#WEARECOL

Heroic Denathrius Boss Guide

BY Andrew Miesner / December 4, 2020

Written and produced by Crzypck

Special thanks to our consulting team: Tagzz, Xyronic, and Ftbubbler

Sire Denathrius

This is a three phase encounter. Phase one you’ll fight Denathrius, Phase 2 you’ll fight Denathrius, his sword Remornia, and a couple adds that spawn, and Phase 3 you’ll fight Denathrius and a Reflection of himself. There’s also a short intermission between Phase 1 and Phase 2.

Phase 1

  • Burden of Sin
    • Permanent debuff, deals 230 Shadow damage per stack
    • 5 stacks are applied to everyone in the raid the moment the encounter begins
    • Several mechanics in Phase 1 and the intermission interact with this debuff.
  • Cleansing Pain
    • Frontal cone ability. Deals 14k Shadow to anyone hit
    • Also removes 1 stack of Burden of Sin
    • Anyone hit who does NOT HAVE a stack of Burden of Sin left instead takes 300% increased damage from the ability.
      • For each stack of Burden of Sin removed, 1 Echo of Sin add spawns
  • Echo of Sin
    • Small adds, pretty low HP
    • Chaincast Painful Memories, deals 1500 Shadow to all players every 2s
    • Cannot be crowd controlled or interrupted in any way
    • Must be killed ASAP

  • Blood Price
    • Denathrius stuns all players and lifts them into the air for 3.5 seconds
    • When this expires, every player explodes and deals 3700 Shadow damage to any player in the raid with the same number of Burden of Sin stacks remaining
  • Night Hunter
    • 2 images spawn, each marks a random player. The affected players will have a line connecting them to their Night Hunter, and also have a small targeting circle around them
    • After 6s, the images charge at their marked players.
      • Deals 6k Physical to all players hit, and applies Touch of the Night
        • Touch of the Night causes you to take 500% increased damage from the Night Hunter’s abilities.
        • In testing, this debuff only lasted 4 seconds
      • Night Hunter casts Insatiable Hunger immediately upon reaching their targets
        • Deals 46k damage to anyone within the targeting circle of the marked players
          • Also heals Denathrius for 150% of damage dealt by this ability
        • Damage is reduced based on how many people were hit by the initial charge component
  • Command: Ravage
    • At 100 Energy, Denathrius commands his sword Remornia to unleash Anima at the raid
    • Remornia is placed in the exact center of the room. About one quarter of the room will glow red
      • After 6s, the red glowing area will explode, dealing 28k Shadow to anyone hit
      • Leaves behind a giant Desolation puddle
        • Big puddle of anima. Standing in the puddle deals 5k Shadow/1 second and reduces healing taken by 100%
  • Commanding Presence
    • After Ravage ends, Denathrius gains a 10% increased damage buff

Intermission

  • At 70% HP on Denathrius, you’ll enter the intermission
  • Denathrius will move to the middle of the room, pull everyone in to the middle, then push back the whole raid towards the edges
    • The room then fills with swirling red Anima
  • All players are slowed by 20% per remaining stack of Burden of Sin
  • There’ll be a clear area around Denathrius, within a 16 yard range of him
    • Reaching this clear area removes any remaining stacks of Burden of Sin
    • The pushback effect also ceases once you reach this clear area
  • After 15 seconds, you fall down to a lower platform and start Phase 2
    • Anyone who still had Burden of Sin stacks dies in the fall
    • If you do not have stacks, the fall does not damage you at all

 

Phase 2 – 70%

Now in a new room. This is a + shaped room. At the edges of each of the 4 sides are Mirrors. Stepping through a Mirror instantly ports you through the exact opposite side Mirror. There are smaller platforms in between the four sides of the platform. You cannot reach those sides, but adds can spawn on them.

  • Crimson Cabalist
    • Big adds, spawn on the smaller platforms you cannot get to
    • Cast Crimson Chorus, deals 900 Shadow to all players every 2 seconds
      • This is from each Cabalist. If there’s 4 up, it’ll deal 900*4= 3600 damage every 2s
    • Crescendo
      • When a Cabalist dies, it’ll release Anima. A whole shitton of red swirlies will appear on the ground. Standing in a swirlie when it explodes deals 9k Shadow damage
      • Don’t stand in the swirlies
    • Dusk Elegy
      • When Denathrius reaches 40% HP, any remaining Cabalists port to the inner platform that you’re standing on.
      • Their AoE effect now also reduces your healing received by 15% per Cabalist
  • Remornia
    • Bloodbound
      • The sword is attackable this phase. Any damage dealt to the sword is replicated and taken by Denathrius
    • Carnage
      • Being hit by any of Remornia’s attacks or abilities puts a DoT on you. Deals 750 Physical/1 second for 15 seconds. Stacks.
    • Command: Massacre
      • When Denathrius reaches 100 Energy, Remornia will slash throughout the room several times
      • You’ll see giant red lines from multiple directions
      • Getting hit by the blade deals 46k Shadow damage
      • Here’s what they look like:

    • Impale
      • Marks several random players
      • After a few seconds, Remornia impales the targets, dealing 20k Physical to the targets, and anyone in her path
    • Rancor
      • Anyone hit by Impale or Massacre leaves a puddle underneath them
      • Deals 2500 Shadow every 1s, and increases damage taken by 50% while standing in the puddle
      • Puddle lasts 1 minute
    • Whenever Remornia isn’t casting one of the above abilities, she’ll just attack random players throughout the raid
    • Inevitable
      • If Remornia cannot reach her target, she’ll port to them
  • Denathrius
    • Inevitable
      • Whenever he cannot reach his current target, he’ll port to them
    • Wracking Pain
      • Frontal cone ability
      • Deals 14k Shadow damage to anyone hit, including the Cabalist adds
      • Also applies a debuff, increasing all damage taken by 50% for 24s
        • This is also applied to the Cabalists, if they’re hit
    • Hand of Destruction
      • Pulls all players to himself, then spawns an Image of himself
      • After 6s, the image explodes, dealing 57k Shadow to all players
      • Damage is reduced based on distance
      • There’s a visible circle around the Image. Inside the circle = full damage, outside circle = notable drop off

Phase 3 – 40%

  • Denathrius is now pissed off at you and is tired of the fight. He picks up Remornia and uses the blade himself
    • He now attacks 25% slower, but his melee attacks deal 50% more damage
      • Also apply Scorn. Small DoT, deals 900 Shadow/1s for 15s
    • Denathrius also disables the Mirrors. You’ll see a really obvious giant red circle, signifying the out-of-bounds area, around the outer edges of the platforms, blocking you from getting to the mirrors. Running into the giant red circles deals 12k Shadow/1s.
  • Shattering Pain
    • Series of 3 attacks at the tank. Starts with 3 melee swings over 3 seconds
    • Finishes with a massive slam, deals 9k Shadow to the whole raid and knocks everyone back
  • Fatal Finesse
    • Marks a few random players, then slashes them 5 seconds later
    • Deals 14k to the targets, and anyone within 9 yards
      • Also applies a DoT. Deals 1900 Shadow/1s for 20s
    • Smoldering Ire
      • Leaves an anima orb behind
      • Explodes after 10 seconds, deals 25k Shadow to all players
      • Every 0.7s, the orb deals 2500 Shadow to anyone within 3s
        • Each tick of this 2500 Shadow reduces the explosion by an equivalent amount
  • Hand of Destruction
    • Works just like in P2. Pulls everyone to himself, makes an image, then the image explodes 6s later for 57k Shadow damage
      • Get out of the circle
  • Sinister Reflection
    • At 100 Energy, Denathrius makes an Image of himself
      • After 6s, casts Ravage
        • Same as Phase 1. Covers huge area of the room in red anima, deals big damage, leaves goop. Don’t stand in the red.
    • Massacre
      • Same as Phase 2. Lots of giant red lines of death. Don’t stand in lines.
      • This also leaves puddles of Rancor, just like p2

Strategy

Phase 1

  • You’ll want to start on the side Denathrius is on, the western end of the room. Pull Denathrius near the wall.

  • You’ll need to alternate groups intentionally being hit by the Cleansing Pain. The larger your raid, the more you’ll need to stagger people’s stacks.
    • You’ll only have one Cleansing Pain before the first Blood Price
    • As such, you’ll want half your raid being hit by that first Cleansing Pain
    • To get hit by Cleansing Pain, literally just stand in front of the boss when he casts it

