Algeth'ar Academy Dungeon Guide: Location, Boss Strategies, and Trash

This guide will focus on an extensive overview of the dungeon, providing vital information to complete it across all difficulties (Normal, Heroic, and Mythic). We will cover all 4 boss fights supported by the most notable trash enemies in the dungeon and their important abilities. If you would like to learn about the rest of the Season 1 Midnight dungeons in the upcoming Mythic+ season, please see our overviews linked below. Otherwise, without further ado, let us begin!

Right when you enter the dungeon, down the invisible bridge, you will land in The Quad area. There, you are going to find 5 Dragonflight Recruiters; each of them is going to offer you a unique buff lasting throughout the dungeon. Choose wisely, because you can only pick up 1!

Here is a more detailed overview of what buffs the recruiters offer:

• Bronze Dragonflight Recruiter will grant you the Bronze Dragonflight Pledge Pin buff, giving you 5% Haste.
• Blue Dragonflight Recruiter will grant you the Blue Dragonflight Pledge Pin buff, giving you Mastery Rating.
• Green Dragonflight Recruiter will grant you the Green Dragonflight Pledge Pin buff, giving you 10% increased healing received.
• Red Dragonflight Recruiter will grant you the Red Dragonflight Pledge Pin buff, giving you 5% Versatility.
• And last but not least, Black Dragonflight Recruiter will grant you the Black Dragonflight Pledge Pin buff, giving you 5% Critical Strike.

In Algeth'ar Academy, you will be able to choose which boss you want to approach first, as the dungeon gives you full flexibility in doing so. The only caveat is that Echo of Doragosa unlocks once you defeat the previous 3 bosses: Overgrown Ancient, Crawth, and Vexamus. Below you will see our personal recommendation of boss order.

Just to the right from The Quad, up the stairs you are going to find The Botanica area, where the Overgrown Ancient rests. The boss will be inactive until you defeat every single Vile Lasher and Hungry Lasher in this area. Below you can find more information about them:

• Vile Lasher has only one ability to pay attention to and that is the Detonation Seeds ground effect. If you get hit by them you will get disoriented, so watch out!
• In every pack where a Vile Lasher is present, you will find a dozen Hungry Lasher. They do not do anything except auto-attack.
• Finally, the most dangerous non-boss-enemy in this dungeon: Aggravated Skitterfly. Not only do they do high damage with their instant Darting Stings while charging at players, but they will occasionally cast Agitation, a stackable Enrage effect that will increase their damage done. Use cooldowns and Enrage dispel effects.

Overgrown Ancient has Energy and upon reaching its max will begin to cast Burst Forth. Your healer must watch for Burst Forth as it does heavy damage to the entire group, upon which will awaken all the Hungry Lasher. More details about the fight can be found down below:

• Stack together and move in one direction when Germinate cast is going through. This will allow you to cleave down all the Hungry Lasher much faster.
• Sidestep the Branch Out cast.
• Interrupt the Ancient Branch's Healing Touch at all cost. Upon killing the Ancient Branch, it will cast Abundance, healing all allies and players within 8 yards and removing all applications of the Splinterbark Bleed. Time its death when all the Hungry Lasher are close to dying or dead to prevent them from healing to full health.

• Use active mitigation once you see the boss casting Barkbreaker on you.
• Taunt the Ancient Branch as soon as it spawns.
• Once the boss casts Burst Forth, collect threat on every one of the awakened Hungry Lashers. Keep in mind that they will have a special Poison attack called Lasher Toxin; it is extremely important to pick up threat quickly and nuke them.
• Use defensive cooldowns when Burst Forth cast is about to happen.

• As soon as the boss casts Ancient Branch, it will also apply the Splinterbark's Bleed effect to the entire party. You want to make sure people are topped up at all times, especially before Burst Forth is cast.
• Be ready to top up your party once the boss casts Burst Forth.

