduction debuff:

* Nuke the add as fast as possible.  We can handle a second hit as long as everyone is topped off.
* Organize two groups of players to alternate taking the hits.


When he soaks the Vita orb, he'll do a flat burst of damage (Unleashed Vita).  Then he will apply Unstable Vita to a random non-tank player.  After 7 seconds it will jump to the farthest player, doing damage to all players in a line.  At each hit it applies a stacking 300% damage increase.

--> Bounce the debuff between different players in such a way that we don't hit anyone else.  We will set up 2 raid markers behind the raid.  We will assign three players to each marker, in a particular order.  The random player who gets the initial debuff must run to one world maker (e.g. left) while the assigned player goes to the right.  Once the debuff jumps to the second player, the initial player runs back into the raid while the next player gets on the marker to bait the jump.  Continue this pattern until the jumps are complete.

An add will spawn from the Vita portal.  This add casts Chain Lightning, but it's not really worth spreading out for this.

--> Just tank it under the boss and nuke it down.


PHASE TWO (at 40%)

Do not transition boss right before an orb, as we don't want to be dealing with orb mechanics during Phase Two.

The boss will cast Decaying Strike on the tanks in Phase Two.  He casts this at 100% energy.  Applies a DoT that deals damage equal to 75% of your health at the time of application, every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.  So, the more health the tank has at the time of application, the harder the DoT will hit.

--> Tank should be at about half health when Decaying Strike hits, then tank swap immediately.

In Phase Two the boss will be doing ticking damage to the raid (Ruin), while also gaining a 10% damage increase.

--> Raid stack behind the boss.  Bloodlust in this phase.

The boss will occasionally spawn large void zones around the room (Void Eruption).

--> Move out of these, then stack back up again.

He'll also mark players with Charged Bonds.  This ability chains two players together, dealing increasing ticking damage.  The bonds break at 40 yards.

--> Players run apart to break the chains.]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5804.html Fri, 07 Feb 2020 13:48:15 -0800 Zlinka]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5804.html
* Positioning:  Keep the raid in just ONE quadrant of the room for each Phase One (the boss phase).  That way this quarter of the room gets filled with junk, but the other quadrants remain free.  For the next Phase One, shift over to stand in the next quadrant.  Start a bit to the left of the entrance to the room, then move clockwise around the room.  Tanks should stay one quadrant ahead of the raid.

* Two interrupters per organ:  Set a tank and two interrupters on each of the non-priority organs.

* Safe zones during the organ phase:  Set up a safe-zone raid marker in front of the targeted organ.  The raid stands on the raid marker, and the debuffed players will know how far to run to get their circles out of the group.

* Ranged kill blood adds:  For the blood adds, Wowhead suggests having ranged swap to them immediately.  By the time the second organ is down, ranged may need to be on the bloods almost the entire time.

During the last Phase Two (the organ phase) we may want an additional safe spot for ranged to stand to kill bloods, a bit closer to the middle of the room, so ranged can target the bloods sooner and have more time to kill them.

* Last Phase One spent in last quadrant, furthest from the organs.  Bloodlust here.  During the third and final Phase Three, move to the last clear quadrant, which is at the furthest point from all three organs. It is very hard to keep up with the adds in this phase, so this is a good place to use bloodlust.  Make sure to keep Dotting and cleaving the boss.  At some point, may want to call DPS off the adds and just nuke the boss.]]>
* Positioning:  Keep the raid in just ONE quadrant of the room for each Phase One (the boss phase).  That way this quarter of the room gets filled with junk, but the other quadrants remain free.  For the next Phase One, shift over to stand in the next quadrant.  Start a bit to the left of the entrance to the room, then move clockwise around the room.  Tanks should stay one quadrant ahead of the raid.

* Two interrupters per organ:  Set a tank and two interrupters on each of the non-priority organs.

* Safe zones during the organ phase:  Set up a safe-zone raid marker in front of the targeted organ.  The raid stands on the raid marker, and the debuffed players will know how far to run to get their circles out of the group.

* Ranged kill blood adds:  For the blood adds, Wowhead suggests having ranged swap to them immediately.  By the time the second organ is down, ranged may need to be on the bloods almost the entire time.

During the last Phase Two (the organ phase) we may want an additional safe spot for ranged to stand to kill bloods, a bit closer to the middle of the room, so ranged can target the bloods sooner and have more time to kill them.

* Last Phase One spent in last quadrant, furthest from the organs.  Bloodlust here.  During the third and final Phase Three, move to the last clear quadrant, which is at the furthest point from all three organs. It is very hard to keep up with the adds in this phase, so this is a good place to use bloodlust.  Make sure to keep Dotting and cleaving the boss.  At some point, may want to call DPS off the adds and just nuke the boss.]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5803.html Thu, 06 Feb 2020 17:45:34 -0800 Zlinka]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5803.html
During Phase One we fight Vexiona directly while dealing with adds that she summons from gateways.

After 80 seconds (when she reaches 100 energy), she enters Phase Two, takes to the air, and attacks us three Twilight Decimator breaths before landing and resuming Phase One.

At 40% health she enters Phase Three, and we mush finish her off before she applies too many stacks of Void Corruption.

The fight is mostly about add management, while dealing with various one-shot abilities in Phases One and Two, then finishing her off before a stacking DoT gets too high in Phase Three.

PHASE ONE

Breath attack (Twilight Breath):  Vexiona is a dragon, so she has a breath attack.  Applies a stacking Void Corruption debuff that lasts for the entire fight, or until you use another mechanic to reset it.

--> Tanks face her side-on to the raid.

Encroaching Shadows:  debuff applied to random players, does damage to anyone within 9 yards, then does ticking damage until it expires, spawning a void zone, which lasts for the entire fight.

--> Raid should spread loosely, and run out the debuff.  Drop the void zone at one end of the room, far from the rest of the raid, overlapping them if possible.  The room will slowly fill up and we'll need to move the boss.

Special tank debuff:  Despair:  DoT that explodes after 6 seconds dealing 90% of your missing health to the entire raid.

--> Tanks use cooldowns while healers keep the tank at full health.


Adds

Void Ascendant, from the initial pull: casts Annihilation, a narrow beam that does damage over 5 seconds, applying a dispellable debuff that increases beam damage.  Deals damage to BOTH players AND adds.
 
--> Healers will need to dispell this mid-cast multiple times to reset the incoming damage.
--> Tanks, the beam will also damage other people, so face it away from the group.
--> However, we CAN use the beam to damage other adds.  So, when adds are up, try to hit as many as possible with the beam.

When the Void Ascendant dies, it will drop an orb.  Any player can pick up this orb, which will give them an extra action button which will allow them to cast their OWN Annihilation beam.  Tanks are the best for this, as using the orb will completely remove the stacks of Void Corruption.

--> Tanks pick up the orb and use it to damage adds and remove stacks.

Other adds

Spellbound ritualists:  cast void bolt, can be interrupted.

Cultists:  at 100% energy they will turn into a Void Ascendant add.  Not actually worth it to keep them up; just AoE them down with the rest of the adds.



PHASE TWO:  At 100 energy / 80 seconds

Vexiona flies into the air.  She'll breathe down one of three sections of the room (Twilight Decimator), dealing lethal shadow damage.

--> Keep an eye on her and move from that location.

New adds will spawn from a portal, and one cultist will immediately become a Void Ascendant.  Tanks pick up the adds, and make sure to face the Void Ascendant away so the raid doesn't get hit with the beam.

After three breaths she'll land and the fight will go back to Phase One.

PHASE THREE:  40% health

No more adds during this phase, but she will continue with the breath.

--> Tanks should have an Annihilation Beam ready to go to reset their stacks at the start of the phase.  There will not be another Void Ascendant to provide another one.  If the tank can't it's still do-able, but will take more healing.

ALL abilities now apply Void Corruption, so by the end of the phase the raid will be taking very high, consistent ticking damage.

Everyone is also debuffed with Terrifying Presence:  players standing more than 6 yards away from another player have 100% haste reduction.  BUT, Encroaching Shadows is still being cast, which requires players to stand apart and drop void zones outside the raid.

--> Stand in small groups.

Heart of Darkness:  After the cast, raid takes massive falloff damage, reduced by distance from the boss.  Any players not within 6 yards of other players are feared and gain more corruption stacks.

--> Run out, but stick with your small group of players.  (Can overlap with Encroaching Shadows -- use a tremor totem or have one additional player run out with them).]]>
During Phase One we fight Vexiona directly while dealing with adds that she summons from gateways.

After 80 seconds (when she reaches 100 energy), she enters Phase Two, takes to the air, and attacks us three Twilight Decimator breaths before landing and resuming Phase One.

At 40% health she enters Phase Three, and we mush finish her off before she applies too many stacks of Void Corruption.

The fight is mostly about add management, while dealing with various one-shot abilities in Phases One and Two, then finishing her off before a stacking DoT gets too high in Phase Three.

PHASE ONE

Breath attack (Twilight Breath):  Vexiona is a dragon, so she has a breath attack.  Applies a stacking Void Corruption debuff that lasts for the entire fight, or until you use another mechanic to reset it.

--> Tanks face her side-on to the raid.

Encroaching Shadows:  debuff applied to random players, does damage to anyone within 9 yards, then does ticking damage until it expires, spawning a void zone, which lasts for the entire fight.

--> Raid should spread loosely, and run out the debuff.  Drop the void zone at one end of the room, far from the rest of the raid, overlapping them if possible.  The room will slowly fill up and we'll need to move the boss.

Special tank debuff:  Despair:  DoT that explodes after 6 seconds dealing 90% of your missing health to the entire raid.

--> Tanks use cooldowns while healers keep the tank at full health.


Adds

Void Ascendant, from the initial pull: casts Annihilation, a narrow beam that does damage over 5 seconds, applying a dispellable debuff that increases beam damage.  Deals damage to BOTH players AND adds.
 
--> Healers will need to dispell this mid-cast multiple times to reset the incoming damage.
--> Tanks, the beam will also damage other people, so face it away from the group.
--> However, we CAN use the beam to damage other adds.  So, when adds are up, try to hit as many as possible with the beam.

When the Void Ascendant dies, it will drop an orb.  Any player can pick up this orb, which will give them an extra action button which will allow them to cast their OWN Annihilation beam.  Tanks are the best for this, as using the orb will completely remove the stacks of Void Corruption.

