Goroth
NormalHeroicMythic
This fight is all about the spikes.Infernal Spike, to be precise. Goroth is a single-phase fight with massive fire DoTs, and the spikes are the key to keeping that damage to a survivable level. Sadly, many of the fight’s mechanics will destroy the spikes before you can use them. Here’s what you need to look out for:
- Crashing Comet: unavoidable, and the splash damage will destroy spikes. Keep away from them when targeted by this. A source of fire DoT.
- Shattering Star: unavoidable, BUT you can sacrifice a spike to mitigate the DoT component of the attack, which is advisable. A source of fire DoT.
- Infernal Burning: Goroth’s big attack, used when he hits 100 energy. You will definitely want to hide behind a spike for this one. A big source of fire DoT, and it destroys all spikes upon detonation.
- Burning Armor: this fire DoT will basically be on you at all times, AND it detonates every 6 seconds, destroying any nearby spikes. It ALSO gives youMelted Armor, massively increasing all damage you take. Fun stuff!
- Did I mention that Goroth will also destroy any spikes he comes into contact with?
- Your goal is to keep 2 Infernal Spikes up between each Infernal Burning. This allows you to use one for Shattering Star and one for the next Infernal Burning. You’ll get a brief warning for the emergence of each spike (signified by a small “earthquake” effect), so move the hell away from them to prevent Goroth from instantly crushing them. This fight is a real test of your survivability and positioning skills as a soloer!
More of the same, with more damage. Oh, and periodically a quarter of the floor will get covered in green goop via Fel Eruption.
What a mess! All the fun of Heroic difficulty, PLUS giant Infernal adds, greatly increased damage, and the inability to use Infernal Spikes for cover. This is a messy survival fight; at least Victory Rush will proc when you kill the adds!
Demonic Inquisition
NormalHeroicMythic
You know how most fights with location phasing mechanics will reset when soloing? This one doesn’t. The main mechanic in this fight is simple: you have a resource, calledTorment, that builds when you get hit by most attacks. At 100 Torment, you’re afflicted withUnbearable Torment, making it very hard to do any damage and greatly increasing the chance that you’ll die very soon. Luckily, you have an extra action button that castsConfess, sending you down into a prison cell containing a nasty… thing. Hitting it releases orange orbs that decrease your Torment; once your Torment is gone, the Confess button will send you topside and you can continue the main fight. It sounds messy, but the overall strategy is simple:
- DPS the two main bosses until you hit 100 Torment (your screen will turn red so you can’t miss the effect),
- Hit the Confess button to be transported to the prison cell,
- Hit the beastie a few times, collect the orbs, and use the Confess button to escape,
- Repeat until victorious.
- You can’t avoid most of the Torment sources, so be prepared to Confess a LOT.
Same fight, more damage, there are Calcified Quills but you needn’t worry about them. Suffocating Dark is a Heroic-only mechanic that makes your Torment stack a LOT faster. CONFESS!
Just like Heroic, but with Tormented Fragment adds that spawn when you leave the Confession cage. They’ll melee you and explode when they die, but they don’t really affect the fight much.
Harjatan
NormalHeroicMythic
A total tank-and-spank fight. There are frequent waves of adds, which make excellent fodder for Victory Rush healing. Focus down the Wavemenders if you can, as they will castAqueous Burst, which leaves a patch of Drenching Waters on the ground and will give you an unwanted stack ofDrenched. These stacks will drop at the end of theDraw In phases, but you’ll still want to keep this DoT minimized as you’ll be dealing with ever-increasing stacks ofJagged Abrasionthroughout the fight. If you can keep your Drenched stacks low and maintain good damage mitigation, Harjatan will fall easily enough.
He hits harder. Plan accordingly.
Mythic Harjatan is a DPS race. Aside from the expected increase in damage compared to easier difficulties, there are piles of eggs in the corners of the room that spawn groups of adds. The adds themselves are merely annoying, BUT they permanently buff Harjatan if they die near him, so his damage output becomes lethal very quickly. The adds are great for Victory Rush heals, but that’s not much compared to the damage from a buffed Harjatan.
Sisters of the Moon
NormalHeroic
A long fight, but fairly easy (until the final phase).
- Phase 1: avoid theTwilight Volleyzones. Switch moon phases to trigger anAstral Purgewhen afflicted with eitherDiscorporateorMoon Burn. The rest of the boss’ abilities are unavoidable, so mitigate as required.
- Phase 2: mostly the same as P1, with an add to burn down (summoned viaCall Moontalon). The active boss will periodically gain a shield calledEmbrace of the Eclipse, which must be burned down quickly.
