Cenarius Guide for The Emerald Nightmare

Table of Contents

• ×Introduction
  • 1. Contents
  • 2. Lore
  • 3. Outline
  • 4. TL;DR
    • 4.1. Boss Tank
    • 4.2. Healers
    • 4.3. DPS
    • 4.4. Everyone
  • 5. Changelog
• +Abilities
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Phase One
    • 2.1. Cenarius
      • 2.1.1. Creeping Nightmares
      • 2.1.2. Nightmare Brambles
    • 2.2. Malfurion
    • 2.3. Forces of Nightmare
      • 2.3.1. Wisps
      • 2.3.2. Corrupted Wisps
      • 2.3.3. Cleansed Ancient
      • 2.3.4. Nightmare Ancient
      • 2.3.5. Emerald Drake
      • 2.3.6. Rotten Drake
      • 2.3.7. Redeemed Sister
      • 2.3.8. Twisted Sister
  • 3. Phase Two
  • 4. Changelog
• +Normal/Heroic Strategy/Tactics
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Phase One
    • 2.1. Which Adds To Cleanse?
    • 2.2. Creeping Nightmares' Stacks Management
    • 2.3. Positioning
    • 2.4. Tanks
    • 2.5. Healers
    • 2.6. DPS
    • 2.7. Everyone
  • 3. Phase Two
  • 4. Changelog
• +Mythic Strategy
  • 1. Mythic Changes
  • 2. Strategy
    • 2.1. Tank Setup
    • 2.2. The Pull and First Wave of Forces of Nightmare
    • 2.3. Second Wave of Forces of Nightmare
    • 2.4. Third Wave of Forces of Nightmare
    • 2.5. Phase Two
    • 2.6. More Tips
      • 2.6.1. Nightmare Blast Tank Rotation
      • 2.6.2. Cleansing Nightmare Brambles
  • 3. Changelog
• +Loot
  • 1. Relics
  • 2. Cloaks and Trinkets
  • 3. Armor

General Information

Welcome to our World of Warcraft encounter guide for Cenarius in The Emerald Nightmare. We will teach you everything you need to know to defeat the boss in every difficulty.

On this particular page, we will give you a short overview of the fight as well as a list of things to watch out for (include LFR tips when applicable).

The other pages of our Cenarius 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.

To make it easy to navigate the guide, we have split it into 4 pages:

• Abilities: read about the encounter abilities;
• Normal/Heroic Strategy/Tactics: find out how to defeat the encounter in Normal and Heroic modes;
• Mythic Strategy: learn how to handle the new mechanics and increased difficulty of Mythic mode;
• Loot: shiny loot, neatly organized.

Cenarius is the sixth boss in the Emerald Nightmare Raid Instance.

The demigod Cenarius is the father of druidism in Azeroth, and one of Azeroth's oldest and most powerful protectors. His disturbing slumber within the groves of Val'sharah was the first sign that the depth of the growing threat from within the Nightmare. That dark power now has complete hold over him, and he may lie beyond hope of redemption.

The fight against Cenarius has two Phases. During Phase One, you fight Cenarius and a number of adds that he regularly summons. Thanks for Malfurion, in every set of adds, you can cleanse one to fight for you and give you a beneficial buff. At the same time, you need to avoid a number of abilities and keep the stacks of a damaging debuff under control through various mechanics. Phase Two is a much more simple proposition where raid has to burn the boss before running out of place on the platform.

Here is a preview of the fight from the Legion Alpha/Beta.

• Phase One
  • Boss Tank — Bring Cenarius to the add to be cleansed after a cast of Forces of Nightmare.
  • Adds Tank — Pick up the adds and tank them (except for Corrupted Wisps).
  • Ensure that Cenarius and the adds are tanked far away (at least 20 yards in Normal mode and 30 in Heroic mode), because of Aura of Dread Thorns.
• Phase Two
  • Tank swap Cenarius after every Spear of Nightmares.
  • Establish a cooldown rotation with the healers to reduce the damage of each Spear of Nightmares.
  • Move Cenarius out of Spear of Nightmares void zones.

• Phase One
  • Dispel Twisted Touch of Life from Twisted Sisters.
  • If you can, dispel players rooted by Nightmare Brambles or players afflicted with Nightmare Javelin.
  • Get used to damage patterns
    • Creeping Nightmares ramps us very very slowly and then suddenly resets.
    • Nightmare Buffet is not as dangerous as it looks (very slow ramp time and the Drake dies fast).
    • Tank damage is very low.
    • Be ready to heal the occasional mistake.
• Phase Two
  • Establish a cooldown rotation with the tanks to reduce the damage of each Spear of Nightmares.

• Phase One
  • DPS the boss and switch to the adds when they appear. Kill priority:
    1. Corrupted Wisps;
    2. Twister Sister;
    3. Rotten Drake;
    4. Nightmare Ancient.
  • Interrupt the Twister Sisters' casts of Twisted Touch of Life.
  • Hunters and Rogues can clear patches of Nightmare Brambles with Aspect of the Turtle and Cloak of Shadows.
• Phase Two
  • Normal mode — Ignore Malfurion and burn the boss.
  • Heroic mode — Burn the boss and free Malfurion when Entangling Nightmares is cast on him.

• Phase One
  • Top Priority: move out of the raid when Scorned Touch is on you.
  • Clear your stacks of Creeping Nightmares at 30 stacks in Normal mode and 25 stacks in Heroic mode.
  • Spread out 8 yards for Destructive Nightmares (Corrupted Wisps).
  • Spread out 4 yards for Nightmare Javelin (Twisted Sister).
  • Leave as few people as possible between you and a Rotten Drake.
  • When fixated on by Nightmare Brambles, kite them away from the raid and towards the edge.
  • When under the effect of Unbound Touch or Unbound Essence clear patches of Nightmare Brambles.
• Phase Two
  • When fixated on by Nightmare Brambles, try your best to kite them away from the raid.
  • Do not step in Spear of Nightmares' void zones.
  • Heroic mode — Continue resetting your stacks of Creeping Nightmares.

• 08 Nov. 2016 (mythic page): Added Mythic strategy.
• 21 Sep. 2016 (strategy page): Added more details following pottm's review.
• 21 Sep. 2016 (abilities page): Added more details following pottm's review.
• 18 Sep. 2016 (this page): Guide added.