--> Tanks pick up the orb and use it to damage adds and remove stacks.

Other adds

Spellbound ritualists:  cast void bolt, can be interrupted.

Cultists:  at 100% energy they will turn into a Void Ascendant add.  Not actually worth it to keep them up; just AoE them down with the rest of the adds.



PHASE TWO:  At 100 energy / 80 seconds

Vexiona flies into the air.  She'll breathe down one of three sections of the room (Twilight Decimator), dealing lethal shadow damage.

--> Keep an eye on her and move from that location.

New adds will spawn from a portal, and one cultist will immediately become a Void Ascendant.  Tanks pick up the adds, and make sure to face the Void Ascendant away so the raid doesn't get hit with the beam.

After three breaths she'll land and the fight will go back to Phase One.

PHASE THREE:  40% health

No more adds during this phase, but she will continue with the breath.

--> Tanks should have an Annihilation Beam ready to go to reset their stacks at the start of the phase.  There will not be another Void Ascendant to provide another one.  If the tank can't it's still do-able, but will take more healing.

ALL abilities now apply Void Corruption, so by the end of the phase the raid will be taking very high, consistent ticking damage.

Everyone is also debuffed with Terrifying Presence:  players standing more than 6 yards away from another player have 100% haste reduction.  BUT, Encroaching Shadows is still being cast, which requires players to stand apart and drop void zones outside the raid.

--> Stand in small groups.

Heart of Darkness:  After the cast, raid takes massive falloff damage, reduced by distance from the boss.  Any players not within 6 yards of other players are feared and gain more corruption stacks.

--> Run out, but stick with your small group of players.  (Can overlap with Encroaching Shadows -- use a tremor totem or have one additional player run out with them).]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5801.html Thu, 30 Jan 2020 16:42:50 -0800 Zlinka]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5801.html
Anti-Tank abilities

Throughout the fight, the tanks will have to deal with a combo ability on a timer.  The boss will cast three times, one after the other, choosing randomly between two different spells:

* Crush:  burst of physical damage that applies a stacking debuff.  The debuff increases future damage from Crush (by 50%) but it ALSO increases the damage you take from Dissolve (by 400%).

* Dissolve:  Nature damage + Stacking DoT.

So:  if a tank with the Crush debuff ever takes a Dissolve hit, that tank will almost certainly die.

--> One tank should take all the Crush hits, while the other tank takes all the Dissolve hits.  It's best NOT to pre-assign roles, as the order of the abilities is random.  So the first tank should be ready to take either type of hit at the start of the fight.

After a combo is finished, the tank with the Dissolve stacks should keep the boss, as the Crush tank will be taking additional damage from the melee hits.

ONGOING BOSS ABILITIES

Jumping Debuff:  Debilitating Spit is a 4-stack debuff applied to a random player which does a LOT of damage over 5 seconds.  When it expires, it jumps to two new targets with half the stacks (2 stacks per player), dealing half the damage.
--> Healers be ready for high incoming damage on these players.

Living Miasma Add:  orange ooze that spawns from a puddle off the edge of the platform.  It fixates on a random player and explodes when it reaches them, doing falloff raidwide damage.
--> If you are fixated, run out of the raid & let add explode at a safe distance.


PHASE ONE

Tank boss in the middle of the platform.  Raid spread out around the platform.

Umbral Breath, cone attack:  targets a random player, does damage and a 10-sec fear.  This is cast more frequently as the phase goes on.
--> Stay spread out.  Get out of the breath.

Umbral Eruption, void zones:  swirly purple void zones spawn under players' feet.  Frequency increases with time.
--> Get out of these.


PHASE TWO (at 66%)

Stay spread out.

Entropic Breath:  High damage, and a 50% healing received debuff for 6 seconds.  Very fast cast, so it's difficult to avoid.
--> Stay spread out so fewer players are hit by it, AND stay away from the tanks, so the tanks don't get hit by it.

Entropic Mantle:  raid-wide ticking damage that increases over time.

Entropic Buildup Orbs:  Purple orbs spawn throughout the room and explode after 15 seconds.  Players can soak the zones, eventually making them disappear, but will receive a stacking DoT by doing so.
--> Multiple people should soak each orb to spread out the DoT.

PHASE THREE (33%)

Stack in melee for this phase.

Bubbling Breath:  Hits hard, applies a nasty 10-sec DoT.  Back to a long cast, so it's easier to avoid.
--> Avoid the breath

Bubbling Overflow:  Void zone appears in the middle of the room at the beginning of the phase.  This patch will slowly grow until it covers the entire floor.  AND he will spawn similar puddles under random players.  These patches do enormous damage (10% health for the first tic, then doubles in power for every tic thereafter).

--> Tank the boss at the side of the room.  Have the raid stack behind him.  Every time puddles spawn under players, move the boss a little forwards, moving him slowly around the outskirts of the room.  Only move him after the puddles spawn, OR when the breath is targeted at the raid.

Frenzy:  The boss does a flat 25% more damage in this phase.

Bloodlust in this phase.]]>
Anti-Tank abilities

Throughout the fight, the tanks will have to deal with a combo ability on a timer.  The boss will cast three times, one after the other, choosing randomly between two different spells:

* Crush:  burst of physical damage that applies a stacking debuff.  The debuff increases future damage from Crush (by 50%) but it ALSO increases the damage you take from Dissolve (by 400%).

* Dissolve:  Nature damage + Stacking DoT.

So:  if a tank with the Crush debuff ever takes a Dissolve hit, that tank will almost certainly die.

--> One tank should take all the Crush hits, while the other tank takes all the Dissolve hits.  It's best NOT to pre-assign roles, as the order of the abilities is random.  So the first tank should be ready to take either type of hit at the start of the fight.

After a combo is finished, the tank with the Dissolve stacks should keep the boss, as the Crush tank will be taking additional damage from the melee hits.

ONGOING BOSS ABILITIES

Jumping Debuff:  Debilitating Spit is a 4-stack debuff applied to a random player which does a LOT of damage over 5 seconds.  When it expires, it jumps to two new targets with half the stacks (2 stacks per player), dealing half the damage.
--> Healers be ready for high incoming damage on these players.

Living Miasma Add:  orange ooze that spawns from a puddle off the edge of the platform.  It fixates on a random player and explodes when it reaches them, doing falloff raidwide damage.
--> If you are fixated, run out of the raid & let add explode at a safe distance.


PHASE ONE

Tank boss in the middle of the platform.  Raid spread out around the platform.

Umbral Breath, cone attack:  targets a random player, does damage and a 10-sec fear.  This is cast more frequently as the phase goes on.
--> Stay spread out.  Get out of the breath.

Umbral Eruption, void zones:  swirly purple void zones spawn under players' feet.  Frequency increases with time.
--> Get out of these.


PHASE TWO (at 66%)

Stay spread out.

Entropic Breath:  High damage, and a 50% healing received debuff for 6 seconds.  Very fast cast, so it's difficult to avoid.
--> Stay spread out so fewer players are hit by it, AND stay away from the tanks, so the tanks don't get hit by it.

Entropic Mantle:  raid-wide ticking damage that increases over time.

Entropic Buildup Orbs:  Purple orbs spawn throughout the room and explode after 15 seconds.  Players can soak the zones, eventually making them disappear, but will receive a stacking DoT by doing so.
--> Multiple people should soak each orb to spread out the DoT.

PHASE THREE (33%)

Stack in melee for this phase.

Bubbling Breath:  Hits hard, applies a nasty 10-sec DoT.  Back to a long cast, so it's easier to avoid.
--> Avoid the breath

Bubbling Overflow:  Void zone appears in the middle of the room at the beginning of the phase.  This patch will slowly grow until it covers the entire floor.  AND he will spawn similar puddles under random players.  These patches do enormous damage (10% health for the first tic, then doubles in power for every tic thereafter).

--> Tank the boss at the side of the room.  Have the raid stack behind him.  Every time puddles spawn under players, move the boss a little forwards, moving him slowly around the outskirts of the room.  Only move him after the puddles spawn, OR when the breath is targeted at the raid.

Frenzy:  The boss does a flat 25% more damage in this phase.

Bloodlust in this phase.]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5800.html Thu, 30 Jan 2020 14:01:44 -0800 Zlinka]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5800.html tentacles that spawn in waves throughout the fight.  We will need to kill adds to gain the Void Infused Ichor debuff, which allows us to bypass Drest'agath's Aberrant Regeneration healing.

Boss' self-healing, and how to bypass it

The boss is CONSTANTLY healing himself for a massive amount.  So while we can damage him, it's pointless because he'll heal himself back up.

The ONLY way to permanently damage him is to pick up an ORB from a dead appendage.  When an appendage dies, it will spawn multiple patches on the ground which can be soaked, giving the player a 30 second buff (Void Infused Ichor) allowing them to damage the boss.  After those 30 seconds have ended, the player won't be able to pick up another orb for another 30 seconds.

So the rhythm of this fight is:

Kill adds --> Pick up orbs --> Damage Boss --> Repeat


APPENDAGES

There are THREE different types of appendage adds.  They have their own mechanics, and they come in preset waves, on a timer.  This means that will need to manage damage uptime on the boss with killing off the adds before the next wave spawns.

If we are fast enough, we can kill one appendage, pick up an orb, DPS the boss for 30 seconds until buff drops off, then kill another appendage.

If we get overwhelmed with this strategy, however, we should DPS the boss for LESS than the 30 second buff, then switch to another appendage, to make sure that all the appendages are down before the next wave hits.


Tentacle of Drest'agath

This tentacle does not melee.  Instead it casts Crushing Slam, creating a zone that melee needs to sidestep.
-->  Melee focus these down.

The tentacle will also cast Entropic Crash whenever the boss casts this.  This deals massive falloff damage to the raid.
--> Move away

The tentacle will also cast Reality Tear void zones whenever the boss reaches 100 energy.  These are black and blue void zones with a spire coming out of them.  They move outward from the tentacle -- an arrow will indicate their direction.
--> Don't get hit by these

Summary:
--> Melee focus the Tentacles.  Move away from Entropic Crash and dodge the Reality Tear void zones.


Maw of Drest'agath

Spam acid splash at random players, damaging the players and anyone within 4 yards.
--> Ranged should attack the Maws.  Maintain a loose spread.