- Phase 3: Moontalon and the bubble shield are gone, but the phase becomes a DPS race due to rapidly increasing stacks ofLunar Fire. You’ll also want to dodge the bouncing glaives from theGlaive Storm ability, but these are secondary to burning down the boss.
Everything hurts more, and the inactive/dead Sisters do their major abilities frequently enough that they overlap, causing even more damage.
Maiden of Vigilance
NormalHeroicMythic
A complicated fight, reduced to a bunch of unavoidable damage in two phases.
- Infusion: periodically, the Maiden will infuse you with either Light or Fel energy. If you make contact with the opposing energy type (via Hammer attacks or running into Essence Fragments), you will get theUnstable Souldebuff. This turns you into a living bomb. Unfortunately, the intended mechanic to prevent bomb damage (jumping into the pit in the center of the room) will cause an instant reset when solo. Thus, be prepared to take some heavy falling damage when you explode.
- Wrath of the Creators: when the Maiden teleports across the room, she will start pulsing ever-increasing periodic damage while emitting Essence Fragment orbs. Your goal in this phase is to make your way back to the boss, pick up orbs that match your current Infusion (or at least avoid the opposing orbs), then do enough damage to break herTitanic Bulwark. Once you’ve done this, interrupt Wrath of the Creators and continue the fight. The berserk timer on the fight is tight, but I was able to succeed with over a minute to spare while doing puny Protection Warrior DPS.
More damage, and the Hammer abilities leave fel/holy puddles where they impact, so you’ll want to side-step out of them. You will definitely want to try to collect some orbs that match your current Infusion during the intermissions, since the Titanic Bulwark has a lot more HP and will take much longer to break.
During Phase 1, the boss will periodically cast Spontaneous Fragmentation orbs, which have the Infusion opposing yours and will chase you until they hit you, triggering Unstable Soul. You’ll be bounced into the air a LOT because of these. Any Essence Fragments that aren’t soaked during the intermission phases (so, most of them) will explode and leave a fairly painful stacking DoT on you, so you want to end these phases as fast as possible. Have fun!
The Desolate Host
NormalHeroic
You can’t be in both the spirit and corporeal realms simultaneously, but luckily you don’t need to. There’s a LOT going on with this fight, but you can ignore most of it. Ultimately, the key is to use the little spirit wells around the perimeter of the room to swap realms when you start taking too much damage fromQuietus. A good time to swap from spirit to corporeal is when the Soul Queen starts channelingWailing Souls. You’ll start taking damage fromTormented Cries, but it’s easier to manage (if a bit messier due to the large puddles of goo it creates).
There are a TON of changes in this difficulty, but you can’t actually address any of them when soloing so just pretend this is a Normal fight with bigger numbers.
Fallen Avatar
NormalHeroicMythic
A relative push-over, in two phases.
- The goal of the first phase is to do as much damage to the Avatar as possible while keeping his energy from reaching 100, as this triggers the second (and final) phase: I recommend using Drums on the pull. To do this, you’ll need to tank the Maiden of Valor in the green beams that are generated by the Containment Pylons. This is easily done, though you’ll need to do some careful positioning so that she doesn’t step out of the beam when you get bounced back byShadowy Blades. Do NOT try to kill the Maiden, as doing so will result in the boss gaining full energy VERY quickly. You can ignore all of the boss’ abilities and just focus on DPSing him and keeping the Maiden properly positioned. Eventually the Fallen Avatar WILL hit 100 energy, causing both of you to fall through the floor into a lava-filled chamber and initiating phase two. Phase two is a race to kill the boss before you run out of places to stand. Drag him to the most remote corner of the irregularly-shaped platform, DPS as if your life depends on it (it does), and run out when he starts to castRupture Realities. You’ll lose a bit of DPS time when you get knocked into the air byDark Mark, but it’s not a big deal.
Shadowy Blades now leave purple Lingering Darkness puddles when they hit you, there will be purple Touch of Sargeras void zones that are meant to be soaked (but you can’t, so don’t worry about them), and there are purple tornado-like Black Winds to avoid in the basem*nt.
This one is pretty rough! The boss’ HP will reset when he triggers the floor collapse to start Phase 2, so you have to have enough DPS to kill him before there’s nowhere left to stand (generally after two Rupture Realities, though if you’re very good and very lucky you can extend that to three via careful positioning). The Avatar will cast Rain of the Destroyer shortly after each Rupture; be sure to soak one, or you’ll definitely run out of places to stand very quickly.
Mistress Sassz’ine
NormalHeroicMythic
A complex fight, so let’s take each phase individually.