  • Managing Burden of Sin Stacks, Cleaning Pain, & Blood Price
    • The first Cleaning Pain occurs 8s into the fight. After that, you’ll have a Cleaning Pain 8s after each Blood Price ends, and another 25s later.
      • The timeline here is Cleansing Pain 1 > Blood Price 1 > Cleansing 2 > Cleansing 3 > Blood Price 2 > Cleaning 4 > Cleaning 5 > Blood Price 3 > Cleaning 6 > Cleaning 7, etc.
    • **PLEASE NOTE** If you have more than 20 people in the raid week 1, splitting into 2 teams may not be doable. The damage might just be too much to survive. Please see the section at the very end detailing how to split with more than 20 people. Strongly recommend follow this if you go with a group of 30 week 1.**
    • We recommend splitting the raid into Team 1 and Team 2. Each half the raid will have assigned Cleansing Pain casts to gets hit by
    • Doing this ensures  half the raid always has less stacks than the other half, so Blood Price won’t kill you.
      • Team 1 gets hit by each of the first 2 casts
      • Team 2 gets hit by casts 3 and 4
      • Team 1 gets hit by cast 5
      • Team 2 gets hit by cast 6
      • Team 1 gets hit by cast 7
    • We recommend using a raid healing CD for the first Blood Price
  • When Night Hunter is cast, you’ll want to have 2-4 people soak each line. YOU CANNOT SOAK BOTH LINES.
    • The more people who soak each line, the less damage is dealt to the actual target, and therefore, less Denathrius is healed for.
    • Nobody should be inside the target circles except the actual targets

  • The first Ravage occurs about 50 seconds into the fight. Your whole raid needs to get out of the red area before the explosion happens. The puddle it leaves behind forces a repositioning for the raid. We recommend moving north.

  • Keep repeating this until you get the boss to 70%.

 

Intermission

  • Fairly straightforward, run towards the boss. Everyone should have 3 or less stacks of Burden of Sin, so you should be able to run against the pushback
  • Use movement abilities if necessary. Just make sure you get to the safe zone near the boss
    • Stampeding Roar and/or Wind Rush Totem should be used here, if available
  • You can also set up a Warlock’s Demonic Gateway from near the edge of the room to near the middle. #cheatcodes

 

Phase 2

  • Start with the following positioning:

    • Each of the X markers on the diagram show where a Cabalist spawns at the start of the phase
    • Move Denathrius to be between the two on the main platform, and cleave them down
    • DPS down the side ones after the middle ones die.
    • Don’t stand in the swirlies
    • Once the middle 2 are dead, work on the side Cabalists
  • The next several abilities are scripted based on the moment the Cabalists spawned.
  • 35 seconds after the adds spawn, Denathrius casts Hand of Destruction
    • About 5 seconds before this casts, the tank should move the boss close to the northern mirror
    • As soon as this is cast, everyone in the raid will be pulled on top of the boss
    • Immediately run through the Mirror, and wait for the explosion to go off
    • Once the explosion goes off, run back through the mirror to port back where you started
    • In the graphic below, go from your initial positioning straight north through the mirror. You’ll port to the purple circle
      • As soon as the explosion goes off, go back through that southern mirror, and you’ll pop out where you started

  • By the time you get back, you’ll have about 5-7 seconds before the next major mechanic, Massacre
  • 56 seconds after the adds spawn, Denathrius hits 100 energy and casts Massacre
    • This is big red obvious lines, don’t get hit
    • Do NOT kill Cabalists within 5 seconds of this
      • Doing so means you’ll also have swirlies, and that’s really just too much shit to dodge.
      • Either kill the adds quickly, beating the Massacre, or wait until Massacre ends
  • As soon as Massacre ends, clean up any remaining Cabalists
    • Make sure you’re positioning close to the mirror again here
  • At about 1:10 after the adds spawned, a set of Impales will go out
    • Targets should move to the side of the group, and the raid adjusting away from them
    • Example below, affected players move to edges:

  • Immediately following Impale dealing damage, you’ll get another Hand of Destruction
    • Handle this the same way you did the first one, port through the Mirror
    • However, DO NOT come back through this time. Stay South.
  • As soon as the explosion goes off, a new set of Cabalists spawns, this time all in the south.
    • This occurred about 1:20 after the initial add spawn.
    • Positioning can be seen below

  • As you did before, cleave down the 2 on the main platform. Make sure to get them down as quickly as possible
  • 20 seconds after this set of Cabalists spawn, Denathrius reaches 100 energy and casts Massacre
    • Dodge the lines. Don’t die to this, seriously, everyone is gonna laugh at you. They won’t be mad, they’ll just be disappointed.
  • Once Massacre ends, all ranged should hard-swap the two adds on the side platforms
    • Kill them ASAP
  • You’ll have another Impale about 10 seconds after the Massacre. Just move to the edges of the platforms again
    • Like before, get close to the mirror
  • Next up is another Hand of Destruction. Handle this exactly as you did the first one – take the mirror, wait for explosion, take mirror back to where you started
  • From here nuke the freaking boss. There’ll be an Impale, handle it like you have been, no biggie
  • Get Denathrius to 40% here before a third set of Cabalists spawn. You have about 1 minute from the second Massacre to the third set of adds

 