The Maws will cast Mutterings of Insanity when the boss does.  This debuff slows the player over 5 seconds, at which point it explodes and stuns all players within the targeting circle (large blue circle).  Stun can be dispelled.
--> If it is cast on you, move away from others.  Other players move out of the big blue circle.

When the boss reaches full energy, the maws will cast Spine Eruption.  Releases a series of rings, centered on the Maw, that apply a DoT to everyone hit.  First the ground will glow orange in a ring around the maw, then a ring of claws will jab upwards from the ground.
--> If ranged stands at max range from the Maw, they won't even need to move for Spine Eruption.

Summary:
--> Ranged kill the maws.  Maintain a loose spread at max range.  Run the big blue circle out.


Eye of Drest'agoth

Once ranged have killed the tentacles, and the ranged have killed the maws, then we can swap to the Eyes.  The eyes cast Mind Flay, slowing and damaging targets.  This is interruptible.
-->  Interrupt Mind Flay

They will cast Void Glare whenever the boss does.  This spell targets a random player. It is a long cast, and at the end of the cast the eye (and the boss) will cast a blue-black beam at that player.  Does massive damage to players hit.
--> Keep an eye on this appendage and the boss, and move to a safe location.

When the boss reaches 100% energy, the eyes will cast Errant Blast.  This spawns multiple red swirly targeting zones around the room.
--> Move out of the red swirly targeting zones.

Summary:
--> When tentacles and maws are dead, kill the eyes.  Interrupt Mind Flay.  Avoid the blue-black beams and get out of the red targeting zones.


DREST'AGOTH

Tanks must stay in melee range of the boss.  If nobody is in melee range, the boss will begin to drag players towards him (Void Grip).

The boss will cast Volatile Seed on the tank.  Detonates after 10 seconds, doing damage to all players AND ADDS within the red targeting circle.  Debuffs players and adds with a 60% increased damage taken for 15 seconds.

--> Tanks must swap every time they are debuffed with Volatile Seed.  Then the tank should choose an add to explode on, and run to it while the raid runs away from it.  Try to hit multiple adds if they are close enough together.

The boss will do the abilities that are shared with the appendages:

Entropic Crash (w/ tentacle):  Massive falloff damage
--> Run out

Mutterings of Insanity (w/ Maw):  Slow + Stun within targeting circle
--> Run red circle out

Void Glare (w/ Eye):  Blue-Black beam cast at random player
--> Avoid beam

Boss Energy

The boss' energy goes up every time an add is killed.  When he hits max energy, he'll cast Throes of Agony, which does unavoidable damage to the raid for 10 seconds.
--> Use a healing cooldown]]> tentacles that spawn in waves throughout the fight.  We will need to kill adds to gain the Void Infused Ichor debuff, which allows us to bypass Drest'agath's Aberrant Regeneration healing.

Boss' self-healing, and how to bypass it

The boss is CONSTANTLY healing himself for a massive amount.  So while we can damage him, it's pointless because he'll heal himself back up.

The ONLY way to permanently damage him is to pick up an ORB from a dead appendage.  When an appendage dies, it will spawn multiple patches on the ground which can be soaked, giving the player a 30 second buff (Void Infused Ichor) allowing them to damage the boss.  After those 30 seconds have ended, the player won't be able to pick up another orb for another 30 seconds.

So the rhythm of this fight is:

Kill adds --> Pick up orbs --> Damage Boss --> Repeat


APPENDAGES

There are THREE different types of appendage adds.  They have their own mechanics, and they come in preset waves, on a timer.  This means that will need to manage damage uptime on the boss with killing off the adds before the next wave spawns.

If we are fast enough, we can kill one appendage, pick up an orb, DPS the boss for 30 seconds until buff drops off, then kill another appendage.

If we get overwhelmed with this strategy, however, we should DPS the boss for LESS than the 30 second buff, then switch to another appendage, to make sure that all the appendages are down before the next wave hits.


Tentacle of Drest'agath

This tentacle does not melee.  Instead it casts Crushing Slam, creating a zone that melee needs to sidestep.
-->  Melee focus these down.

The tentacle will also cast Entropic Crash whenever the boss casts this.  This deals massive falloff damage to the raid.
--> Move away

The tentacle will also cast Reality Tear void zones whenever the boss reaches 100 energy.  These are black and blue void zones with a spire coming out of them.  They move outward from the tentacle -- an arrow will indicate their direction.
--> Don't get hit by these

Summary:
--> Melee focus the Tentacles.  Move away from Entropic Crash and dodge the Reality Tear void zones.


Maw of Drest'agath

Spam acid splash at random players, damaging the players and anyone within 4 yards.
--> Ranged should attack the Maws.  Maintain a loose spread.

The Maws will cast Mutterings of Insanity when the boss does.  This debuff slows the player over 5 seconds, at which point it explodes and stuns all players within the targeting circle (large blue circle).  Stun can be dispelled.
--> If it is cast on you, move away from others.  Other players move out of the big blue circle.

When the boss reaches full energy, the maws will cast Spine Eruption.  Releases a series of rings, centered on the Maw, that apply a DoT to everyone hit.  First the ground will glow orange in a ring around the maw, then a ring of claws will jab upwards from the ground.
--> If ranged stands at max range from the Maw, they won't even need to move for Spine Eruption.

Summary:
--> Ranged kill the maws.  Maintain a loose spread at max range.  Run the big blue circle out.


Eye of Drest'agoth

Once ranged have killed the tentacles, and the ranged have killed the maws, then we can swap to the Eyes.  The eyes cast Mind Flay, slowing and damaging targets.  This is interruptible.
-->  Interrupt Mind Flay

They will cast Void Glare whenever the boss does.  This spell targets a random player. It is a long cast, and at the end of the cast the eye (and the boss) will cast a blue-black beam at that player.  Does massive damage to players hit.
--> Keep an eye on this appendage and the boss, and move to a safe location.

When the boss reaches 100% energy, the eyes will cast Errant Blast.  This spawns multiple red swirly targeting zones around the room.
--> Move out of the red swirly targeting zones.

Summary:
--> When tentacles and maws are dead, kill the eyes.  Interrupt Mind Flay.  Avoid the blue-black beams and get out of the red targeting zones.


DREST'AGOTH

Tanks must stay in melee range of the boss.  If nobody is in melee range, the boss will begin to drag players towards him (Void Grip).

The boss will cast Volatile Seed on the tank.  Detonates after 10 seconds, doing damage to all players AND ADDS within the red targeting circle.  Debuffs players and adds with a 60% increased damage taken for 15 seconds.

--> Tanks must swap every time they are debuffed with Volatile Seed.  Then the tank should choose an add to explode on, and run to it while the raid runs away from it.  Try to hit multiple adds if they are close enough together.

The boss will do the abilities that are shared with the appendages:

Entropic Crash (w/ tentacle):  Massive falloff damage
--> Run out

Mutterings of Insanity (w/ Maw):  Slow + Stun within targeting circle
--> Run red circle out

Void Glare (w/ Eye):  Blue-Black beam cast at random player
--> Avoid beam

Boss Energy

The boss' energy goes up every time an add is killed.  When he hits max energy, he'll cast Throes of Agony, which does unavoidable damage to the raid for 10 seconds.
--> Use a healing cooldown]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5799.html Thu, 30 Jan 2020 12:05:12 -0800 Zlinka]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5799.html
The Hivemind is a mechanic in the fight.  The bosses take turns controlling the Hivemind.

TEKRIS CONTROLS THE HIVEMIND

Tekris controls the Hivemind first.  When this is the case, bosses must be positioned within 20 yards of each other or they, and any adds, become immune to damage (Shadow Veil).
--> When Tekris controls the Hivemind, stack the bosses next to each other so DPS can cleave them down.

Adds:  Any adds that spawn during the Tekris control phase gain a stacking damage and speed buff (Void Infusion.)
--> Make sure that no particular add stays up for too long.

In sum:
--> Tank the bosses together, and kill the adds before any of them stays up for too long. 


KAZIR COHTROLS THE HIVEMIND

When Kazir has Hivemind control, the bosses much be tanked at least 20 yards apart or they, and the adds, become immune to damage with Shadow Veil.
--> Tank the bosses 20+ yards apart (Wowhead recommends 30 yards).

Adds:  Adds that spawn during Kazir's control regenerate 3% of their health every second when they're under 20% health (Regeneration).

--> All adds must be properly finished off, or they will stick around at low health for a long time.


THE ADDS

We'll have two types of adds spawn on a timer:  Drones and Darters.  These adds should be killed off as the top priority when the spawn.

Little Drones will fixate random players and melee them.  [On heroic, they'll leave a pool of blood on the ground when they die].
--> When they spawn, raid should stack on the bosses to bring the drones together so they can be CC'd and cleaved down.

Darters spawn in sets of three and hover in random locations in the room.  They cast Resonance, which does raid-wide damage, then they'll move to another location.
--> Use CC to interrupt the Darters and keep them still, then focus them down (ideally, we'd grip them into the group).

--> Killing the adds is the top priority, because they get stronger over time if Tekris is up, and are hard to kill if Kazir is up, so it's easy to get overwhelmed by adds.

BOSS ABILITIES

Tekris

Tekris will cast Nullification Blast toward the tank (frontal cone) that does damage and applies a debuff.  NOTE:  Tekris does not change direction once the cast has started, so the tank can sidestep the Nullification Blast.
--> Tanks sidestep Nullification Blast.

Tekris will also hit the raid with Echoing Void, which looks like a dark blue-black circle around you.  After 4 seconds, it does a small burst of damage to each player, and additional damage to anyone within 4 yards.
--> Spread out for Echoing Void.


Kezir

Kezir does a Mind-numbing Nova which applies a DoT and reduces haste.

--> Interrupt Mind-Numbing Nova.  Melee should be on Kezir to that he stays interrupted.

Kezir will also spawn Acidic Aquir eggs around the edges of the room.  These look like tall, oval eggs with a green swirl around them.  Shortly after the eggs spawn, aquir will roll straight across the room, looking like rolling pillbugs, dealing damage and applying a debuff to anyone hit.  They usually roll through the middle of the room, but not always.

--> Dodge the rolling bugs.  Best to stand near the edge of the room for this, so you only have to worry about the bugs coming from the other side.