Once you defeat the Overgrown Ancient, continue straight and use the invisible bridge to get towards the middle platform. There you will find the only "mini-boss" of the entire dungeon, the Guardian Sentry. Here is what you should know about it:

• Guardian Sentry has a lot more health than a regular mob, hence why we refer to it as a "mini-boss".
• Avoid the Deadly Winds ground animation at all times. After the initial hit, the tornado will circle around for several seconds before disappearing; avoid getting in contact with it.
• Run away from Expel Intruders; the cast will knock you back and do high damage. You can also line-of-sight the damage, even if you are still in the circle but behind one of the nearby walls.
• Your tank must be careful with the Storm Slash "tank-buster" ability; it is best to use active mitigation if they are low health.

Once you defeat the Guardian Sentry, you can head towards the area where Crawth is located. The boss has an activation process, which requires you to clear 3 waves of Territorial Eagle and Alpha Eagle. Here is what you should know about them:

• Territorial Eagle has only one ability, which always goes on the highest threat target (your tank) — Peck. It does initial damage and applies a stackable Bleed effect.
• At first, Alpha Eagle will not be present; they will come in Waves 2 and 3, after you have defeated the initial Territorial Eagle spawns. They have an important Gust frontal ability to sidestep and a Call of the Flock buff, which you must interrupt at all costs.

In order to activate the boss, you have to throw the 3 Play Ball! in the fire ring, after which it will appear. It is actually quite important to understand how Play Ball! works: you can throw 3 in and gain either Goal of the Searing Blaze or Goal of the Rushing Winds, with each of them giving you temporary buffs but also increasing the difficulty of the fight. The boss will "activate" the Goals at 75% and 45% HP. Here is a more detailed preview of the fight:

• Dodge the Overpowering Gust frontal.
• Once the boss reaches 75% and 45% HP it will be time to score goals and trigger either Goal of the Rushing Winds or Goal of the Rushing Winds.
• Upon throwing the 3 orbs towards the Goal of the Searing Blaze, it will trigger a Firestorm cast, making Crawth take 75% increased damage for 12 sec, but also casting fire motes on the ground until the end of the fight(avoid them!).
• If you decide first to score goals towards Goal of the Rushing Winds, you will trigger Gale Force reaction, granting you temporal Haste effect, however, you will summon Roving Cyclones until the end of the fight.
• Eventually, you will have both Goal of the Rushing Winds and Goal of the Searing Blaze active, and the whole fight will become messy.
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• Use defensives during Deafening Screech.

• Use active mitigation when Crawth is casting Savage Peck.

• Be ready to top your teammates when Crawth is casting Deafening Screech.
• When Goal of the Searing Blaze is being triggered you will have permanent Blistering Fire group-wide damage until the end of the fight, be mindful as when combined with Deafening Screech can become deadly.

• Interrupt Corrupted Manafiend's Surge cast and use defensives if you get Mana Void debuff on you.
• Arcane Forager is another mob you should not worry about, as it only casts Vicious Lunge on a random target, doing a tiny bit of damage.
• Arcane Ravager has the most health out of all the mobs in this area. It always charges the furthest target from your group with Vicious Ambush and it has a deadly channeled frontal ability called Riftbreath. Dodge it at all costs!
• Spellbound Battleaxe is going to be a tough mob for your tank due to Severing Slash; not only it will deal an initial damage to them, but it will add a harsh follow-up Bleed effect.
• Spellbound Scepter is the most dangerous mob in this area. You should watch out for its Mystic Blast, use crowd-control to stop it.
• Finally we have the Unruly Textbook, with the only important cast to interrupt being Monotonous Lecture.

Once you defeat the 3 packs of mobs, Professor Maxdormu will begin casting Recall History which will summon Vexamus. The boss is quite simple; it passively generates Energy, gaining more if it soaks any Mana Bombs. Upon reaching 100 Energy it will cast Arcane Fissure, a powerful cast. Here will be a good place to use your personal defensives. Below you can find our detailed breakdown of how each member of your team should play it:

• Professor Maxdormu will occasionally spawn 5 Arcane Orbs, which will slowly travel towards Vexamus. Do not let it soak them, since it will add 20 Energy to its bar. Although the role of the "soaker" is more appropriate for a tank, the rest of the team can help soaking the Arcane Orbs, just pay attention to your Oversurge debuff (you CAN'T dispel that)!
• Avoid the Corrupted Mana pool, coming from the last tick of the Mana Bombs, it will deal damage and slow you every second you spend in it.
• Sidestep the Arcane ground pools after the Arcane Fissure pushback.