Phase 3

  • This is hectic as all hell, and has a “soft” enrage timer 3:30 after you begin Phase 3
    • This is when the 3rd Ravage occurs, which’ll cover the remaining clear spots in the room and wipe the raid. We’ll get back to this.
  • Lust immediately when you enter Phase 3
  • To start, clean up any Cabalists you have remaining. They are absolute first nuke priority here. 
  • Denathrius’s first ability will be a Shattering Pain. 
    • Make sure you’re near the boss, and are not near an edge, or you’ll get knocked off
  • This’ll be immediately followed by a Fatal Finesse
    • Place these circles near each other
    • Affected players can essentially Venn-Diagram them, as long as you don’t take damage from someone else’s circle
    • Once the Anima orbs spawn, all ranged should help soak them down
      • Any unsoaked Anima orbs will result in a wipe. 
  • While you’re soaking these Anima Orbs, Denathirus will cast Hand of Destruction
    • Your tanks need to move Denathrius near an edge, ensuring the raid has a safe place to get out of the explosion and stack
    • Raid should stack near the center of the platform
    • Use a raid CD here once you get out of the blast radius for Hand of Destruction, as you likely won’t have fully soaked the Anima orbs and they’ll explode near the same time
  • Immediately following the Hand’s explosion will be a Shattering pain. Make sure you get knocked back down one of the 4 sides and not off the edge
  • Ravage is next. This’ll cover 1 third of the platform. Do not get hit by it, move to the clear areas.
    • As soon as Ravage completes and coats a third of the floor, the boss uses Shattering Pain again. Get close to the boss, make sure you don’t get knocked off
  • Next is one of the hardest points of heroic – 2 sets of Fatal Finesse back to back. 
    • Three people get the debuff, drop Anima Orbs
    • At the same moment the first set of debuffs expire, a second set of 3 people get the debuff
    • Place the first 3 Orbs as close together as you safely can, back behind the ranged DPS
    • Place the second set of Orbs near the first set, but closer to the boss
    • Soak the further-back Orbs, then the closer orbs. You’ll need to start soaking the first set of orbs while the second group of Fatal Finesse debuffs are still out.
  • As the second set of Orbs explodes, the boss starts casting Shattering Pain again. Use a raid CD here, as you’ll likely need to leave the Orbs before they disappear, meaning a chunk of raid damage then directly into the knockback
  • This is followed by a Massacre, the red sword lines from P2, happening at the same time as another new set of Fatal Finesse debuffs
    • Dodge the lines, make sure to give people with Fatal Finesse room to maneuver and drop the Orb without getting hit by the lines
    • Soak if possible during the lines, but everyone needs to help soak as soon as the lines finish
  • From this point on, you’ll really just be rotating between Fatal Finesse(Anima Orbs), Shattered Pain(knockback), Hand of Destruction, Ravage, and Massacre. 
  • Keep handling the mechanics as you have been
    • Don’t get knocked off, soak Orbs, run out of Hand of Destruction, etc. 
    • Kill the boss before the 3rd Ravage occurs, which is 3:30 after Phase 3 begins. 

Burden of Sin, more than 20 raiders

  • Just going off the Dungeon Journal numbers and expected health pools, if you have more than 20 people in your group, you likely cannot just do half and half teams for Blood Price.
    • Blood Price is currently worded as “you deal 3700 damage to anyone in the raid with the same # of stacks as you”
    • So if you run a 30 person raid, and do half/half, YOU will have 14 people at the same # of stacks.
      • 14 * 3700 = 51,800.
      • Expected DPS health pools? ~40k
      • Bad news bears.
    • After quite a bit of work, here’s what we came up with:

    • In more simple terms:
      • Split the raid into 4 teams, as equal as possible. For a 30 person, it’ll be 8,7,8,7.
      • For the very first Cleansing Pain, at 0:08, Teams 1 and 4 soak this.
        • Everyone in the raid should use a defensive for the first Blood Price. Use immunities if possible.
      • From there on, here’s the order:
        • Cleansing 2 – Team 1 & Team 3
        • Cleansing 3 – Team 1 & Team 3
        • BLOOD PRICE
        • Cleansing 4 – Team 1 & Team 2
        • Cleansing 5 – Team 3 & Team 4
        • BLOOD PRICE
        • Cleansing 6 – Team 1 & Team 2
        • Cleansing 6 – Team 3 & Team 4
        • BLOOD PRICE
      • By following this order, with a group of 30, the most people at the same number of stacks for a Blood Price cast will be 8. This will ensure the Blood Price casts are survivable for larger raid groups.
      • Yes it’s more complicated. Yes it’s a pain in the ass. But yes, you’re going for AOTC week 1 with a full 30 person raid group. What did ya expect? =P