Kezir will also empower a random drone, causing it to gain health and become immune to CC.  This add will then cast Volatile Eruption.  This is a long 20-second cast, and if it goes off it does massive raid-wide damage.

--> DPS needs to focus on the empowered add as soon as it spawns, and kill it as soon as possible.  Ideally we should stack on it, so all the other non-empowered drones just come to us and we cleave them down.  Remember this add will heal itself when it gets to low health so we need to make sure to keep nuking it until it's actually dead.

Lastly, the bosses need to die within 10 seconds of each other.]]>
The Hivemind is a mechanic in the fight.  The bosses take turns controlling the Hivemind.

TEKRIS CONTROLS THE HIVEMIND

Tekris controls the Hivemind first.  When this is the case, bosses must be positioned within 20 yards of each other or they, and any adds, become immune to damage (Shadow Veil).
--> When Tekris controls the Hivemind, stack the bosses next to each other so DPS can cleave them down.

Adds:  Any adds that spawn during the Tekris control phase gain a stacking damage and speed buff (Void Infusion.)
--> Make sure that no particular add stays up for too long.

In sum:
--> Tank the bosses together, and kill the adds before any of them stays up for too long. 


KAZIR COHTROLS THE HIVEMIND

When Kazir has Hivemind control, the bosses much be tanked at least 20 yards apart or they, and the adds, become immune to damage with Shadow Veil.
--> Tank the bosses 20+ yards apart (Wowhead recommends 30 yards).

Adds:  Adds that spawn during Kazir's control regenerate 3% of their health every second when they're under 20% health (Regeneration).

--> All adds must be properly finished off, or they will stick around at low health for a long time.


THE ADDS

We'll have two types of adds spawn on a timer:  Drones and Darters.  These adds should be killed off as the top priority when the spawn.

Little Drones will fixate random players and melee them.  [On heroic, they'll leave a pool of blood on the ground when they die].
--> When they spawn, raid should stack on the bosses to bring the drones together so they can be CC'd and cleaved down.

Darters spawn in sets of three and hover in random locations in the room.  They cast Resonance, which does raid-wide damage, then they'll move to another location.
--> Use CC to interrupt the Darters and keep them still, then focus them down (ideally, we'd grip them into the group).

--> Killing the adds is the top priority, because they get stronger over time if Tekris is up, and are hard to kill if Kazir is up, so it's easy to get overwhelmed by adds.

BOSS ABILITIES

Tekris

Tekris will cast Nullification Blast toward the tank (frontal cone) that does damage and applies a debuff.  NOTE:  Tekris does not change direction once the cast has started, so the tank can sidestep the Nullification Blast.
--> Tanks sidestep Nullification Blast.

Tekris will also hit the raid with Echoing Void, which looks like a dark blue-black circle around you.  After 4 seconds, it does a small burst of damage to each player, and additional damage to anyone within 4 yards.
--> Spread out for Echoing Void.


Kezir

Kezir does a Mind-numbing Nova which applies a DoT and reduces haste.

--> Interrupt Mind-Numbing Nova.  Melee should be on Kezir to that he stays interrupted.

Kezir will also spawn Acidic Aquir eggs around the edges of the room.  These look like tall, oval eggs with a green swirl around them.  Shortly after the eggs spawn, aquir will roll straight across the room, looking like rolling pillbugs, dealing damage and applying a debuff to anyone hit.  They usually roll through the middle of the room, but not always.

--> Dodge the rolling bugs.  Best to stand near the edge of the room for this, so you only have to worry about the bugs coming from the other side.

Kezir will also empower a random drone, causing it to gain health and become immune to CC.  This add will then cast Volatile Eruption.  This is a long 20-second cast, and if it goes off it does massive raid-wide damage.

--> DPS needs to focus on the empowered add as soon as it spawns, and kill it as soon as possible.  Ideally we should stack on it, so all the other non-empowered drones just come to us and we cleave them down.  Remember this add will heal itself when it gets to low health so we need to make sure to keep nuking it until it's actually dead.

Lastly, the bosses need to die within 10 seconds of each other.]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5797.html Fri, 24 Jan 2020 19:49:39 -0800 Zlinka]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5797.html
The Orb Mechanic

Over the course of the fight, the boss will slowly gain mana.  At 100%, he'll cast Void Ritual.  This will summon three zones around the boss.  They look like orange circles.  These void zones must be soaked before the cast finishes (or the raid will take massive damage).

The soakers will get a 40 second buff called Voidwoken.  This buff lets them interact with two portals (Void Orbs) which spawn immediately afterwards.  One portal has an orb, and the other portal acts as a goal.   Shortly after the portals spawn, the orb will fire out.  If it hits ANYTHING, it will explode, dealing massive raid-wide damage, buffing the boss, and increasing the damage of subsequent orbs, probably wiping the raid.

Players with the Voidwoken buff, however, can interact with the orb by standing in its way.  This causes the orb to travel in the direction that the character is facing.

Once the orb has been delivered to the goal, the portals and the orb despawn.  The Voidwoken players gain the Void Touched debuff, which prevents them from doing the orb again for 3 minutes.  We will need a different set of players each time.

It is safest to have all three players interact with the orb to get it into the goal:  one starts the initial direction, the second passes to the striker, who then does the final shot into the goal.

(Note:  Players who do not have the Voidwoken buff can also be hit by the orb, but this doesn't re-direct it, instead it causes a lot of raid-wide damage)


Torment Patches

The boss will spawn Torment patches around the room as well.  These are wedge-shaped dark blue void zones that emanate from the boss and explode shortly after they spawn.

--> Avoid the torment patches.
--> If you need to stand in one to redirect an orb, use a personal cooldown to survive.


Soul Flay

This affects about the half the raid at a time.  It makes a copy of you that explodes after 10 seconds, dealing large falloff damage to the player it spawned from.

--> Move 20-30 yards from the copy.  May want to move entire raid away from these.


Anti-Tank ability:  Abyssal Strike

Knockback, damage + debuff:  Taunt when your debuff drops off.


Anguish

The raid takes ticking shadow damage every 2 seconds for the duration of the fight.


*******

Heroic only:

Imminent Doom

A Voidwoken player who bounces the orb gets a stack of Imminent Doom, a 6-second debuff that, if it reaches 5 stacks, will instantly kill you.

Ritual Obelisks

The boss will also spawn Ritual Obelisks around the room.  They will have a little blue circle around them.  They deal damage and slow players within the circle.

--> Avoid the obelisks]]>
The Orb Mechanic

Over the course of the fight, the boss will slowly gain mana.  At 100%, he'll cast Void Ritual.  This will summon three zones around the boss.  They look like orange circles.  These void zones must be soaked before the cast finishes (or the raid will take massive damage).

The soakers will get a 40 second buff called Voidwoken.  This buff lets them interact with two portals (Void Orbs) which spawn immediately afterwards.  One portal has an orb, and the other portal acts as a goal.   Shortly after the portals spawn, the orb will fire out.  If it hits ANYTHING, it will explode, dealing massive raid-wide damage, buffing the boss, and increasing the damage of subsequent orbs, probably wiping the raid.

Players with the Voidwoken buff, however, can interact with the orb by standing in its way.  This causes the orb to travel in the direction that the character is facing.

Once the orb has been delivered to the goal, the portals and the orb despawn.  The Voidwoken players gain the Void Touched debuff, which prevents them from doing the orb again for 3 minutes.  We will need a different set of players each time.

It is safest to have all three players interact with the orb to get it into the goal:  one starts the initial direction, the second passes to the striker, who then does the final shot into the goal.

(Note:  Players who do not have the Voidwoken buff can also be hit by the orb, but this doesn't re-direct it, instead it causes a lot of raid-wide damage)


Torment Patches

The boss will spawn Torment patches around the room as well.  These are wedge-shaped dark blue void zones that emanate from the boss and explode shortly after they spawn.

--> Avoid the torment patches.
--> If you need to stand in one to redirect an orb, use a personal cooldown to survive.


Soul Flay

This affects about the half the raid at a time.  It makes a copy of you that explodes after 10 seconds, dealing large falloff damage to the player it spawned from.

--> Move 20-30 yards from the copy.  May want to move entire raid away from these.


Anti-Tank ability:  Abyssal Strike

Knockback, damage + debuff:  Taunt when your debuff drops off.


Anguish

The raid takes ticking shadow damage every 2 seconds for the duration of the fight.


*******

Heroic only:

Imminent Doom

A Voidwoken player who bounces the orb gets a stack of Imminent Doom, a 6-second debuff that, if it reaches 5 stacks, will instantly kill you.

Ritual Obelisks

The boss will also spawn Ritual Obelisks around the room.  They will have a little blue circle around them.  They deal damage and slow players within the circle.

--> Avoid the obelisks]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5796.html Fri, 24 Jan 2020 19:20:01 -0800 Zlinka]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5796.html
Here's how the order works:
]]>
Here's how the order works:
]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5795.html Wed, 22 Jan 2020 17:31:29 -0800 Zlinka]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5795.html
PHASE ONE

Shadow Shock: Anti-Tank attack:  Applies a debuff (and may also hit 2 random raid members -- not clear whether this went live).

--> Tanks should swap every 3-4 stacks.

Shred Psyche:  Debuff applied to a player, spawns an add:  When it expires an add will spawn at the player's location and will immediate cast Psychic Outburst, which deals large raid-wide falloff damage.  Then it will chain-cast Psychic Reverberations, which deals consistent raid-wide damage.

--> Debuffed player must move away from the raid before the debuff expires / add spawns.  Once the add spawns, raid should switch to it and kill it ASAP.

Images of Absolution:  walking wall:  adds spawn in a line on one side of the room and slowly walk to the other side.  Will one-shot players who stand too close.  They CAN be crowd-controlled so we can make gaps in the line (roots, grip, knock them away etc.)  After 30 seconds, they will no longer be immune to damage and can be killed off instantly (as they only have 1 health).

--> Avoid getting killed by the wall.  Make gaps in the wall by CCing or knocking-back mobs.  After 30 seconds, kill the adds.


PHASE TWO (at 80% health, and every 20% health thereafter)

The boss will disappear and various illusions of the boss will spawn.

The raid is also put into two different phases, called Clouded Mind (red debuff) or Twisted Mind (blue debuff).  The illusions will be in different places in the two phases, EXCEPT for ONE illusion, which will be in the SAME location in both phases.