• You can soak several Arcane Orbs, but beware of the initial damage; here will be a good place to use your active mitigation.
• Aim the Arcane Expulsion frontal away from your team.

• Beware of the Mana Bombs cast. It will always go on a random 3 players from your party and deal damage-over-time. Top up your teammates quickly!
• Use your healing cooldowns once the boss casts Arcane Fissure.

• Use your defensives during Algeth'ar Echoknight's Arcane Smash as it does massive group-wide damage.
• Interrupt Spectral Invoker's Arcane Bolt.

Echo of Doragosa will have an Energy bar that will naturally regenerate, and upon reaching 100 Energy, the boss will cast Astral Breath. Beyond that, it is also important to understand how the Overwhelming Power debuff works. Unlike many of the debuffs in this dungeon, this will give you 5% Haste per stack up to a maximum of 3 stacks. Here is the catch: upon reaching maximum stacks (3), you will automatically trigger Arcane Rift and remove all of your stacks. The Arcane Rift will periodically cast Uncontrolled Energy, making the fight more difficult. Sidenote that Unleash Energy will spawn 2 Arcane Rifts, making the already hard fight, harder. Below you can find a much more detailed breakdown of the fight:

• Use a personal defensive when you get an Energy Bomb cast on you.
• Run away from Power Vacuum at all cost.
• Make sure to have a few stacks of Overwhelming Power just so you can speed up the boss fight. Account for Arcane Missiles, since each of Echo of Doragosa's abilities will apply a stack of the debuff. The worst thing you can do is spawn Arcane Rift out of pure greed.

• Tank the boss in one of the corners and be conservative with the space; this fight can become a nightmare if multiple spawns of Arcane Rift are on the field.
• Use your active mitigation during Astral Blast.

• Spot-heal the target that gets the Energy Bomb.
• The boss will occasionally cast Arcane Missiles on a random target, so top them up quickly!

Type	Item	Stats
2H Axe	Algeth'ar Hedgecleaver	Str, Mastery/Vers
Mail Feet	Boots of Explosive Growth	Crit/Haste
Cloth Hands	Experimental Safety Gloves	Vers/Crit
Leather Wrist	Frenzyroot Cuffs	Haste/Mastery
Warglaive	Mystakra's Harvester	Vers/Crit
Back	Potion-Stained Cloak	Haste/Vers

Type	Item	Stats
Mail Waist	Azure Belt of Competition	Vers/Mastery
Cloth Chest	Bronze Challenger's Robe	Mastery/Crit
Trinket	Dragon Games Equipment	Str
Trinket	Emerald Coach's Whistle	Int
Staff	Obsidian Goaltending Spire	Agi, Crit/Vers
Leather Hands	Ruby Contestant's Gloves	Vers/Mastery

Type	Item	Stats
Finger	Platinum Star Band	Crit/Mastery
1H Sword	Spellbane Cutlass	Str, Haste/Vers
1H Sword	Spellboon Saber	Int, Haste/Mastery
Off-Hand	Vexamus' Expulsion Rod	Crit/Haste

Type	Item	Stats
Trinket	Algeth'ar Puzzle Box	Agi/Str
Plate Chest	Breastplate of Proven Knowledge	Vers/Crit
Staff	Final Grade	Int, Mastery/Haste
Cloth Head	Organized Pontificator's Mask	Crit/Haste
Mail Shoulder	Scaled Commencement Spaulders	Mastery/Crit
Plate Legs	Venerated Professor's Greaves	Vers/Crit

Achievements to obtain in Algeth'ar Academy:

Achievement	Criteria
Algeth'ar Academy	Defeat the Echo of Doragosa in Algeth'ar Academy
Heroic: Algeth'ar Academy	Defeat the Echo of Doragosa in Algeth'ar Academy on Heroic difficulty or higher.
Mythic: Algeth'ar Academy	Defeat the Echo of Doragosa in Algeth'ar Academy on Mythic or Mythic Keystone difficulty.
Keystone Hero: Algeth'ar Academy	Complete Algeth'ar Academy at Mythic Level 10 or higher, within the time limit.