Il'gynoth Mythic Strategy/Tactics

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Contents
  • 2. Lore
  • 3. Outline
  • 4. TLDR
    • 4.1. Tanks
    • 4.2. Healers
    • 4.3. DPS
    • 4.4. Everyone
  • 5. Changelog
• +Abilities
  • 1. Generalities
  • 2. Phase One: Outside
    • 2.1. Eye of Il'gynoth
    • 2.2. Nightmare Ichors
    • 2.3. Forces of Corruption
      • 2.3.1. Dominator Tentacles
      • 2.3.2. Deathglare Tentacles
      • 2.3.3. Corruptor Tentacles
      • 2.3.4. Nightmare Horror
  • 3. Phase Two
    • 3.1. Tentacles Left Outside
  • 4. Changelog
• +Normal/Heroic Strategy/Tactics
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Phase One
    • 2.1. Tanks
    • 2.2. Healers
    • 2.3. DPS
    • 2.4. Everyone
  • 3. When to Use Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp
  • 4. Changelog
• ×Mythic Strategy
  • 1. Mythic Changes
    • 1.1. Phase One
    • 1.2. Phase Two
  • 2. Strategy
    • 2.1. Phase One
    • 2.2. Phase Two
  • 3. Changelog
• +Loot
  • 1. Relics
  • 2. Rings and Trinkets
  • 3. Armor

General Information

On this page, you will find a list of changes between Normal/Heroic modes and Mythic mode, as well as a working strategy to defeat Il'gynoth in The Emerald Nightmare in Mythic mode.

The other pages of our Il'gynoth guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About our Reviewer

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Pottm from Serenity.

For the encounter against Il'gynoth in Ny'alotha, please refer to our dedicated guide:

Besides all adds and the boss having more health and all abilities doing more damage, there are a couple of new abilities and mechanics in the Mythic mode of the fight.

Adds behave exactly in the same way as in Normal and Heroic mode, although spawn patterns may be different. The explosion of Nightmare Ichors is slightly different though. Instead of only dealing damage to nearby players, it also applies a stacking DoT to all raid members, ticking twice in 4 seconds for a mild amount of Shadow damage.

There is also an entirely new mechanics called Death Blossom, which seems to be cast approximately once per minute by the Eye of Il'gynoth. It has a 15-second cast time. When the cast begins, 15 Death Blossoms (small void zones) start appearing at random locations in the room. When the cast finishes, the blossoms detonates, dealing high Shadow damage to all players standing in the blossom and granting them 50% increase movement speed for 6 seconds. If there is no one standing in the blossom, then the entire raid takes a mild amount of Shadow damage and then low Shadow damage every 2 seconds for 50 seconds.

In Phase Two, there are two new mechanics.

• Violent Bloodburst is cast twice per Phase Two. It creates damaging patches of blood that expand outwards from the boss, eventually leaving only two safe zones in the room on each side of the boss, in the form of a small pizza slice.
• Shriveled Eyestalks are small tentacles that are only present in the room the second time you enter Phase Two. They have low health and keep trying to cast Mind Flay, which can be interrupted.

As we are going to see, the strategy for Mythic is very similar to Heroic mode.

In Phase One, the main difference is the way Nightmare Ichors need to be killed. Because of the stacking debuff Nightmare Explosion applies to all raid members in Mythic, Nightmare Ichors need to be killed one or two at a time, every 4 seconds at least, throughout the fight.

When killing 2 Nightmare Ichors at the same time, they will usually not die right at the time same, but it is important that the second one dies less than 2 seconds after the first one. Otherwise, the debuff has the time to tick once before being refreshed and dealing 2 ticks of damage at 2 stacks (so you want to avoid this extra tick of damage at one stack).

To prevent Nightmare Ichors from blowing up in the wrong place, make sure to have players spec into knockback effects, such as Typhoon. Death Grip from Death Knights also work.

When Deathglare Tentacles and Corruptor Tentacles spawn at the same time (it can happen several times per fight). This requires good raid coordination to interrupt the Deathglare Tentacles and kill the Corruptor Tentacles as soon as possible. For Corruptor Tentacles that spawn on the edges of the room, there is no need for the entire raid to focus them down. Instead, simply send classes that excel at killing them or players who have available cooldowns. This way, you can leave a good part of the raid to focus on interrupting Mind Flay. Failing to interrupt Mind Flay will very quickly result in deaths in Mythic mode.

Death Blossom only adds a positioning constraint, because you need a player in each of the void zones it creates. The void zone seem to spawn in a circle-like pattern in the center of the room. The way Serenity handles it is by assigning each group to a quadrant of the circle. For example: Group 1 takes care of the top left void zones, Group 2 of the top right void zones, Group 3 of the bottom left void zones, and Group 4 of the bottom right void zones. Players fixated by Nightmare Ichors should avoid soaking, instead continuing to kiting so that the Nightmare Ichor does in front of the Eye of Il'gynoth.

In Mythic mode, you need to contend with Violent Bloodburst. Once the patches of blood start spawning, the location of the safe zones is easy to guess. It is important to reach one of them as soon as possible, as getting hit by a patch not only deals damage, but it also pacifies you, making you temporarily unable to attack.

Right as Violent Bloodburst is about to end, random players are debuffed with Cursed Blood. There is no need to panic. Players need to wait a bit for the patches of blood to despawn before positioning themselves for Cursed Blood.

The second Violent Bloodburst+ Cursed Blood combo should be handled in the same way, except that players who are debuffed with Cursed Blood need to run out of the room to detonate. There is no time to spread in the room, because Dark Reconstitution would end before detonations happen. Players who are not debuffed can stay in the room for a few more seconds to deal some extra damage, before the cast of Dark Reconstitution finishes. It is important that the debuffed players leave a safe spot right at the exit of the room where non-debuffed players can stand for a bit while waiting for the detonations.

The second time you enter the room, you will first have to kill the 5 Shriveled Eyestalk tentacles. They spawn in a star pattern around the boss after a few seconds. Killing and interrupting them is the initial priority. Once they are dead, Il'gynoth is once again the priority. When you get the second Violent Bloodburst+ Cursed Blood combo, there is no need for debuffed players to move, because the raid would die before the detonations occur, if Dark Reconstitution is allowed to finish casting.

• 21 Oct. 2016: Added Mythic strategy from pottm.
• 18 Sep. 2016: Added more details following pottm's review.