We will need to identify WHICH illusion is in the same location in both phases, and killing it off.

Killing the wrong one will cause Mind Quake, a huge burst of raid-wide damage.

--> Suggested strategy:  have a player in one phase (e.g. red) place a raid marker on top of each illusion in that phase.  Then have a player in the other phase (e.g. blue) announce the MOMENT a raid marker appears on top of an illusion in the blue phase.  THAT is the add that must be killed to end the phase.

We want this phase over quickly as raid members will be getting hit with raid-wide damage (Illusionary Bolts) and we'll be getting Dark Ritual stacks (increases damage taken).

Once we kill the shared illusion, Phase One returns.  The phases continue to alternate, with a Phase Two at every 20% health.]]>
PHASE ONE

Shadow Shock: Anti-Tank attack:  Applies a debuff (and may also hit 2 random raid members -- not clear whether this went live).

--> Tanks should swap every 3-4 stacks.

Shred Psyche:  Debuff applied to a player, spawns an add:  When it expires an add will spawn at the player's location and will immediate cast Psychic Outburst, which deals large raid-wide falloff damage.  Then it will chain-cast Psychic Reverberations, which deals consistent raid-wide damage.

--> Debuffed player must move away from the raid before the debuff expires / add spawns.  Once the add spawns, raid should switch to it and kill it ASAP.

Images of Absolution:  walking wall:  adds spawn in a line on one side of the room and slowly walk to the other side.  Will one-shot players who stand too close.  They CAN be crowd-controlled so we can make gaps in the line (roots, grip, knock them away etc.)  After 30 seconds, they will no longer be immune to damage and can be killed off instantly (as they only have 1 health).

--> Avoid getting killed by the wall.  Make gaps in the wall by CCing or knocking-back mobs.  After 30 seconds, kill the adds.


PHASE TWO (at 80% health, and every 20% health thereafter)

The boss will disappear and various illusions of the boss will spawn.

The raid is also put into two different phases, called Clouded Mind (red debuff) or Twisted Mind (blue debuff).  The illusions will be in different places in the two phases, EXCEPT for ONE illusion, which will be in the SAME location in both phases.

We will need to identify WHICH illusion is in the same location in both phases, and killing it off.

Killing the wrong one will cause Mind Quake, a huge burst of raid-wide damage.

--> Suggested strategy:  have a player in one phase (e.g. red) place a raid marker on top of each illusion in that phase.  Then have a player in the other phase (e.g. blue) announce the MOMENT a raid marker appears on top of an illusion in the blue phase.  THAT is the add that must be killed to end the phase.

We want this phase over quickly as raid members will be getting hit with raid-wide damage (Illusionary Bolts) and we'll be getting Dark Ritual stacks (increases damage taken).

Once we kill the shared illusion, Phase One returns.  The phases continue to alternate, with a Phase Two at every 20% health.]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5794.html Tue, 21 Jan 2020 17:38:07 -0800 Zlinka]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5794.html
During Phase One, players need to reduce the rate at which the boss gains mana.

During Phase Two, the raid needs to damage through the boss' mana bar while absorbing mana-granting orbs that travel toward the boss.

PHASE ONE

The boss can take damage during this phase.  During Phase Two he doesn't take any damage at all.

We want to remain in this phase as long as we can.

The boss starts with NO mana, and gradually gains it at a steady rate.  The boss can gain additional mana from a Dark Manifestation.

The boss will cast a large purple void zone which draws players toward it, then explodes, spawning a Dark Manifestation add.

A tank needs to pick up the Dark Manifestation add and tank it 20+ yards from the boss, or the boss will consume a large part of its mana.  When attacked, the add loses MANA rather than health.  When the mana is gone, it will despawn.  The add has only one ability, Dark Offering, which takes 20% of its mana and gives it to Maut.  We can interrupt this ability by taking the add in a purple void zone (see below).

--> Tank must pick up Dark Manifestation add and drag it to a purple void zone at least 20 yards from Maut.

Devour Magic:  debuff placed on multiple players.  After 6 seconds, it will splash damage to everyone within a purple circle centered on the player, AND will give mana to Maut for each player hit by the splash, AND leave behind a void zone.  This zone does ticking damage AND silences AND makes anything standing in it immune to magic damage -- players OR ADDS.  These void zones are critical in managing the Dark Manifestations.

--> Overlap the void zones in one area of the room.  Tank the Dark Manifestation next to the void zones, and when they cast Dark Offering, drag the add into the purple void zone to silence it.  Then move them back out.

The boss will also cast Stygian Annihilation, which will do LETHAL DAMAGE to the raid.

--> Players must stand next to the purple void zones too, and step into them toward the end of the Stygian Annihilation cast, to be immune.

The boss will also cast Black Wings, a frontal cone targeted at melee, which does a big knockback.  This is fairly easy for melee to dodge, but harder for ranged, as the cone is bigger and the knockback can potentially knock you off the platform.
--> Melee should stand on one side of the boss (which will bait the Black Wings in that direction) while the ranged stands on the other side.

Maut will also cast Consuming Mana, which is a DoT applied to random players which scales with the boss' mana.
--> Healers be aware of increasing damage from this over the course of the phase.

The boss will also cast Shadow Claws on the tank, which does physical damage and applies a stacking DoT.
--> Tanks will need to swap.  FatBoss suggests swapping between each add.

Once Maut gets full mana he'll move into the center of the room and Phase Two will begin.


PHASE TWO

All of the void zones will immediately detonate, so get out of those.

The boss will gain a mana shield which the raid will need to damage through within 60 seconds.  If we don't, Maut will explode and wipe the raid.  As long as the mana shield is up he will also gain a permanent stacking damage increase.

However, all the damage we deal to him is reflected back at us, so this is very demanding on the healers.

To help us, orbs will spawn around the room and travel toward Maut.  If they reach him they'll give him a ton of mana.  Players can intercept them, which will do raid-wide damage (the sooner this is done after it spawns, the lower the raid-wide damage is done).  Soakers are then buffed with Forbidden Mana.  After 6 seconds it will grant all allies within 20 yards an enormous 150% boost in mana generationAND a 50% healing increase for 8 seconds.

--> Raid stacks up next to Maut.  Assign players to different areas of the room to intercept the orbs as soon as possible, then bring the buff back to the raid.

Players will occasionally be debuffed with Drain Essence, which does damage and gives mana to Maut for 8 seconds.  When dispelled/expires, it deals splash damage and removes mana from players within 8 yards but doesn't give mana to Maut.

--> If possible, dispell players as soon as they get the debuff, regardless of whether they've moved out or not, so that the boss gets as little mana as possible.  If that is too much damage, wait until the affected players leave the group, then dispell them.
 
Once we break through the shield, the fight goes back to Phase One.  It's the same, except that the boss now has a damage increase.

--> We want to kill the boss before too many Phase Twos.]]>
During Phase One, players need to reduce the rate at which the boss gains mana.

During Phase Two, the raid needs to damage through the boss' mana bar while absorbing mana-granting orbs that travel toward the boss.

PHASE ONE

The boss can take damage during this phase.  During Phase Two he doesn't take any damage at all.

We want to remain in this phase as long as we can.

The boss starts with NO mana, and gradually gains it at a steady rate.  The boss can gain additional mana from a Dark Manifestation.

The boss will cast a large purple void zone which draws players toward it, then explodes, spawning a Dark Manifestation add.

A tank needs to pick up the Dark Manifestation add and tank it 20+ yards from the boss, or the boss will consume a large part of its mana.  When attacked, the add loses MANA rather than health.  When the mana is gone, it will despawn.  The add has only one ability, Dark Offering, which takes 20% of its mana and gives it to Maut.  We can interrupt this ability by taking the add in a purple void zone (see below).

--> Tank must pick up Dark Manifestation add and drag it to a purple void zone at least 20 yards from Maut.

Devour Magic:  debuff placed on multiple players.  After 6 seconds, it will splash damage to everyone within a purple circle centered on the player, AND will give mana to Maut for each player hit by the splash, AND leave behind a void zone.  This zone does ticking damage AND silences AND makes anything standing in it immune to magic damage -- players OR ADDS.  These void zones are critical in managing the Dark Manifestations.

--> Overlap the void zones in one area of the room.  Tank the Dark Manifestation next to the void zones, and when they cast Dark Offering, drag the add into the purple void zone to silence it.  Then move them back out.

The boss will also cast Stygian Annihilation, which will do LETHAL DAMAGE to the raid.

--> Players must stand next to the purple void zones too, and step into them toward the end of the Stygian Annihilation cast, to be immune.

The boss will also cast Black Wings, a frontal cone targeted at melee, which does a big knockback.  This is fairly easy for melee to dodge, but harder for ranged, as the cone is bigger and the knockback can potentially knock you off the platform.
--> Melee should stand on one side of the boss (which will bait the Black Wings in that direction) while the ranged stands on the other side.

Maut will also cast Consuming Mana, which is a DoT applied to random players which scales with the boss' mana.
--> Healers be aware of increasing damage from this over the course of the phase.

The boss will also cast Shadow Claws on the tank, which does physical damage and applies a stacking DoT.
--> Tanks will need to swap.  FatBoss suggests swapping between each add.

Once Maut gets full mana he'll move into the center of the room and Phase Two will begin.


PHASE TWO

All of the void zones will immediately detonate, so get out of those.

The boss will gain a mana shield which the raid will need to damage through within 60 seconds.  If we don't, Maut will explode and wipe the raid.  As long as the mana shield is up he will also gain a permanent stacking damage increase.

However, all the damage we deal to him is reflected back at us, so this is very demanding on the healers.

To help us, orbs will spawn around the room and travel toward Maut.  If they reach him they'll give him a ton of mana.  Players can intercept them, which will do raid-wide damage (the sooner this is done after it spawns, the lower the raid-wide damage is done).  Soakers are then buffed with Forbidden Mana.  After 6 seconds it will grant all allies within 20 yards an enormous 150% boost in mana generationAND a 50% healing increase for 8 seconds.

--> Raid stacks up next to Maut.  Assign players to different areas of the room to intercept the orbs as soon as possible, then bring the buff back to the raid.

Players will occasionally be debuffed with Drain Essence, which does damage and gives mana to Maut for 8 seconds.  When dispelled/expires, it deals splash damage and removes mana from players within 8 yards but doesn't give mana to Maut.