- Phase 1: Sassz’ine will frequently afflict you withBurden of Pain throughout the fight; it’s unavoidable, so you’ll just have to heal through it.Hydra Shotis also unavoidable, but it’s not terribly painful and doesn’t happen often. You’ll want to avoid standing in theThundering Shockcircles, UNLESS you’re under the influence ofConsuming Hunger, in which case you DO want to stand in them. When adds spawn, kill them to create puddles ofConcealing Murk, which will help you deal with theSlicing Tornado. The tornadoes spawn at one end of the room and sweep all the way across as a wall of doom (giving you a nasty 20-second DoT if you get hit), but any that touch the green puddles will disappear and give you a clear path to avoid them. At 70% health, Sassz’ine will transition to Phase 2.
- Phase 2: Slicing Tornadoes are gone, but the adds, Hydra Shot, and Burden of Pain continue. There are three new major abilities to deal with:Call Vellius,Summon Ossunet, andBeckon Sarukel.
- Call Vellius creates a large line of bubbles across the room; move out of this as a giant shark will soon leap through it and cause major damage to anyone standing in it.
- Summon Ossunet creates purple patches ofBefouling Ink(only one at a time when soloing). These are needed for the final ability,
- Beckon Sarukel summons a monstrous whale shark (it’s not a whale, despite what WoWhead says) that continuously tries to suck you in withDevouring Mawand kill you withDevour Whole. This is where those ink patches come in: pick one up by running over it, then move into the FIRST circle near Sarukel. He’ll eat the ink, and will leave the scene after he’s consumed three of them. DO NOT cross the perimeter of the inner circle, as that’s the Instant Death line. Also, if you linger too long in this phase without sending Sarukel away, Sassz’ine will eventually summon ANOTHER whale shark, at which point it’s impossible to outrun their combined suction and you WILL die. At 40% health, Sassz’ine enters Phase 3.
- Phase 3: a combination of Phase 1 (without Thundering Shock) and Phase 2 (without Beckon Sarukel). It’s a typical end-of-fight burn phase.
There are a few mechanical changes to the fight, but none of them will affect your strategy. The important thing is that, since Sassz’ine has much more HP, you’ll have to work much harder to burn through Phase 2 before the double-Sarukel effect obliterates you. I recommend saving your Drums and DPS potions for this phase.
Mostly like Heroic, with more incoming damage and a tighter DPS requirement to avoid the inevitable wipe caused by a double Sarukel. There are Delicious Bufferfish that you can pick up for a nice buff, but since you’ll drop the fish when you take damage it’s really not worth bothering with them.
Kil’jaeden
Normal
A major DPS race, the success of which mostly depends on your luck during Intermission 2. Here’s the phase breakdown, all of which you must complete in 10 minutes or less:
- Phase 1: not much to do, really. Kil’jaeden frequently castsArmageddon, but you can’t soak more than one meteor, so you might as well ignore it.Felclawswill deal steadily-increasing damage, but the stacks will drop off during the intermissions so it’s also of little concern. The main issue in this phase isRupturing Singularity: the damage from it is negligible, but it can easily knock you off the platform and end your attempt. When one appears, be sure to move up to it and face away from the bulk of the platform. At 80% health, Intermission 1 begins.
- Intermission 1: there’s absolutely nothing to be done. For one minute, Kil’jaeden will fly around and be virtually invincible, so you might as well check Twitter or something. You’ll take some damage from Armageddon andFocused Dreadflame, but it’s not that bad.
- Phase 2: a lot like Phase 1, with the addition of the occasional shadow clone created byShadow Reflection: Erupting. Just cleave these adds down, and continue dealing with Rupturing Singularities as before. At 40% health, you will enter Intermission 2.
- Intermission 2: the worst part of this fight, hands-down. You have to kill a number of Shadowsoul adds to transition to Phase 3, but you can’t actually attack them due toDeceiver’s Veil. They deal pulsing AoE damage withDestabilized Shadowsoul, and they like to teleport around the room. The only way to kill them is to find Illidan somewhere in the darkness (he’s almost always on one of the edges of the platform, rather than in the center) and attack them during the 20 seconds you can actually see them. You’ll likely need to find Illidan and receive his debuff twice before ending the intermission, which can be very time-consuming in this DPS race. Once you do kill all the adds, the shadows will clear and Phase 3 begins.
- Phase 3: Burninate! You probably won’t have a lot of time left unless you were very lucky at finding Illidan in Intermission 2, so pop your DPS cooldowns and go for broke! You’ll need to stand in aTear Rift portal when Kil’jaeden is nearly done castingDarkness of a Thousand Souls, but other than that your job is to kill The Deceiver as quickly as possible.
