Elerethe Renferal Abilities
Table of Contents
General Information
On this page, we list all the abilities from the Elerethe Renferal encounter in The Emerald Nightmare. The idea is to give you a solid understanding of the encounter before you read the strategy.
If you are already familiar with the encounter, then you can skip to the strategy and tactics page or access any other page of the guide by using the table of contents on the right.
Generalities
Elerethe Renferal has two forms that she uses alternatively: Spider form (lasts 90 seconds) and Roc form (lasts 120 seconds). There are also 3 platforms in the boss room and she changes platform every time she transform into a Roc, so the encounter will always flow in this way: Spider form → Roc form → Platform change → more Roc form → Spider form → etc.
Her abilities differ depending on her current form, as we will see below.
Spiderlings
There are 2 types of spider adds that your raid will encounter during this fight: Skittering Spiderlings and Venomous Spiderlings.
Skittering Spiderlings
Skittering Spiderlings come our of the egg sacs that you can find on every platform and on the bridges that link them. When a member runs into these sacs, they release 4 or 5 Skittering Spiderlings, which are small adds that need to be killed.
Venomous Spiderlings
Venomous Spiderlings spawn at two different times during the encounter: when Elerethe casts Feeding Time in Spider form and when she changes platform in Roc form.
Venomous Spiders need to be tanked and they debuff their current target with Dripping Fangs, a stacking debuff that deals increasingly dangerous Nature damage every second.
When Venomous Spiderlings are killed, they leave behind Venomous Pool. These inflict Nature damage every second to players that stand in them.
Spider Form
While in Spider form, Elerethe uses a handful of abilities. None of them should be dangerous enough to wipe your raid, but if they are not handled properly they can cause your healers to fall behind, making it hard to catch up when raidwide damage ramps up in Roc form from Gathering Clouds, and Dark Storm.
As mentioned above, Elerethe's Spider form lasts about 90 seconds. During this time, her main ability is Feeding Time, which she uses twice per Spider form. In addition to this, you will have to avoid Venomous Pools (poison void zones on the ground) and deal with Web of Pain, which restricts the movement of random members.
Feeding Time
As said above, Feeding Time is cast twice per Spider form. Except for the tanks, this ability is all Elerethe does in her Spider form.
This ability is split in two phases.
- First, she ascends into her web for about 10 seconds, during which time she causes numerous Venomous Spiderlings to fall down and attack the raid.
- Second, she chooses a random target and drops from above onto them, dealing massive damage with Vile Ambush.
The Spiderling adds must be quickly picked up by the tanks and AoE'd down by the raid.
While the Spiderlings are being handled, Elerethe will be preparing for a Vile Ambush. She will drop down onto a randomly selected raid member and deal massive Physical damage to all players caught in its radius. This ability will also knock back any player hit by it. The damage taken from this ability is greatly reduced the further away you are from its impact. More importantly, the player targeted by this ability merely serves as the point where the abilities' large green area of effect is painted, and the target of the ambush can dodge the ability.
Venomous Pools
As seen above, Venomous Spiderlings spawn a Venomous Pool where they die.
In addition, Elerethe often afflicts random raid members with Necrotic Venom. This ability deals Nature damage every second for 6 seconds, and places a debuff on the affliction players that deals Nature damage to nearby allies with each tick. Each time this ability pulses it leaves behind a Venomous Pool. After being targeted by Necrotic Venom, players have 10 seconds to move out of the raid, before it starts ticking damage and dropping Venomous Pools.
Web of Pain
Finally, Elerethe also links multiple random raid members with Web of Pain this ability reflects all damage taken between linked players. Reflected damage is increased if the targets separate beyond 20 yards from each other.
Roc Form
After around 90 seconds, Elerethe will transform into a Nightmare Roc and she will remain in this form for approximately 120 seconds.
While in Roc form, Elerethe will gain multiple new abilities, and lose all her abilities from her Spider form. However, any Venomous Pool that are on the ground will remain in play.
Gathering Clouds and Dark Storm
Shortly after transforming into a Roc, Elerethe channels Gathering Clouds, dealing damage every second and pushing players back for 8 seconds.
After the completion of her channel of Gathering Clouds, Elerethe does the following:
- she leaves behind Shimmering Feathers;
- she casts Dark Storm;
- she flies to a new platform;
- she spawns tornadoes and Venomous Spiderlings on the bridge to the new platform;
Once picked up by raid members, Shimmering Feathers grant these players jump height, no fall damage, and the ability to insta-kill the Venomous Spiderlings that spawn on the bridge to new platform (which cannot not be engaged, because there are not enough feathers for everyone, so players have to run to the new platform).
Dark Storm is a lightning storm on the platform that appears on the platform that Elerethe is leaving. It deals high damage to anyone struck by the lightning it creates.
Twisting Shadows
Throughout her Roc form phase, Elerethe creates Shadow-damage tornadoes called Twisting Shadows. These tornadoes are targeted at random raid members. They form after 10 seconds and the targeted players can use this 10 seconds to run over Venomous Pools to disperse them, and to increase their distance from the rest of the raid so that your raid does not take excess damage.
In Heroic mode, if the tornadoes come in contact with Venomous Pools, they will disperse them by throwing poison at the raid for several seconds, dealing high damage that is difficult to avoid. This happens even with tornadoes and Venomous Pools on a different platform than the one the raid is currently standing on.
Razor Wing
Elerethe also has a frontal cone ability while she is a Roc, this ability is called Razor Wing and it inflicts high Shadow damage to all targets in front of the boss.
Tank-specific Ability: Raking Talons
Raking Talons is a tank swap debuff. The target that has Raking Talons applied to them will take Shadow damage and be debuffed to take 100% increased damage from Raking Talons per each stack. Elerethe casts this ability multiple times in rapid succession, the exact number of times depending on difficulty (it seems to be 2 on Normal and more on Heroic).
Changelog
- 23 Sep. 2016: Added more information about the interaction between Venomous Pools and Twisting Shadows tornadoes in Heroic mode.
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