--> If possible, dispell players as soon as they get the debuff, regardless of whether they've moved out or not, so that the boss gets as little mana as possible.  If that is too much damage, wait until the affected players leave the group, then dispell them.
 
Once we break through the shield, the fight goes back to Phase One.  It's the same, except that the boss now has a damage increase.

--> We want to kill the boss before too many Phase Twos.]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5793.html Tue, 21 Jan 2020 13:35:59 -0800 Zlinka]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5793.html
PHASE ONE

He has the standard dragon attacks:

* Breath (Searing Breath): Cone attack that applies a 20 second stacking debuff.
--> Tanks face the dragon away from the raid, and swap at every 2 stacks.

* Tail Swipe:  damages and knocks back all players behind the boss.
--> Stand to the side of the boss

Then he has some special attacks:

* Incineration:  DoT that explodes when it expires.
--> Run out if you get Incineration

* Gale Blast:  Orange circle appears around the boss.  Anyone in the circle when it goes off receives a massive amount of damage and gets knocked back.
--> Run away from circle around Wrathion, and spread out

Gale Blast is followed by:

* Firebolts that fall from the sky on random players' locations (small orange swirl).
--> When running out of Gale Blast, spread out.  The run out of little orange swirls.

Wrathion's main ability during this phase is:

* Burning Cataclysm:  Wrathion will become untargettable, then will fly to one side of the room.  Then red zones will spawn all over the encounter space, which will grow into large patches of fire, almost covering the floor, which explode after a couple seconds.  The patches land in such a way that there will always be a small safe spot to stand on the side OPPOSITE the boss.
--> Run to the side opposite the boss and find the safe place to stand.

Almost immediately after Burning Cataclysm, the boss will cast:

* Molten Eruption: spawns multiple molten pools around the room.  These become important in Phase 2.  
--> Avoid the impact but after that you can stand in them as they don't do damage.

Note for Tanks:  Sometimes the boss will cast a breath right after Molten Eruption.  So try to face the boss away as soon as possible.

So that's Phase One:  Face the boss away, tanks swap at 2 stacks, avoid the tail.  Run out if you get the bomb, run away from the boss' big orange circle and spread out.  For Burning Cataclysm, when the floor fills with fire, run to the side opposite the boss and find the safe spot to stand.

PHASE TWO

After Wrathion does this cycle twice, Phase Two will begin:

* Smoke and Mirrors:  Wrathion will become untargetable and every Molten Eruption patch will spawn a Crackling Shard.  These can be killed (they do a small AoE when they die).  Any left standing at the end of the phase will explode and spawn a lava pool which applies a nasty, stacking, permanent raid-wide DoT.
--> Kill as many Shards as possible before the phase is up.  On Normal it should be possible to kill them all.

To help kill the Shards, Scales of Wrathion will fall from the ceiling at the start of the phase:

* Scales of Wrathion: These fall from the ceiling.  Their location is indicated by a pillar of fire.  If not soaked, they deal massive raid-wide damage.  If they ARE soaked, they apply a debuff (Burning Madness) which allows the player to instantly destroy 10 shards by running over them (the debuff has 10 stacks, and 1 stack is removed for every shard you run over).  Note that destroying a shard does a small AoE and will do damage to the runner too.
--> Best done by classes with immunities.  While runners are taking care of close shards, the raid should take care of the ones far away from the boss.

* Ashwalker Assassin adds will spawn during this phase too.  They are stealthed and will fixate on a player.  Upon reaching the player they'll apply a 10 second stun.
--> Break the stealth by using AoE effects, flares, etc.  Once visible they can be picked up by the tanks.

That's Phase Two:  Players with immunities soak the Scales falling from the ceiling, then run around clearing shards close to the boss.  Rest of the raid kills the farther shards.  Use AoEs and flares to detect Assassins, tanks pick up the adds, raid kills them.

Then Phase One begins again.]]>
PHASE ONE

He has the standard dragon attacks:

* Breath (Searing Breath): Cone attack that applies a 20 second stacking debuff.
--> Tanks face the dragon away from the raid, and swap at every 2 stacks.

* Tail Swipe:  damages and knocks back all players behind the boss.
--> Stand to the side of the boss

Then he has some special attacks:

* Incineration:  DoT that explodes when it expires.
--> Run out if you get Incineration

* Gale Blast:  Orange circle appears around the boss.  Anyone in the circle when it goes off receives a massive amount of damage and gets knocked back.
--> Run away from circle around Wrathion, and spread out

Gale Blast is followed by:

* Firebolts that fall from the sky on random players' locations (small orange swirl).
--> When running out of Gale Blast, spread out.  The run out of little orange swirls.

Wrathion's main ability during this phase is:

* Burning Cataclysm:  Wrathion will become untargettable, then will fly to one side of the room.  Then red zones will spawn all over the encounter space, which will grow into large patches of fire, almost covering the floor, which explode after a couple seconds.  The patches land in such a way that there will always be a small safe spot to stand on the side OPPOSITE the boss.
--> Run to the side opposite the boss and find the safe place to stand.

Almost immediately after Burning Cataclysm, the boss will cast:

* Molten Eruption: spawns multiple molten pools around the room.  These become important in Phase 2.  
--> Avoid the impact but after that you can stand in them as they don't do damage.

Note for Tanks:  Sometimes the boss will cast a breath right after Molten Eruption.  So try to face the boss away as soon as possible.

So that's Phase One:  Face the boss away, tanks swap at 2 stacks, avoid the tail.  Run out if you get the bomb, run away from the boss' big orange circle and spread out.  For Burning Cataclysm, when the floor fills with fire, run to the side opposite the boss and find the safe spot to stand.

PHASE TWO

After Wrathion does this cycle twice, Phase Two will begin:

* Smoke and Mirrors:  Wrathion will become untargetable and every Molten Eruption patch will spawn a Crackling Shard.  These can be killed (they do a small AoE when they die).  Any left standing at the end of the phase will explode and spawn a lava pool which applies a nasty, stacking, permanent raid-wide DoT.
--> Kill as many Shards as possible before the phase is up.  On Normal it should be possible to kill them all.

To help kill the Shards, Scales of Wrathion will fall from the ceiling at the start of the phase:

* Scales of Wrathion: These fall from the ceiling.  Their location is indicated by a pillar of fire.  If not soaked, they deal massive raid-wide damage.  If they ARE soaked, they apply a debuff (Burning Madness) which allows the player to instantly destroy 10 shards by running over them (the debuff has 10 stacks, and 1 stack is removed for every shard you run over).  Note that destroying a shard does a small AoE and will do damage to the runner too.
--> Best done by classes with immunities.  While runners are taking care of close shards, the raid should take care of the ones far away from the boss.

* Ashwalker Assassin adds will spawn during this phase too.  They are stealthed and will fixate on a player.  Upon reaching the player they'll apply a 10 second stun.
--> Break the stealth by using AoE effects, flares, etc.  Once visible they can be picked up by the tanks.

That's Phase Two:  Players with immunities soak the Scales falling from the ceiling, then run around clearing shards close to the boss.  Rest of the raid kills the farther shards.  Use AoEs and flares to detect Assassins, tanks pick up the adds, raid kills them.

Then Phase One begins again.]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5786.html Sat, 02 Nov 2019 13:51:58 -0700 Zlinka]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5786.html
The fight revolves around a specific mechanic: we need to keep the Ancient Wards energized.  If we don't keep it energized, the we'll start taking raid-wide damage until a Catastrophic Failure occurs, wiping the raid.

So, here's how it works.  There are three Ancient Wards around the edge of the encounter area.  They look like yellow circles.  Their status is shown in a new UI element on the right side of your screen.  Various mechanics will make these three wards lose power.  If one of them completely loses its energy, it will cast Pressure Surge, which does ticking damage to the entire raid until it is granted energy again.  If ALL of the active wards go to zero energy, the raid is instantly killed.

To re-energize a ward, a player needs to stand in it.  But doing so will give the player a stacking debuff (Drained Soul) that will reduce their health by 10% per stack.  This debuff lasts for almost 2 minutes.  The general rule is to never go above six stacks to be safe from incoming damage sources.

The entire raid needs to get involved in soaking these wards, including the tanks (though tanks should not go above 2-3 stacks, especially toward the end of the fight).

The key is to SOAK EARLY, making sure your uptime early in the fight is almost 100%, so they are very energized.  If we are slow to soak early in the fight, then later on we'll be forced to soak them when there's lots of incoming damage and soakers, with their reduced health pools, will die.

PHASE ONE

Start the fight by interacting with a console.  Two minibosses will appear: Cyranus and Aethanel.  A tank should grab each one.

Cyranus and Aethanel

When Painful Memories is cast, they should be moved to either side of a pillar to break LoS.  When they cast Longing, they need to be within LoS of each other (stack them).  They must die within a short time of each other.  If we don't position them right or kill them almost simultaneously, they get buffed (Torment).

Aethanil will hit the tank with frost damage (Cold Blast) which will stun and do damage to the tank at three stacks.  She also casts Chain Lightning, which we should interrupt.  She'll also spawn orbs around the room which we have to dodge.

Cyranus will hit the tank with Serrated Edge, which can be dodged or parried.

Wowhead recommends that we DON'T do a tank swap, but just manage the damage.

The mini-bosses will also cast purple patches (Cursed Heart) under themselves.  These last for the entire fight.  We want these patches to be as close together as possible and away from any of the pillars or wards.  Wowhead recommends placing them in the space to either side of the right pillar, about 15 yards away.

Cyranus will also cast Charged Spear, which targets a random player.  At the end of a long cast he throws the spear at the player, which damages all players in its path and continues through and beyond the targeted player, and deals damage to the target and then a little raid-wide damage.  The important thing, though, is if the spear hits a pillar or a console, it will deal FAR MORE damage, which may cause a wipe.  So, if you are targeted, make sure to stand so that the spear won't hit a pillar or console.

Azshara 

Azshara will be present during this phase, but we can't attack her.  She will spawn Arcane Orbs around the center of the room (stationary purple orbs) which explode after 10 seconds for raid-wide damage. A ranged or healers should stand in each one to reduce damage (they'll receive ticking damage).

She'll also Beckon players, making them move uncontrollably toward the middle of the room for 8 seconds.  If they reach the middle, they'll be bubbled and take damage until the bubble is destroyed.  If you are targeted, you need to RUN AWAY from the middle of the room so you don't reach it.  If you do get bubbled, DPS needs to break you out quickly.

Azshara will also attack the wards (Drain Ancient Ward) which makes them lose energy.  As explained, players need to take turns soaking these to give them more energy, going no higher than 6 stacks per player.  Ideally, ranged and healers will be able to do this during Phase One.

Overzealous Hulks

These adds will spawn in the middle of the room.  The hulk will then move to a ward which they'll hit with Ground Pound, doing raid-wide damage and draining energy from the ward.  The hulk can only be CC'd once, so use a long-duration stun when they begin to move.  Try to kill them before they even reach the ward.  If they reach it, kill them as fast as possible.


SUMMARY OF PHASE ONE

* Players stand in each ward to keep its energy high.  Take turns doing this, and go no higher than 6 stacks.

* DPS the mini-bosses so that they die at the same time.  Painful memories:  Use a pillar to break LoS between them; Longing: stack them.

* Aim the Charged Spear away from any pillars or the console; interrupt Chain Lightning.

* Dodge the MOVING orbs, soak the STATIONARY orbs which spawn around the middle of the room.

* CC the Overzealous Hulk with a long CC and kill it fast, ideally before it reaches a ward.

* If you are targeted with Beckon, run away from the center of the room to avoid being bubbled.  If a player does get bubbled, DPS break them out.


FIRST INTERMISSION (starts when both mini-bosses die)

Keep soaking the Arcane Orbs (purple orbs around center of room.)  Aszhara will issue two DECREES at a time, which need to be obeyed.  If a player fails to apply a decree they'll get a stacking DoT (Sanction) which lasts through the intermission.  The decrees are:

1. Suffer! = Soak an Arcane Orb
2. Obey! = Don't soak an Arcane Orb
3. Stay! = Stand still
4. March! = Keep moving
5. Stand Together! = Stand near other players
6. Stand Alone! = Spread out

The most challenging combos involve soaking the orbs, as some people will need to soak them alone while others will need to soak them with a group.


PHASE TWO

Azshara will spawn at the start of this phase.  Drag her to the left edge of the room, ideally closer to the console than to the pillar.

The middle ward (blue ward in the center of the room) will now become active.  This is the Ward of Power.  It GAINS energy via boss and add abilities, and grants all enemies a damage increase.  The more energy it has, the more if buffs enemies.  You can REMOVE this energy by standing within it.

--> Keep the Ward of Power below 25% energy.

Azshara will slowly DRAIN the Ancient Ward she's closest to, or ENERGIZE the Ward of Power (Titanic Machinations).  So, by keeping her close to one Ward

She also does ticking damage to players within her Line of Sight (Arcane Mastery).  This can get pretty high if the Ward of Power has too much energy.

She'll hit the tank with Arcane Jolt, a stacking debuff.  Tanks should swap whenever your stack drops off (around 20-40 stacks).

She'll still cast Beckon, but now it will force players to walk toward the boss.  If they reach her, they'll become mind controlled and will gain a shield.  DPS the shield to free the player.

--> Move away from her if she casts Beckon on you.

She'll debuff two players with Arcane Burst.  This causes players to damage everyone within Line of Sight.  If this hits Azshara, she'll apply MORE Arcane Bursts next time.

--> Move behind the far pillar if you get Arcane Burst.  Healers call for players to move behind it, where they can be dispelled one by one.

When Aszhara reaches full energy, she'll cast Arcane Detonation, which does lethal damage to any player within LoS.

--> Get behind the console (or a pillar) for Arcane Detonation.

Devoted Naga Adds spawn at set times during this phase.  They move toward the Ward of Power.  If they reach it, they'll sacrifice themselves (Final Sacrifice) which will give it a ton of energy.

--> Kill the adds before they reach the middle, using CC to stun or slow them down.

[--> DK strategy: when they spawn, drag the boss onto the Ward of Power.  When the Naga are close enough, do a mass stun, then grip them onto the raid and Nuke them down using focusing iris essences.]

An Azshara's Undomitable add will spawn too and will move toward the empowered ward.  This add cannot be CC'd and has a lot of health.

--> All DPS swap to it to kill it off.


SECOND INTERMISSION (starts when boss reaches 70%)

This intermission works in the same way as the first one, with players needing to soak orbs and obey decrees.  The only difference is that as the intermission ends a myrmidon add will spawn.  It will likely target a healer and melee them, probably one-shotting the healer.  Tanks need to be very fast to pick up the add before it kills a healer (targeting macros help here).  The myrmidon can be gripped but no other CC works.

--> DPS Azshara until the decrees come in; obey the decrees; tanks pick up the myrmidon at the end of the intermission.


PHASE THREE

Azshara is the same as in Phase Two, so we need to continue to deal with the abilities as before.

The main difference is that we will have a Myrmidon and two Tidemistress adds to manage.  One mistress will always spawn on the ward near the console, the other will spawn on either the left or the right.

The raid should position itself so that it is between the two mistresses.

The mistresses will cast Chain Lightning, which we should interrupt, and will debuff players with Static Shock, which causes them to pulse an 8-yard AoE.  

--> Interrupt Chain Lightning; take Static Shock out

The mistresses will also DRAIN the Ancient Wards (Drain Ancient Ward) and EMPOWER the Ward of Power (Energize Ward of Power).  Interrupt these casts!

However, after a while the mistresses will gain a Crystalline Shield, which makes them immune to damage and interrupts.  The ONLY way to break the shield is to hit it with a Charged Spear (cast by the Myrmidon).

--> If you are targeted by the Charged Spear, point it TOWARD a mistress' shield, and AWAY from the console or a pillar.

--> Kill the mistress next to the console first, while interrupting the other mistress as much as possible.  When the console mistress is dead, kill the other one.  It is imperative that all DPS go into the mistresses to get them down fast.  We'll need to do this while ALSO dealing with Arcane Burst, Beckon, Arcane Detonation LoS, and soaking the wards.  This is the hardest phase.


PHASE FOUR (at 40% health)

Make sure the mistresses are dead by this point (though it also seems that killing them triggers this phase, regardless of boss health).

Finish off the myrmidons in this phase.

Then NUKE THE BOSS.

We'll still have Beckon and will still need to soak the Arcane Wards.

The tank debuff is different in this phase (Void Touched):  reduces all healing by 10% per stack.  Swap around every three stacks.


This is a tough phase, so it's best to go into it with NO ward-soak debuffs.

Nether Portal:  At 100% energy, the boss will cast Nether Portal on top of a random ranged player, creating a zone that lasts for the entire fight, which deals ticking damage to anyone who stands in it.  

--> All ranged run to the edge of the platform before Nether Portal, to drop the void zone in the safe place.  Once the void zone drops, run back into melee.

Console empowerment:  The console will be empowered on a timer during this phase, giving it charges.  These charges will all release at once and kill the raid UNLESS a player relates them over time.  Releasing an energy charge will deal raid-wide damage and trigger a random effect, but it won't be enough damage to kill the raid.

--> A single player needs to run to the console to release charges, one by one.  Use your extra action button next to the console.  Rest of the raid stacks together and uses healing cooldowns to survive the release of each charge, while spot-healing the console-user.

-->  Be ready for the random effects, e.g. a nasty DoT to a random player, draining wards of some of their power, or debuffing a random player (causing massive damage increase but also killing the player when it expires).

Not long after the first console, we'll get the first BEAMS.  These start on one side of the room and fire directly to the opposite side, one after the other.  They are very obvious, as they mark the ground with a red highlight before they fire.  Move out of them.

Then we'll get our next console.  Before using it, ranged spread out for the Nether Portal void zone, then move into melee for healing, THEN a player needs to run to the console to bleed off some energy.  We'll also get BECKONS here.

Once the console is dealt with, we'll get more beams, then bait another portal, then stack in melee for the FINAL PUSH.  Nuke the boss down. Boss should die around here or the mechanics will end up killing you.

Note:  can also drag the boss from one ward to another to spread her effect around.

Note:  this Ward of Power can SWAP LOCATIONS with other wards in the room.]]>
The fight revolves around a specific mechanic: we need to keep the Ancient Wards energized.  If we don't keep it energized, the we'll start taking raid-wide damage until a Catastrophic Failure occurs, wiping the raid.

So, here's how it works.  There are three Ancient Wards around the edge of the encounter area.  They look like yellow circles.  Their status is shown in a new UI element on the right side of your screen.  Various mechanics will make these three wards lose power.  If one of them completely loses its energy, it will cast Pressure Surge, which does ticking damage to the entire raid until it is granted energy again.  If ALL of the active wards go to zero energy, the raid is instantly killed.

To re-energize a ward, a player needs to stand in it.  But doing so will give the player a stacking debuff (Drained Soul) that will reduce their health by 10% per stack.  This debuff lasts for almost 2 minutes.  The general rule is to never go above six stacks to be safe from incoming damage sources.

The entire raid needs to get involved in soaking these wards, including the tanks (though tanks should not go above 2-3 stacks, especially toward the end of the fight).

The key is to SOAK EARLY, making sure your uptime early in the fight is almost 100%, so they are very energized.  If we are slow to soak early in the fight, then later on we'll be forced to soak them when there's lots of incoming damage and soakers, with their reduced health pools, will die.

PHASE ONE

Start the fight by interacting with a console.  Two minibosses will appear: Cyranus and Aethanel.  A tank should grab each one.

Cyranus and Aethanel

When Painful Memories is cast, they should be moved to either side of a pillar to break LoS.  When they cast Longing, they need to be within LoS of each other (stack them).  They must die within a short time of each other.  If we don't position them right or kill them almost simultaneously, they get buffed (Torment).

Aethanil will hit the tank with frost damage (Cold Blast) which will stun and do damage to the tank at three stacks.  She also casts Chain Lightning, which we should interrupt.  She'll also spawn orbs around the room which we have to dodge.

Cyranus will hit the tank with Serrated Edge, which can be dodged or parried.

Wowhead recommends that we DON'T do a tank swap, but just manage the damage.

The mini-bosses will also cast purple patches (Cursed Heart) under themselves.  These last for the entire fight.  We want these patches to be as close together as possible and away from any of the pillars or wards.  Wowhead recommends placing them in the space to either side of the right pillar, about 15 yards away.

Cyranus will also cast Charged Spear, which targets a random player.  At the end of a long cast he throws the spear at the player, which damages all players in its path and continues through and beyond the targeted player, and deals damage to the target and then a little raid-wide damage.  The important thing, though, is if the spear hits a pillar or a console, it will deal FAR MORE damage, which may cause a wipe.  So, if you are targeted, make sure to stand so that the spear won't hit a pillar or console.

Azshara 

Azshara will be present during this phase, but we can't attack her.  She will spawn Arcane Orbs around the center of the room (stationary purple orbs) which explode after 10 seconds for raid-wide damage. A ranged or healers should stand in each one to reduce damage (they'll receive ticking damage).

She'll also Beckon players, making them move uncontrollably toward the middle of the room for 8 seconds.  If they reach the middle, they'll be bubbled and take damage until the bubble is destroyed.  If you are targeted, you need to RUN AWAY from the middle of the room so you don't reach it.  If you do get bubbled, DPS needs to break you out quickly.

Azshara will also attack the wards (Drain Ancient Ward) which makes them lose energy.  As explained, players need to take turns soaking these to give them more energy, going no higher than 6 stacks per player.  Ideally, ranged and healers will be able to do this during Phase One.

Overzealous Hulks

These adds will spawn in the middle of the room.  The hulk will then move to a ward which they'll hit with Ground Pound, doing raid-wide damage and draining energy from the ward.  The hulk can only be CC'd once, so use a long-duration stun when they begin to move.  Try to kill them before they even reach the ward.  If they reach it, kill them as fast as possible.


SUMMARY OF PHASE ONE

* Players stand in each ward to keep its energy high.  Take turns doing this, and go no higher than 6 stacks.

* DPS the mini-bosses so that they die at the same time.  Painful memories:  Use a pillar to break LoS between them; Longing: stack them.

* Aim the Charged Spear away from any pillars or the console; interrupt Chain Lightning.

* Dodge the MOVING orbs, soak the STATIONARY orbs which spawn around the middle of the room.

* CC the Overzealous Hulk with a long CC and kill it fast, ideally before it reaches a ward.

* If you are targeted with Beckon, run away from the center of the room to avoid being bubbled.  If a player does get bubbled, DPS break them out.


FIRST INTERMISSION (starts when both mini-bosses die)

Keep soaking the Arcane Orbs (purple orbs around center of room.)  Aszhara will issue two DECREES at a time, which need to be obeyed.  If a player fails to apply a decree they'll get a stacking DoT (Sanction) which lasts through the intermission.  The decrees are:

1. Suffer! = Soak an Arcane Orb
2. Obey! = Don't soak an Arcane Orb
3. Stay! = Stand still
4. March! = Keep moving
5. Stand Together! = Stand near other players
6. Stand Alone! = Spread out

The most challenging combos involve soaking the orbs, as some people will need to soak them alone while others will need to soak them with a group.


PHASE TWO

Azshara will spawn at the start of this phase.  Drag her to the left edge of the room, ideally closer to the console than to the pillar.

The middle ward (blue ward in the center of the room) will now become active.  This is the Ward of Power.  It GAINS energy via boss and add abilities, and grants all enemies a damage increase.  The more energy it has, the more if buffs enemies.  You can REMOVE this energy by standing within it.

--> Keep the Ward of Power below 25% energy.

Azshara will slowly DRAIN the Ancient Ward she's closest to, or ENERGIZE the Ward of Power (Titanic Machinations).  So, by keeping her close to one Ward

She also does ticking damage to players within her Line of Sight (Arcane Mastery).  This can get pretty high if the Ward of Power has too much energy.

She'll hit the tank with Arcane Jolt, a stacking debuff.  Tanks should swap whenever your stack drops off (around 20-40 stacks).

She'll still cast Beckon, but now it will force players to walk toward the boss.  If they reach her, they'll become mind controlled and will gain a shield.  DPS the shield to free the player.

--> Move away from her if she casts Beckon on you.

She'll debuff two players with Arcane Burst.  This causes players to damage everyone within Line of Sight.  If this hits Azshara, she'll apply MORE Arcane Bursts next time.

--> Move behind the far pillar if you get Arcane Burst.  Healers call for players to move behind it, where they can be dispelled one by one.

When Aszhara reaches full energy, she'll cast Arcane Detonation, which does lethal damage to any player within LoS.

--> Get behind the console (or a pillar) for Arcane Detonation.

Devoted Naga Adds spawn at set times during this phase.  They move toward the Ward of Power.  If they reach it, they'll sacrifice themselves (Final Sacrifice) which will give it a ton of energy.

--> Kill the adds before they reach the middle, using CC to stun or slow them down.

[--> DK strategy: when they spawn, drag the boss onto the Ward of Power.  When the Naga are close enough, do a mass stun, then grip them onto the raid and Nuke them down using focusing iris essences.]

An Azshara's Undomitable add will spawn too and will move toward the empowered ward.  This add cannot be CC'd and has a lot of health.

--> All DPS swap to it to kill it off.


SECOND INTERMISSION (starts when boss reaches 70%)

This intermission works in the same way as the first one, with players needing to soak orbs and obey decrees.  The only difference is that as the intermission ends a myrmidon add will spawn.  It will likely target a healer and melee them, probably one-shotting the healer.  Tanks need to be very fast to pick up the add before it kills a healer (targeting macros help here).  The myrmidon can be gripped but no other CC works.

--> DPS Azshara until the decrees come in; obey the decrees; tanks pick up the myrmidon at the end of the intermission.


PHASE THREE

Azshara is the same as in Phase Two, so we need to continue to deal with the abilities as before.

The main difference is that we will have a Myrmidon and two Tidemistress adds to manage.  One mistress will always spawn on the ward near the console, the other will spawn on either the left or the right.

The raid should position itself so that it is between the two mistresses.

The mistresses will cast Chain Lightning, which we should interrupt, and will debuff players with Static Shock, which causes them to pulse an 8-yard AoE.  

--> Interrupt Chain Lightning; take Static Shock out

The mistresses will also DRAIN the Ancient Wards (Drain Ancient Ward) and EMPOWER the Ward of Power (Energize Ward of Power).  Interrupt these casts!

However, after a while the mistresses will gain a Crystalline Shield, which makes them immune to damage and interrupts.  The ONLY way to break the shield is to hit it with a Charged Spear (cast by the Myrmidon).

--> If you are targeted by the Charged Spear, point it TOWARD a mistress' shield, and AWAY from the console or a pillar.

--> Kill the mistress next to the console first, while interrupting the other mistress as much as possible.  When the console mistress is dead, kill the other one.  It is imperative that all DPS go into the mistresses to get them down fast.  We'll need to do this while ALSO dealing with Arcane Burst, Beckon, Arcane Detonation LoS, and soaking the wards.  This is the hardest phase.


PHASE FOUR (at 40% health)

Make sure the mistresses are dead by this point (though it also seems that killing them triggers this phase, regardless of boss health).

Finish off the myrmidons in this phase.

Then NUKE THE BOSS.

We'll still have Beckon and will still need to soak the Arcane Wards.

The tank debuff is different in this phase (Void Touched):  reduces all healing by 10% per stack.  Swap around every three stacks.


This is a tough phase, so it's best to go into it with NO ward-soak debuffs.

Nether Portal:  At 100% energy, the boss will cast Nether Portal on top of a random ranged player, creating a zone that lasts for the entire fight, which deals ticking damage to anyone who stands in it.  

--> All ranged run to the edge of the platform before Nether Portal, to drop the void zone in the safe place.  Once the void zone drops, run back into melee.

Console empowerment:  The console will be empowered on a timer during this phase, giving it charges.  These charges will all release at once and kill the raid UNLESS a player relates them over time.  Releasing an energy charge will deal raid-wide damage and trigger a random effect, but it won't be enough damage to kill the raid.

--> A single player needs to run to the console to release charges, one by one.  Use your extra action button next to the console.  Rest of the raid stacks together and uses healing cooldowns to survive the release of each charge, while spot-healing the console-user.

-->  Be ready for the random effects, e.g. a nasty DoT to a random player, draining wards of some of their power, or debuffing a random player (causing massive damage increase but also killing the player when it expires).

Not long after the first console, we'll get the first BEAMS.  These start on one side of the room and fire directly to the opposite side, one after the other.  They are very obvious, as they mark the ground with a red highlight before they fire.  Move out of them.

Then we'll get our next console.  Before using it, ranged spread out for the Nether Portal void zone, then move into melee for healing, THEN a player needs to run to the console to bleed off some energy.  We'll also get BECKONS here.

Once the console is dealt with, we'll get more beams, then bait another portal, then stack in melee for the FINAL PUSH.  Nuke the boss down. Boss should die around here or the mechanics will end up killing you.

Note:  can also drag the boss from one ward to another to spread her effect around.

Note:  this Ward of Power can SWAP LOCATIONS with other wards in the room.]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5785.html Wed, 02 Oct 2019 20:26:24 -0700 Zlinka]]> https://www.ironsongtribe.com/thread-5785.html
1.  The Horrific Vision adds that spawn throughout the encounter spawn with 30 stacks of Gathering Nightmare.  These stacks will slowly drop off, which will make the adds progressively faster and less vulnerable to damage.  Once all the stacks are gone, the add will transform into an Unleashed Nightmare add, which has more health, does more damage, and applies stacks of Hysteria with each melee attack (via Quivering Claws).

-->  All Horrific Vision adds need to be killed BEFORE their Gathering Nightmare stacks have dropped off.

2. In the Delirium Realm, players will have to deal with the Tentacle Slam mechanic.   It's just what it sounds like:  tentacle appears, slams ground, does lots of damage and a stun.

--> Avoid the slam!]]>
1.  The Horrific Vision adds that spawn throughout the encounter spawn with 30 stacks of Gathering Nightmare.  These stacks will slowly drop off, which will make the adds progressively faster and less vulnerable to damage.  Once all the stacks are gone, the add will transform into an Unleashed Nightmare add, which has more health, does more damage, and applies stacks of Hysteria with each melee attack (via Quivering Claws).

-->  All Horrific Vision adds need to be killed BEFORE their Gathering Nightmare stacks have dropped off.

2. In the Delirium Realm, players will have to deal with the Tentacle Slam mechanic.   It's just what it sounds like:  tentacle appears, slams ground, does lots of damage and a stun.

--> Avoid the slam!]]>